Man, I wish I could read that for the first time again. And second, and third…
Yeah it’s my favourite book.
That made me laugh over cereal this morning! Alan!
Same.
Motion to rename this thread to be ‘Let’s just talk about Blindsight, one of the most awesome science fiction books ever written.’
If they are technologically advanced then the answer is math. The basis of our math is a universal constant and that constant can be built upon to eventually allow communication at some level.
Just give them a copy of Dianetics!
Seconded!
We can communicate…with VIOLENCE
This made me look up the novel and it is available under a creative commons license for free here: Blindsight by Peter Watts - Free eBook
You can download it in several formats, including mobi and pdf
Here’s a site with that without having to create a login:
https://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
Already posted above by HideousRex. PDF link at the top. EPub too.
And more: Watts Backlist
We can force them to like us!
I can see why. I myself don’t think the author is a super good writer sometimes, but these moments are not too hard for me to overlook. He just loves starting a new section with sentences like, “They emerged in pairs.” Who are “they”? From whose perspective are we seeing this? Are these friends or foe? He seems to have convinced himself that readers like having little mysteries to store in their brains while he takes a bit of time to slowly reveal the details. Well sure, if this is Memento.
He also loves to alliterate when he’s describing things from the point of view of inanimate objects like probes, as if inanimate objects speak in poetry.
But thankfully I just jolt out of the story from time to time cuz of stuff like this, and am able to plunge back in with no difficulty, because he’s concocted a cool scenario and some nifty characters and I trust his science. So, many thanks to those of you who suggested this book!
You’re inanimate!
I didn’t alliterate!
I missed the stealth link by Hideous Rex.
Thanks for pointing it out!
I scrolled randomly to a page near the start, and here’s how one of his sections starts:
“It wasn’t so much the way they looked.”
Goddamn this guy loves his “they” puzzles.
It took me 5 seconds to find another:
“They clenched around the world like a fist, each black as the inside of an event horizon until those last bright moments when they all burned together.”
bonus alliteration:
BLACK
BRIGHT
BURNED
They must be inanimate.
p.s. loving the book, don’t get me wrong!
Heh, yeah I know exactly the passage you mean; one of the most memorable in the book in my opinion. I’m not joking when I say I’ve read Blindsight at least 20 times at this point. :)
If, when you’re finished, you find yourself wanting more, there’s a sidequel called Echopraxia. Harder to get into, harder to figure out what’s truly happening in many places, but totally worth it by the end.
And he’s working on a third book to wrap things up.
Now that’s the best bit of news I’ve seen today.
Also worth mentioning The Colonel, an Echopraxia prequel story.
I’ve also enjoyed just about everything of his I’ve read, particularly Freeze Frame Revolution.