Blindsight - A haunting, mindblowing first contact book!
Blindsight by Peter Watts is a book that will make you question fundamental things about the nature of consciousness, reconsider what first contact with aliens could mean, and is also an incredible journey out into the dark of the stars to get to the big reveal!
Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time · Brent Gaisford, Cody Troyer
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Show Notes
Aliens have taken a snapshot of the entire earth, down to 1 meter of resolution - we know because they lit the entire sky on fire to do it.
Then, humanity detected something out at the very edge of the solar system sending a signal - but not to us. The signal is being sent out, into deep space, to another planet, or to something already on the way to Earth.
A ship is dispatched with a crew of five - including two technical specialists who have been deeply biologically and technologically enhanced, a soldier, a resurrected Vampire who interfaces with the ship AI to lead the crew, and our protagonist, Siri, whose job is to understand those specialists and translate their insights for the people back home. What will they find, out in the darkness?
As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar books if you are looking for more great books to read. This week we recommend:
- The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
- Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
Or you can watch the episode on YouTube here.