History Literature / Blindsight

* CoolStarship: ''Theseus''. Hyperintelligent AI? Check. Antimatter engines? Check. Fabrication units that could put the replicators from ''Frachise/StarTrek'' to shame? Check.

* WhamLine: The scene where Sascha and Siri figure out what they're really facing is probably one of the most hair-raising Wham Lines to be found in science fiction. [[spoiler: That humans are probably the only sapient life in the known universe. Most aliens are intelligent but nonsapient. Not only are they better adapted to survive because of it, but they would see humanity as a natural enemy because humananity ''[[HumansAreCthulhu is just that alien]]''.]]

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:On the long, long, lonely flight home, Siri is getting messages that imply the breakdown of society in the inner solar system. By the writing of this book, it would suggest that all the troubles at home have finally come to a head. He believes that by the time he returns to Earth, the inevitable result of what's going on in the inner system is that vampires will have exterminated humanity and taken their places as the owners of the world.]]

''Blindsight'' is a [[MohsScaleofSciFiHardness hard]] ScienceFiction novel by Canadian author Creator/PeterWatts. It's a dark and cerebral FirstContact story that deals heavily with issues of sapience and what it means to be an "intelligent" species. Troubles with the publisher made the novel hard to find in stores, despite having been nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward, so Watts put it out [[http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm on his website]] [[DoingItForTheArt for free]].

* BaldHeadOfToughness: Downplayed with Amanda Bates. She has a shaved head, likely since she's still technically a member of the military.

* BaldWoman: Amanda Bates. Her head was likely shaved, since she's still technically a member of the military.

''Blindsight'' is a [[MohsScaleofSciFiHardness hard]] ScienceFiction novel by Canadian author Creator/PeterWatts. It's a dark and cerebral FirstContact story that deals heavily with issues of sentience and what it means to be an "intelligent" species. Troubles with the publisher made the novel hard to find in stores, despite having been nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward, so Watts put it out [[http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm on his website]] [[DoingItForTheArt for free]].

* CosmicHorrorStory: ''Blindsight'' deals primarily with characters that display psychopathic or sociopathic traits, and is set in a future in which the basic human sense of worth is undermined by the social implications of new technologies. But the true cosmic horror is not revealed until near the end of the story, as it's revealed that Watts is portraying a universe in which [[spoiler: sapience (that is, self-awareness, sentience, and the empathy that goes with it) is unnecessary for advanced intelligence and creative thinking. In fact, it's ''inefficient'', tending to lead to Solipsism and wasting resources on pointless endeavors like art. Apparently most other species in the ''Blindsight'' universe may not be sentient at all, despite possessing vast intelligence and the ability to travel the distances between stars.]]

* ItCanThink: [[spoiler:The crew puzzles over whether the scramblers are intelligent aliens or something more like white blood cells in the organism of ''Rorschach''. They eventually figure out that the scramblers are ''far'' more intelligent than humans, but they are nonsentient, as is ''Rorschach'']].
* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:On his long, long trip back toward Earth, Siri reflects that he may be not only the last human, but also the last sentient being in the universe. Talk about a DownerEnding.]]

* NeverSplitTheParty: On one expedition into ''Rorschach'', Bates orders the crew to split up and cover more ground, though they each get their own combat drone for a bodyguard. [[spoiler: Not that it helps all that much when Siri has his first run-in with one of the aliens.]]

** [[spoiler:It's implied that their alien way of thinking is actually the status quo in the universe and that human self-awareness is an aberration. The Scramblers picked up our various transmissions from Earth and, after decrypting the signals, get incomprehensible (to them) statements about "feelings" and "identity". From their perspective, since they lack sentience, they assume the only reason to broadcast things like that to somebody is to ''waste their time''; they see this as tying up vital processing power. As such, this appears to them as a kind of ''attack'' by us. So the aliens decide to strike back. Self-awareness itself — that which makes us human — is seen by the aliens as a dangerous virus to be stamped out.]]

* TitleDrop: "Blindsight" is a real-life phenomenon where blind people, assuming their actual eyes are not damaged, can sometimes avoid obstacles despite not being able to consciously see them. Some part of their brain is still processing visual input despite the normal vision part of the brain being damaged. In the novel, this is used [[spoiler:as a metaphor for the distinction between conscious and unconscious mental processing. The characters experience a kind of blindsight when their cognition is impaired by ''Rorschach'''s powerful magnetic fields. The Scramblers are suspected to be non-sentient beings for whom ''all'' sensation is blindsight. Vampires are implied to be similarly evolving toward non-sentience. And the fundamental horror of the novel rests in the final implication that non-sentient, unconscious cognition is evolutionarily superior and will dominate in the universe. Human awareness is portrayed as inherently self-destructive, as evidenced by the creation of the solipsistic cyberspace "Heaven".]]

* WhamLine: The scene where Sascha and Siri figure out what they're really facing is probably one of the most hair-raising Wham Lines to be found in science fiction. [[spoiler: That humans are probably the only sapient life in the known universe. Most aliens are intelligent but nonsentient. Not only are they better adapted to survive because of it, but they would see humanity as a natural enemy because humananity ''[[HumansAreCthulhu is just that alien]]''.]]
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Siri. Much of his character arc stems from that he believes himself to be an objective observer, both by trade and because his nature doesn't permit him to be much more. He believes he's essentially a form of sapience without much humanity left to him. [[spoiler: Contrasted to ''Rorschach'' and the scramblers, who are extremely intelligent but non-sentient--about as inhuman as you can get--Siri eventually comes to terms with the fact that he has more humanity than he thinks, and the fact he is sapient means that he's not ''quite'' as objective as he would like to be plays.]]

** The aliens [[spoiler: don't just think in a way incomprehensible to humans. They're not even self-aware. Morality is a concept that is so impossible for them to parse that just trying to communicate it is seen as an aggressive act.]]

* SuccessThroughInsanity: The main character's severe autism-like condition means he's the only one able to [[AwesomeByAnalysis objectively analyze]] all of the information and determine just what the deal is with the {{Starfish Alien}}s they discover. Of course he's also unable to bond with other people or empathize with them, so...[[BlessedWithSuck downer]].

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires turn out to have been an ancient HumanSubspecies adapted to prey on us. They existed millennia ago, before recorded history. Since they were predators, they had to have superior pattern-matching skills (all the tricks of autistic savants plus more) and general intelligence, better night-vision and the ability to put themselves into suspended animation (since, being apex predators, they had to give our populations time to rebound else they would hunt us to extinction). Unfortunately, the super-intelligence comes at a cost: their super-charged pattern recognition tends to get overstimulated when [[WeaksauceWeakness intersecting right-angles take up too much of their visual field]]. Basically, their brain ''glitches out'' and they have [[BrownNote epileptic seizures]] whenever they see anything with corners - thus explaining the origin of [[CrossMeltingAura the myth about them being weak against the cross]]. When humans invented architecture, the vampires all died out. The modern-day resurrected vampires have to take "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Anti-Euclidean]]" drugs to enable them to survive because geneticists weren't stupid enough to remove the weakness.

* StarcrossedLovers: Siri's relationship with his girlfriend Chelsea, which get's brought up in flashbacks. Chelsea was a rather old-fashioned GirlNextDoor who was fascinated by Siri's honesty and how his condition gave him a unique outlook on the world, and he appreciated her honest affection and optimistic outlook. However, Siri's lack of empathy makes it obvious he just doesn't have a good grasp on his humanity, combined with BrutalHonesty made him unable to be a functional boyfriend, which destroyed their relationship after a time.

* WarriorTherapist: Near the climax of the plot, Sarasti viciously beats down Siri. The reason for doing so appeared to be to [[spoiler: invoke fear and pain, to demonstrate that for all of his pretenses of being detached from his humanity, and being the impartial observer, Siri simply isn't those things. And that it was the opening statement to Sarasti's [[{{Inverted}}anti]]-PatrickStewartSpeech]].

** For context, it was inferred that the interrogators knew that they couldn't get useful information from their captives, they were just raping, torturing, and killing those captives because they thought it would be fun, war crimes be damned. While Bates technically committed an act of treason, this unsanctioned act of empathy gave Bates a diplomatic line that resulted in radically reducing terrorism incidents in the region, and the results reversed Bates's court martial and expedited execution to her being hailed as a hero (no matter how much the brass hated it). She was [[ReassignedToAntarctica transferred to the Theseus]] as a special assignment, but it's an open secret that the brass just didn't want to have to deal with her.

** A hemispherectomy wouldn't rob someone of their emotions or empathy. In fact, actual patients who've had half of their brains removed due to epilepsy (exactly what happened to Siri) exhibit little to no changes afterward. [[spoiler: This is addressed in the sidequel, ''Literature/Echopraxia'', where its explained that Siri was the victim of a viral zombie attack while still unborn.]]

** A hemispherectomy wouldn't rob someone of their emotions or empathy. In fact, actual patients who've had half of their brains removed due to epilepsy (exactly what happened to Siri) exhibit little to no changes afterward.

* A hemispherectomy wouldn't rob someone of their emotions or empathy. In fact, actual patients who've had half of their brains removed due to epilepsy (exactly what happened to Siri) exhibit little to no changes afterward.

* ArtisticLicensePsychology: Apparently sociopaths actually aren't sapient, merely mimicking sapience perfectly. Who knew?

* EssentialMadness: The main character's severe autism-like condition means he's the only one able to [[AwesomeByAnalysis objectively analyze]] all of the information and determine just what the deal is with the {{Starfish Alien}}s they discover. Of course he's also unable to bond with other people or empathize with them, so...[[BlessedWithSuck downer]].
** The predatory instincts and complete sociopath nature of the ship's captain (who is an actual vampire) also turns out to be vital in second-guessing the otherwise indecipherable behaviour of the alien vessel and its inhabitants.

* ArtisticLicensePsychology: Apparently sociopaths actually aren't sapient, merely mimicking sapience perfectly. WHo knew?

The crew is made up of odd and eccentric specialists: a linguist with [[ProfessorGuineaPig surgically-induced multiple personalities]], a biologist who has given up some of his neural pathways for [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul senses and perception far beyond what a baseline human can experience]], and an infamous soldier whose career-defining moment was [[NeverLiveItDown an act of treason]]. The narrator, an analyst with [[EmptyShell half his brain removed]], is sent to observe these transhumans and translate for the benefit of their earthly masters. And they are all led by a literal [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampire]]; a genius, sociopath, and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] who is nevertheless the only one coldly-logical enough to run the mission.

** TheSmartGuy[=/=]TheLeader: Jukka Sarasti, who is frighteningly intelligent, like all [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], that the average human is incapable of understanding how he reaches his conclusions.

** SixthRanger: [[spoiler:Cunningham]]

* BizarreAlienPsychology: One of the book's twists is [[spoiler:the discovery that humanity is pretty much the only race out there with a concept of self, reason and such things as art... which the aliens see as an abomination of infection and have decided to eliminate humanity because it hurts them]].