BLINDSIGHT

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Starfish begins with some of the best stuff of science fiction, pushing the boundaries of what we know about our environment; humanity living on the edge. Deep in the abyss of the sea, on the Juan de Fuca Rift where two tetonic plates come together, the GA corporation has built Beebe, an outpost for farming geothermals. Only their scientists have found that it takes an unusual sort of person to tolerate living at the bottom of the ocean. Oh, there's the physical modifications, of course--removing the left lung to make room for adaptive equipment, a little gene-splicing to help human enzymes adapt--but more important are the psychological traits that allow some people to cope. So, what about action and/or suspense and battles with gigantic fish? Well, here’s where my anti-blurb-reading strategy failed me. What unfolds instead is an interesting psychological thriller, often taking place in close quarters (or only in the characters‘ minds?), and one that is generally a very slow read. Or maybe it’s just me and my wrong expectations?!

It makes perfect sense. Send the strongest people we have, the ones we can also sacrifice, and let them do what they do best. Survive at all costs. Research conducted by forensic psychologist Nathan Brooks from Bond University found 21 per cent of 261 corporated professionals had clinically significant psychopathic traits."For me the best part was when Ichthyander was diving in the depths of the ocean in his shiny blingy fish scale costume that no drag queen show would be ashamed of having in their wardrobe and I wasn't really that concerned about improving all kinds of working class' conditions or pleasing fishermen's daughters - I only cared about underwater stuff. Which is to say, self-awareness, the I, the ability to observe and question our own actions—or at least to convince ourselves we are doing so.

I'm fine.' She isn't, but she's getting there. This anger is nowhere near critical mass; it's just a reflex, really, a spark budded off from the main reservoir. It decays exponentially with elapsed time. By the time she reaches her cubby she's feeling almost sorry for Fischer." The characters in Starfish are supposedly best suited for dangerous work in a highly stressful environment because they are survivors of trauma, those sexually and/or physically abused, and abusers themselves. Because, get this, they are "addicted to trauma." Bro, what? While it's true that survivors of trauma will sometimes, unknowingly or knowingly, seek out situations that recreate their trauma, and it's absolutely possible to become addicted to trauma, this is a decidedly self-destructive tendency. Survivors of trauma are in no way better suited to stressful situations, and are in fact way less likely to be able to handle stressful, traumatic situations. Anyhoo – I couldn’t get into this. I noticed somewhere that it was a tweener story intended to be read betwixt two novels. So, oops. I’m sure it was great in context, but I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Something about a soldier, aliens, and/or superintelligent AI, and maybe something else.So often with horror, you get a wonderful opening and then it all falls apart when they reveal the monster or the killer or whatever. And it’s even harder to do in science fiction because there’s such a—for a literature of ideas—such a small set of answers that usually gets given to the question, “What are the aliens like?”“Oh, they’re a hive mind.”“They’re nanites.” There’s not a lot really new. And so even though Blindsight is well more than a decade old at this point, it’s just one of those books I read where I was like, “Damn, I have never read anything like this before.” And I crave that. If anybody else finds more stuff like that, send it to me.

And what a story. In general SF stories I split into dynamic epics (i.e. Dune, Starfishers, Culture, Polity etc), static epics (i.e Foundation, Culture (some of them are more on talk/philosophy than action)), crime/thriller/action (i.e. Robot series (including Caves of Steele), Neuromancer, Hardwired, Takeshi Kovacs) and existential ones (i.e. We, Brave New World, Hard to be God). Well yes, actually. I like the deep-sea descriptions, and the time that the Rifters spend outside Beebe. I like the marine life they encounter. I even kind of like the smart gels. Taken in isolation, Watts’ prose is pretty good. It’s just all the rest of it that I didn’t care for. Taken on balance, it still comes out to indifference. Neki kritiziraju kako je neuvjerljivo da su korporacije tako odgovoran posao dali u ruke emocionalno nestabilnim osobama, umjesto obučenim stručnjacima*. Opisani postupak priprema za posao koji između ostalog uključuje i vađenje jednog plućnog krila, ubacivanje metalnog mehanizma koji omogućuje izvlačenje kisika iz morske vode, modificiranje genetskog koda, krvi, ubacivanje virusa i raznih enzima drugih organizama, mislim da bi odvratio većinu stručnjaka. Echopraxia is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts. [1] It is a " sidequel" to his 2006 novel, Blindsight, and the two novels make up the Firefall series. Which brings me to my final grievance: Watts’ approach to abnormal psychology, particularly that resulting from prolonged childhood abuse. Many of the psychological aspects of the book revolve around the concept of trauma--particularly sexual trauma--as an addictive stimulus. (I don’t consider this a spoiler, as it’s introduced very early and serves as a foundational theme.) The resulting character portrayals are flat, and while they start distinct they rapidly blur together into a general abnormal-psych soup. At no point does he draw a distinction between addiction and habituation to traumatic circumstances. His understanding of his subject matter is imperfect, and the way he’s filled it in is at best emo caricature and at worst victim-blaming.A brilliant piece of work, one that will delight fans of hard science fiction, but will also demonstrate to literary fans that contemporary science fiction is dynamic and fascinating literature that demands to be read.” —The Edmonton Journal So many elements mixed in, trans-humans, humans, dystopia elements (that mention of panopticon had my skin crawling, why do these elements resonate so close to home these days), weird, almost divine (and scary as hell) AI bio constructs, orbital stations and powerful weapons, biological poisons but also energy guns. These guys were transformed to survive 400 pressures in one of the deepest trenches in the ocean, to live on the local life, to supply energy to the rest of the world. So who would go down there, fully transformed with biological computers, on their own free will?

I’m actually rather happy, though, that I didn’t read the blurb. Because this book holds quite a few surprises, especially towards the end, when it all becomes rather big and scary and, yes, about survival. And the blurb here on Goodreads does give a few things away, that I’m glad I didn’t know. I thought so," he says, as though she has. "It's really kind of...well, beautiful, in a way. Even the monsters, once you get to know 'em. We're all beautiful." All’s going well except that the operators begin to go native way down there and develop some unexpected side effects and behavioral traits. A less competent writer would not be able to pull this part of the story off, but this becomes one of the strongest elements of the narrative and kudos to Watts for putting this together so well. We end up with a hard science story with psychological and philosophical questions. And there is some alien stuff and some microbiological creepiness that would make Michael Crichton grow a couple more inches.The title refers to a psychological condition in which a person involuntarily mimics actions they observe. The Captain is the ship's artificial intelligence. Throughout the story, the Captain remains inscrutable and mysterious, generally communicating directly only with Sarasti. So, I will most likely try to find the novel preceding this and try again, but I’m not sure when. I’ve got about 20 books I’ve managed to collect that I need to get through, by the time I’m done with all those the winds of change will have most likely taken me in another direction. Blindsight is fearless: a magnificent, darkly gleaming jewel of a book that hurdles the contradictions inherent in biochemistry, consciousness, and human hearts without breaking stride. Imagine you are Siri Keeton. Imagine you are nothing at all. You don't have to; Peter Watts has done it for you.” —Elizabeth Bear, author of Hammered Philosopher John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment is used as a metaphor to illustrate the tension between the notions of consciousness as an interior experience of understanding, as contrasted with consciousness as the emergent result of merely functional non-introspective components. [6] [9] [11] Blindsight contributes to this debate by implying that some aspects of consciousness are empirically detectable. [7] Specifically, the novel supposes that consciousness is necessary for both aesthetic appreciation [7] [8] [10] and for effective communication. [7] However, the possibility is raised that consciousness is, for humanity, an evolutionary dead end. [6] [9] [10] [11] That is, consciousness may have been naturally selected as a solution for the challenges of a specific place in space and time, but will become a limitation as conditions change or competing intelligences are encountered. [7]