:INFO
The Hardest Science Fiction I Have Actively Enjoyed
Blindsight is hard science fiction in the strictest sense: the science is real, the extrapolations are current, and Peter Watts does not explain things twice. I am not a neuroscientist or a physicist, but the book is built in a way that makes you feel you understand enough to follow what is happening. The central question of whether consciousness is a useful evolutionary adaptation is the most genuinely unsettling thing I have encountered in the entire genre.


:NOW
Reconsidering what consciousness is actually for

:QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Peter Watts]
Imagine you are blind and then you can see again. That is only the beginning of it.


:JOURNEY
Reading Blindsight
3 Dense and demanding
5 Unlike anything
5 Genuinely terrifying
4 Earns its bleakness

:NOTE
There is a free PDF of this novel on the author's website. Peter Watts released it under a Creative Commons license. This is both generous and a sign of his confidence in the work.


:POLL
Do you think science fiction should engage with neuroscience and consciousness?
Yes that is exactly what the genre is for
Occasionally, when the writer has the expertise to do it honestly
Rarely, it usually becomes too abstract to be engaging
No, I prefer science fiction grounded in physics rather than biology