Science Reads What is Consciousness Good For, Anyway?
Tony Li once wrote a two-part article for the Mathematics Union that included the phrase “Tony Li, you monster” Blindsight cover by Tor.com with cover art by Thomas Pringle Year 2082: first contact. Thousands of alien drones appear in the sky, burning through the atmosphere in a spectacular fire show. In response, humanity quickly constructs an advanced spaceship, Theseus, and sends it off to investigate the source of the alien signals on the outer rim of the Solar System. When the crew lands on the alien base Rorschach, they capture two of its inhabitant alien ‘scramblers’ and waste no time in trying to extract information with the oldest and most powerful item in humanity’s tool box — “keep hurting them until you can distinguish speech from screams.” 16
This is the premise of the 2006 novel Blindsight by marine biologist Peter Watts. True to the ‘hard sci-fi’ genre, which emphasises the accuracy and logical coherence of scientific speculations, Blindsight comes with pages of notes and more than a hundred references to various scientific publications discussing topics related to Watts’ speculations — “to try and convince you all I’m not crazy,” as he puts it. In and around the plot, Watts offers us plenty of speculative world-building, and we catch glimpses of a prosperous but fragile human society on Earth.
North Perth is the new Kardinya. Think about it!
