BLINDSIGHT - The Dark Side Of Consciousness 

I've never read a book quite like it.

The idea that self awareness is a glitch rather than a feature blew me away.

This book really did make me think about the world in a completely different way. Just the 'where do you get your ideas from' section at the back of the book reads like a Master's thesis. It's an absolutely tremendous book.

I like your new format of video essays. You nailed the tone and atmosphere of the novel

This is a yearly re-read for me now, and has been since I first read it. The conversations between Theseus and Rorschach pre-boarding are always a highlight

The best SF novel I have ever read. Not necessarily by a wide margin, and no single SF novel can provide all the genre has to offer. But yeah - the best one I’ve read. So far.

Any book that can thoroughly overturn a bad first impression has to be really good. I came across a free copy of this book, not having read any other books from Watts and had no expectations going in. The first chapter gave me the impression that it was going to be another story with a collection of cocky, colorful personalities that unexpectedly get in over their heads like the classic space marines from the Aliens movie. Then the vampire was introduced and I almost stopped reading with the reaction of 'someone tell this boomer that vampires arent trendy anymore'. Buuuut I kept reading and the story pulled me in, with a growing sense of awe and dread that just left me profoundly disturbed at the end. Definitely one of the best books Ive read in decades.

Absolutely adored this book. By far one of my favorite books I've ever read. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started it - and I'm glad I went in blind and was able to just get dragged deeper and deeper into the questions and themes of the story. Cognitive science was my alternate career choice (instead of art) and so this book was really singing to the choir for me and actually made me think a little regretfully about shoving my degrees in a closet lol. Something about the way this book came at the same question of consciousness from so many different angles also reminded me of one of favorite non-fiction books, Godel Escher Bach. I read GEB in my early teens and remember a feeling of wandering around in the pages in awe of each new idea that fascinated me. That book was a cornerstone for me into my love of cognitive science as well as formal systems. Reading Blindsight, though very different gave me a similar feeling of fasination/excitememnt for the ideas and themes. It was like returning to an old familiar hunting ground after many years completely unexpectedly. I know a lot of that is very personal associations that elevated Blindsight for me but I haven't enjoyed a book this much in I don't know how long. Thank you for running a read along for it, as I don't know how long it would have been before I discovered it otherwise. I can't believe it took me this long to hear of it lol

Blindsight is my absolute favourite. From the, in my opinion, near perfect first contact to a vampire captain on a spaceship (hard to believe it worked perfectly) that I cannot bring myself to read the sequel so it doesn’t tarnish this wonderful and weird story.

Moid, I just completed this book a few weeks ago and loved it,,, I scoured RU-vid for a review afterwards and it is only now with your presentation that a review rises to the level of the book itself... good job old man...

Not only one of the best First Contact novels I have ever read Moid, but also one of the most disturbing novels I have ever read, the idea of Intelligence without sentience, that we are in BIG FUCKING TROUBLE is wonderfully played out, never mind the vampires! Great Review. Thanks.

One of those books that I tore through initially, then re-read carefully. More than a few times.

Awesome book. I just finished it and I got so many Event Horizon kind of vibes but also the examination of consciousness and intelligence is thought provoking.

Basically everything by Watts, Blindsight, Echopraxia, the Rifters Trilogy, his short stories, is all solid platinum.

It strikes me, from your review that this book is explicitly Lovecraftian, that these aliens come closer to HPL's concept of the great old ones, unfathomable beings to whom we are of no significance whatsoever. Peter Watts seem to understand that idea far better than any follower of Lovecraft's ever has, indeed perhaps better than Lovecraft himself.

I reread the book, but now I also relived it and am terrified all over again. Thanks for that. :)

Excellent video, Moid. Peter Watts is a brilliant writer, and your video is a compelling overview of the book that makes me want to read it again.

Peter Watts is easily one of my top 10 SF writers. His books make me think about the implications.

This book bent my mind into new shapes, and I'm better for it! One of the best conceptual SciFi novels out there. The idea that consciousness and intelligence aren't inseparably linked, and may even be opposed to each other is crazy, and I' cant stop thinking about it! I also love that every character shines light on a different facet of consciousness and intelligence.

Read Blindsight based on the fascinating interview with Peter Watts on this channel and yeah it lived up to every hope I had for it and it's stuck in my brain since like a... well the wet spider metaphor is perfect lol

I’m reading this book currently, although I wish I hadn’t started it. Was intended to be a ‘palate cleanser’ in between volumes of another series I’m currently ready. I probably should have saved this one for after. Very interesting book

He's found a way to explain the "survival of the fittest" reason for consciousness since writing the book (to deal with the unexpexted). I like it.

Blindsight knocked me flat out, it must have been more than ten years ago, and I still haven't recovered... Thank you for clearing up a few things for me! And cheers to the new layout! -Is it called layout? Design maybe? Anyway, it looks great! Vampires and the mysterious Portia comes back in Watts' Echopraxia, also a good read.

"It made two kinds of sense. It not only slashed their metabolic needs while prey bred itself back to harvestable levels, it gave us time to forget that we were prey. We were so smart by the Pleistocene, smart enough for easy skepticism; if you haven't seen any night-stalking demons in all your years on the savannah, why should you believe some senile campfire ramblings passed down by your mother's mother?" This is an idea that I don't see talked about enough that I think brilliantly plays into the idea of consciousness being evolutionarily detrimental. Humans having a natural predator that takes advantage of our capacity for reason and skepticism by going into torpor long enough for us to stop believing they exist. God, this book is such a ride.

I really need to reread this again. It's just bursting with ideas that I love to think about. Great quick review!

Its on the reading list thanks to the interview. Great vid. This is where you are at your best Moid.

I can't stop re-reading it. Can. Not. Stop.

Regarding consciousness, I used to do a 30 minute drive every weekday to college and I had eventually tuned out the entire drive. More than once I was sitting in my first class of the day and wondering how I got there.

I'm listening to Echopraxia yet again in audiobook format, & I already know that I'm going to revisit Blindsight as well. I just can't get enough of how Peter Watts blew my mind with these books. There's a point where this world construct sucks you into its bowels. I especially love that every part of these stories tells you about this world-from the richly explored characters to the machines, the science, and the landscape. Every minuscule detail carries the story forward & paints a picture of this world in some way.

That was an amazing book! Keep up the good work Moid!

Great job Moid. Blindsight has moved up to my next read/listen :)

Great commentary Moid. Need to listen again. I like the concept of consciousness ceasing to exist when everything is known, interesting.

A different kind of video for you.... Very good, though I do miss the books in the background. LOL

I'm not ashamed of that I didn't understand the book like this, thanks you dear author of this YT chanel to explain the most important of it , now I wanna read it once again with these knowledges

You're going to bankrupt me, Moid. I've already bought (imported) The Book of the New Sun (the whole thing), Terra Ignota Book's 1 and 2 and now you're enticing me with such a crazy novel. My wallet can't handle it!

Dude this video is spot on! You absolutely nailed the themes and emotions of this book!

I've been utterly captivated by both books of the Firefall ....beyond that , I wish there were more hard backs around , I 've scoured the interweb for these , only to find ridiculous prices asked or none ,,,it's the same with everything ....the paperbacks I have are pretty ropy..why has it got to be paperback or nothing ?.just managed to grab The Expanse before they vanish...

The moment Watts presents the consciousness argument, the moment you realize you're kinda hosting a thought parasite, a mistake that's inherent to your very being... It was a great reading moment. 🐙

Read it a few days ago, so this video was exactly what I needed.

Awesome review Moid!!!

Loved the interview with Peter and am reading the book now because these videos are wonderful, but I do find the conclusions about consciousness quite dangerous at this time (which books are allowed to be,) but also misguided. We can learn a lot about where Free Energy Principle goes wrong by studying the life and death of large businesses. Energy minimisation works for a bit, but eventually kills systems or make them completely irrelevant lacking in innovation, agility, resilience, adaptation. The analytical engine does not produce consciousness, without consciousness there's no creativity, without creativity/new narratives, David Deutsch's emergent universe is no more, and that'd be very sad. ;) Loving this cult.

If Watts is right and you lose consciousness when you get really clever, then that bottle of whisky I drank last night shouldn't have been measured as 47% proof, but as 200%IQ

These video essays are so fuckin good

I was recommended this book like a really good hard-ish Sci-Fi book. I would say it's more like a philosophical text under a sci-fi cloak. If you are up for existential philosophical questions, then go for it. It's really good. As a sci-fi book it was really flat. I had no emotional connection with the characters of the book and it was really really spatially disorientating.

One of the most creative and unique stories I've read, it really made an impression on me.

Enjoyed this book but found it very challenging. I think I will get a lot out of a second reading.

Found a video in the wild about a book I loved!! And should reread…

You should read and do a video on Blindsight's "side-quel", Echopraxia. It doubles down on the weird and creepy.

Great review of some great sf. You just have to keep in mind that he very specifically set up a way to make his thought experiment turn out exactly as he wanted. He's only correct within the confines of his book. (And that's perfectly fine. It's what sf does, and he certainly explores it on many levels. But that doesn't mean that's the way intelligence and evolution goes out here in real life.)

This book absolutely broke my brain. I'm still not sure I Get It, should read it again. Blew me away.

im halfway thru it - really love it now thats for sure - great pace - the thing is about the vamp is watts has the others discuss it 360 degrees so its almost a pretty normal character and good captain at this point. certainly the character doesnt stand out vs the other variously modified crew. well so far anyway. but yeah all that background work kept vamp from becoming camp.

Both you and Bookpilled have done no holds barred, top-flight reviews of this book. I swear I'm going to finish it this time. Not that I don't love it, I do, it's just so damn dense with cosmic cotton candy, my aged brain verily jams. Thanks to you both for pushing me onward in such entertaining ways.

amazing review, just brilliant

This video was exactly the dark gravy I needed to get this Wednesday down.

They need to make a movie out of this...

It's on my TBR but I read his Starfish books and they were mostly just ok so I'm not exactly in a rush.

If this is a book "reflecting" on consciousness because it argues consciousness is an hindrance to survival, then this also means it is a reflection on ourselves, a mirror to the inside of us. This means we are awere that we are awere, and that is what ultimately makes us afraid. But if this book is a reflexion on ourselves, does it mean life outside of us is like this, unconscious? Ultimately, if we're talking about humans, goats, dogs, cats, vampires, spiders, aliens, squids, or giant world "sentient" oceans, maybe we'd treat them the same way we treat ourselves (singular). - How do I treat a person I've just met? I cannot know its mind, so why bother? It's just interaction.

For anyone looking for another analysis of the book - RU-vid up Neill Blomkamps Joe Rogan interview where they discuss parts.

He did a 1st person short story of the Thing. From the Thing’s perspective. An ambassador from the main Galactic civilization is horrified to learn than the life forms on Earth are self contained life forms with their own consciousness.

I loved this book , truly loved it !

I have mentioned it in comments in a different video with Peter. I find it a nice coincidence that The Thing is taking place in winter 1982 and Blindsight Fireflys are happening on 13 of February 2082 :) One hundred years apart, a wink perhaps ;)

I recently finished my first reading of it and thought it was pretty good, but far from the masterpiece I've heard many people describe it as. Definitely seems to be one of those books that hits significantly harder on a re-read, so it's on the list to try again some time. Echopraxia on the other hand... 🤢

Thank you for this! Absolutely amazing!

Awesome video m8!

I will die on the hill that the Rifters series is inherently better IMO. I read it probably twice a year. Definitely a personal connection to me. I want to read Echopraxia but none of my local libraries have it 😭

I tried reading about 40 pages of this book and I had absolutely no idea what was happening. At first there was some spaceship with undead vampires and then they were in heaven then purgatory then i don’t even know where. I’ll definitely be trying to tackle this book in the future but for the time being i’ll read something a bit more basic.

I'm seriously impressed with your skills I think you could make somebody want to read the short stories in playboy if you were to tell them what they were about first absolutely incredible I've never seen you before but I will be in the future

7:09 funny, ive been saying this about building an internal model in my brain forever. Though everyone does it. Every life does it, more or less. The trick is to do it consciously, test its predictions, improve it.,.

This is my favorite sci-fi book by a large margin. The afterward and footnotes are my favorite science book of all time. Highly recommended - it certainly explains a lot of what's happening in the world today.

I loved reading this book, the video game Prey also has aliens that are the same in not having consciousness. it's quite interesting.

I haven't read this book yet. I just heard about it for the first time and want to read it now. I don't really read sifi genre at all, but I do enjoy philosophy. The books thesis sounds alot the philosophies put foward by U.G. Krishnamurti

Fascinating video. Might have to give this one a try!

I had the wet spider too (or something close enough). I've never experienced this with any other book

Holy crap this makes so much sense the more you know the duller life gets when I was young I hated how conscious I felt so I started smoking weed at 17 to make myself less conscious to not care so much and make myself dumber because it seemed like the dumber you are the more fun you having crazy ik.

Nailed it Mord! Recently picked up a gorgeous copy of both Blindsight and Echopraxia published by Centipede Press. Awesome...

Just read it. It was pretty good, not amazing, and maybe not great, but glad I read it. It definitely did not live up to the hype for me, though. I expected something profound or mind-shattering. The central concept is a nifty, fun thought experiment, but that's it really, and that's perfectly fine. But just the way people talk about it had me expecting something much more. I was also let down in the horror department. I would not call this a horror novel or hard SF. It's SF with one or two creepy moments and a generally uneasy feel with some pop-sci buzzwords spinkled in (honestly, it started verging into rick and morty territory at some points). I was pleasantly surprised by Sarasti - I fully expected it to be eye-watering camp but it was actually well done and one of my favorite elements of the book. I also quite liked the alien biology and mechanisms of evasion. The ending was solid, too. Overall, 3.5/5. Solid first-contact with above average concepts. May read it again in a few years.

Thanks!

After watching your video I'm going to move Heaven and earth to get a copy of Blindsight. Brilliant review.

Look at this video quality... the tasteful thickness of it...

not the easiest book to read, as far as his writing style and use of language, but the ideas in this novel is something else, it stays with you in a deep, profound way

If you posit an comprehension of Infinite Simultaneity; it's perfectly omniform. There is no need for consciousness which is the interplay of subject/object discreet perception. Even sentience would be a flowing dream of apprehended static; moving and not moving at once. You would not have consciousness, but you *would have awareness*. Awareness of the surface of all processes, immersed in sleep.

This book does the theme of loneliness so well. I love empty, lonely worlds and Blindsight emphasising how empty the universe is and how even with life in it, this is the natural state of the universe is amazing. Whilst I disagree with his conclusions (consciousness gives creatures ambition which is pretty much why humans are the dominant force on the planet. Also, it slips into might makes right which is the opposite of my worldview.), I think it's because I disagree that makes the book so scary. I believe the universe is cold and dark but Earth is unique and humans are very special and in Blindsight this just isn't the case. Humans are special but ultimately a blip in Blindsight, a weird coincidence that eventually will be corrected.

Some SPOILERS. The book is absolutely amazing. I loved that Watts doesn't spell out everything about how the world works and stuff like the free energy, the terrorists, etc. are left out to be figured and thought about by the reader. I also enjoyed how Watts showed through the book bit by bit why consciousness is a huge disadvantage by exploring the crew members. Amanda is supposed to be super badass soldier, "protecting" the humans, but her consciousness makes her a pacifist and thus useless. The Gang is completely corrupted by a whole new entity, as she is already more conscious than anyone else on the ship, thus proving even further than having even more consciousness than a normal human is completely pointless. Szpindel and Cunningham are more machines than men but are both religious and distracted by trying to figure out the alien. Siri of course is only interested in the things the others say and think which makes him understand the aliens last even though he is the first one to see them on a unconscious/subconscious level. And of course Jukka and/or the AI are the only ones to figure out what the aliens actually are and what they'll do since both are just a hunter/computer. Oh, it's so great. So much more can be said but it's one of my favorite books ever.

Needs a movie SOOOOOO bad. I want Denis Villeneuve to do like every good sci Fi book as a movie. House of Suns, Rev Space, Blindsight, Hyperion (as a mini-series), and someone needs to do the make the book House of Leaves into a movie.

Actually reading this right now.

I just finished the book yesterday, I ordered Ecoproxia, so no spoilers please. I liked the book, but the lack of context kept me from being grounded in the story. The alien felt less like an alien than a macro bacteria doing pretty much what the earth variants do. Moving between stars and hosts being relatively similar distances. I liked the book, but I think another 100 pages would have fleshed out the players and stakes better.

Changed my outlook on life

Excellent review! Interesting hypothesis that consciousness is needed when we are intelligent enough, but at the same time not enough to have a quasi perfect World's model, then consciousness would be the machine that allows us to refine that model. Perhaps we can see it in our culture, that the more technological advances we have, the more "zombie" the average person becomes. I don't know if consciousness automatically implies that our mind creates the need for meaning as the force impulsing us to improve this World's model, and thus helping to close that gap in the model's prediction errors. I don't know if that hypothesis is true, but if it were to be true, then, once we arrive at this quasi perfect model (if that is possible), that expenditure of energy that implies having consciousness (and the search for meaning that consciousness brings with it), seems to be unnecessary as Watts postulates. What other novel with similar style would you recommend?

Top 10 sci-fi novel, imho.

Great review Moid. Definitely communicates the mood of the book. I found the novel itself kind of depressing, there's loads going on, almost too much perhaps in someplaces. Very interesting. I don't really agree with the conclusions Peter seems to be reaching. He seems to be focusing on one thing, energy minimization, to the exclusion of everything else. And also there just the whole zero sum thinking, everything is just some grim struggle for survival that only the most brutal can win mentality of it all that just isn't helpful. Good book, kind of liked a lot of it, but overall didn't enjoy the experience.

this is genuinely one of my favorite stories of all time

From what I read it might be wrong to think of the scramblers as non sentient. They are hyper intelligent and do have a complex hive consciousness, but their individual and group sentience is astronomically low. They know that they are and that they are there but there is too little there to care about.

My favourite sci fi book ever.

It's such a good book .

Ok guys is this book really that good is it worth my credit on audible?

Comment contains spoilers. This is my favorite sci fi book, period. The most mind blowing book I’ve ever read. I’m not going to say it’s the best written sci fi book ever, because that wouldn’t be true, but it’s just full of ideas that I’ve never read elsewhere. Even the space vampire, which sounds so lame, is so incredibly interesting: *spoiler* Sarasti is superhumanly smart and *NOT SELF AWARE*. Vampires are so smart that nothing can surprise them… and thus they have no need for consciousness. He’s not “the dark side of consciousness”. Rather, he’s the epitome of the supercomputing emotionless monster trope. The most interesting thing is that vampires preyed on base line humanity for the entire time humanity was developing and it wasn’t until the invention of the right angle that they became extinct (seizures caused by a neural defect.). Just freakin wild.

I just finished this book. I don't really understand the connection of firefall and Rorschach. Can anyone help me out here?

where is all the Blindsight artwork for this video coming from? man, was I hoping it was from a graphic novel that flew under my radar.

I only gotta say. I liked Michelle's and Isac's relationship ❤

Can someone tell Peter that I did not buy his book because this whole covers situation. Can someone tel centipede that I would buy in an instant second print of B+E? Can someone give me french version of B+E covers? They are amazing... I only hope those covers will be available to the rest of the world. I am considering buying french Blindsight and Echo just for the covers...