Blindsight by Peter Watts

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Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 143 comments. Each links to the original.

1. still one of my all time favorite sci fi books. A fantastic exploration of intelligence, conscioussness and first contact.

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

2. The writing definitely felt try-hard, especially at the start where the first few chapters seem really obscure by design.

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

3. something about the way it described agency without consciousness was both creepy and extremely memorable

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Book Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division”

4. the aliens being intelligent without being conscious was fascinating and gave me a different perspective

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

5. easily the most thought provoking take on consciousness and first contact i have encountered in years

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Ask HN: What sci fi books are you reading now?”

6. Blindsight dismantles a lot of noble myths about what it means to be human and human exceptionalism.

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)”

7. The book makes pains to draw a line between consciousness (or meta consciousness) and intelligence.

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

8. Managing to combine a dozen ideas from previous works into a coherent whole is far from uncreative.

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

9. He makes a strong (and rather terrifyingly strong) point that intelligence is not consciousness.

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “"They're made out of weights"”

10. I recommend Blindsight whenever the subject of consciousness—specifically lack thereof—comes up.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “You are not (just) your brain”

11. I really think it oversold the case against consciousness and for belligerent intelligent life.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)”

12. gave me the same feeling of "this is incredibly alien and I have no idea what will happen next"

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Rendezvous with Rama”

13. It has the creepy, psychological bent of Annihilation combined with the hard science elements

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Book Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division”

14. this is a new idea dense book to say the least - if you love worldbuilding, please pick it up

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

15. thought it was a decent attempt along with many other ideas in the book, very enjoyable to me

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

16. sketch a pretty convincing argument that consciousness may be an evolutionary disadvantage

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “GPT-6 Astra Solves a WWI German Radio Cipher”

17. They're there to make you consider different aspects of what makes up consciousness.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

18. It's one of the most rigorous modern explorations of intelligence without awareness

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What fiction books would you recommend for programmers?”

19. it's a dense, perhaps 'dry' read for some - but very rewarding nonetheless IMO

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “You are not (just) your brain”

20. it was often hard to read, but kinda worth it for the novel concept introduced

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

21. Blindsight hit me so differently today than it did before AI was mainstream.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

22. wrapped in a mediocre action movie plot that becomes nonsensical by the end

    Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Book Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division”

23. if you like alien aliens, psychology and biology, Blindsight is your bag

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Sins of the Children (Adrian Tchaikovsky)”

24. I found the writing really hard to follow. And it was really difficult to visualise any scene due to how complicated it all was.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

25. The book would have been better if the author had left out this vampire nonesense. All in all, it was a bit of a drag to read.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

26. It's just a collection of "isn't that cool" pop-sci phenomena randomly dropped into an Aliens (1986) space horror plot.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

27. Second, the book rests on the assumption that consciousness is cheap enough that its metabolic costs are irrelevant.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

28. boring, marginally pretentious book. Tries to bring up some interesting ideas, but loses the plot along the way

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

29. a scifi book about posthuman vampires that has been deliberately engineered to make a philosophical point

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “When Dawkins met Claude – Could this AI be conscious?”

30. We went to the macguffin in a spaceship, and a bunch of unrelated stuff happened along the way

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

31. The problem for a lot of readers is it's distracting while not adding anything substantial.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

32. the conclusion, that non-consciousness is somehow "Better™," falls absolutely flat for me

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)”

33. wanted to write a treatise on the nature of intelligence and also space vampire fiction

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

34. Interesting conceptual book that touches on some very weird ideas, which I enjoyed. But I wouldn't call it my favorite book.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

35. I have long wondered why everyone thought it was so revolutionary. I kept thinking I was missing something.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)”

36. This is one of my favorite books and it's fun to read for anyone interested in the AI consciousness debate.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

37. There's the riffing on crucifixes with the right-angle seizures, but that's more cutesy than serious.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

38. Book is about various modalities of intelligence: regular humans, space intelligence, main character

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

39. For a fictional description of a lifeforms that doesn't have RNA, DNA or anything remotely similar

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “They're Made Out of Meat (1991)”

40. Personally, I find the experience to be unique, so I think it's worth it if you can get into it.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”