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Blindsight by Peter Watts. Canticle for Leibowitz by Henry Miller. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Blindsight is possibly my favorite book of all tim

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Canticle for Leibowitz by Henry Miller. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Blindsight is possibly my favorite book of all time. It stayed with me for a very long time and sincerely changed the way I view the world.

thriftwy 3y ago
I'm highly confused by the popularity of Blindsight, but don't want to make a big deal of it. Instead, I will point out that "The Mote in God's Eye" has a quite similar setting and is overall one of the best S-F books.
- shoo 3y ago
  On the one hand, there is similarity in that both "The Mote in God's Eye" and "Blindsight" are first-contact-with-aliens scenarios. On another hand, Niven & Pournelle's story is painted atop the background of interstellar human civilization, with colonies and wars and FTL drives and shields, while humanity in Watts' universe is firmly stuck on Earth with sublight travel in our local solar system -- with the quirk that humanity evolved alongside a near-human predator species, although one that can be harnessed toward corporate or organisational goals using modern science. On the gripping-hand, the two books have rather different perspectives on how first-contact might go: Niven & Pournelle's alien species and society is alien, but somewhat recognisable and relatable from a human perspective. Both species figure out how to communicate. The threat posed to humanity by the aliens is perhaps not so dissimilar to the threat humanity might pose to other species (c.f. Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar). Watts' book explores intelligence, communication, sentience. Earth's first-contact team aren't all human. Many of the human specialists are far from neurotypical -- there's already considerable difficulty in them even being able to understand or emphasise with each other, even before introducing aliens. Blindsight takes a bunch of familiar assumptions underpinning how first-contact could play out, and challenges them, and asks what might happen if those assumptions were not true.
  - thriftwy 3y ago
    In my opinion, Blindsight scratches the politically correct itches, and delivers little bottom line. I just don't see what will go more wrong has China sent this mission packed with brighter alumnis of its best universities, tested for mental stability and stress tolerance, under command of General Secretary nephew.

thriftwy 3y ago

I'm highly confused by the popularity of Blindsight, but don't want to make a big deal of it. Instead, I will point out that "The Mote in God's Eye" has a quite similar setting and is overall one of the best S-F books.

shoo 3y ago
On the one hand, there is similarity in that both "The Mote in God's Eye" and "Blindsight" are first-contact-with-aliens scenarios. On another hand, Niven & Pournelle's story is painted atop the background of interstellar human civilization, with colonies and wars and FTL drives and shields, while humanity in Watts' universe is firmly stuck on Earth with sublight travel in our local solar system -- with the quirk that humanity evolved alongside a near-human predator species, although one that can be harnessed toward corporate or organisational goals using modern science. On the gripping-hand, the two books have rather different perspectives on how first-contact might go: Niven & Pournelle's alien species and society is alien, but somewhat recognisable and relatable from a human perspective. Both species figure out how to communicate. The threat posed to humanity by the aliens is perhaps not so dissimilar to the threat humanity might pose to other species (c.f. Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar). Watts' book explores intelligence, communication, sentience. Earth's first-contact team aren't all human. Many of the human specialists are far from neurotypical -- there's already considerable difficulty in them even being able to understand or emphasise with each other, even before introducing aliens. Blindsight takes a bunch of familiar assumptions underpinning how first-contact could play out, and challenges them, and asks what might happen if those assumptions were not true.
- thriftwy 3y ago
  In my opinion, Blindsight scratches the politically correct itches, and delivers little bottom line. I just don't see what will go more wrong has China sent this mission packed with brighter alumnis of its best universities, tested for mental stability and stress tolerance, under command of General Secretary nephew.