Book Review - Blindsight by Peter Watts

I recently re-read Blindsight by Peter Watts. This is a book for the software engineer in all of us.



If you're reading Charles Stross then chances are you're the developer with Think Geek stuff all over his cubicle. If you're reading Peter Watts, then you're the guy whose cube has minimal personal belongings and is so bare that many wonder whether or not anyone works in it. Your personality is such, that you are slightly confused by normal human interaction, but have learned enough to imitate being human so that human interaction doesn't become a "problem".

Personality issues aside, the book is fantastic. There's enough geek stimulation (AI, genetically revived vampires a la Jurassic Park, linguistics, biology) to keep it from becoming boring. And it doesn't follow the recurring themes that most sci-fi and fantasy seem to follow. This is hard sci-fi, not to be confused with the softer side of sci-fi, which reads more like fantasy. Peter Watts is a biologist and he isn't afraid to engage us non-biologists, even if we have to engage the footnotes.

Peter Watts was generous enough to put his book on the web for free (http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm) for the benefit of all.