Blindsight by Peter Watts.

A deep exploration into philosophical issues related to consciousness & intelligence. I’ve been interested in this topic for quite a few years. The novel was suggested reading in Science and Philosophy, a compilation of essays. The ideas in Blindsight are compelling but I did not enjoy the story much. The configuration of the actual mission, which is at the centre of the plot, did not make sense to me.

The little I’d heard about this novel before was that it had vampires in space! And, yes, there is a vampire, but it isn’t a  protagonist. It mostly exists in the background, and when it comes to the front by the end of the story there were other much more interesting themes which overlapped with it which left the poor vampire as a meh character. The main protagonist and the other members of a spaceship crew are trans-humans, highly modified, physically and psychologically, and much more interesting. The aliens of the story are interesting too. The way Watts describes them, the aliens and the main protagonist (who lost half of his brain early in life), helped me reflect on the nature of consciousness, awareness of our own existence, awareness of other people’s lives and feelings and most importantly the concept of consciousness as a precondition for intelligence.