Literally reading it now. I hit that section last night. I put the book down immediately and started reading about the Chinese Room.
Comment on Recent conversations between Dawkins and sentient chat-bot Claudia (Claude)
TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 8 hours agoAnyone who’s even slightly interested in the idea of a Chinese Room (or just good sci-fi), PLEEEASE go out and read Blindsight by Peter Watts. Not only is it a phenomenal deep-dive into what consciousness even is, but it’s got dozens of fantastic ideas in it that could make for compelling stories on their own. Also, scientifically-plausible space-vampires. That is all
baller_w@lemmy.zip 8 hours ago
TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I won’t spoil shit, but you be sure to have fun with the rest of the book! It’s uh… well it stuck with me for a while. Also be sure to give his other book in the series, Echopraxia, a look as well. In my opinion it wasn’t quite as good but that’s like comparing a 9 to an 8.9, they’re both incredible
daannii@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
One of my top 5 books. It’s also free to read online. www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
eeeee! thank you for the link! i have too much good stuff to read now, in part thanks to you and @TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world (thank you both so much! i might disappear for a week into books but i promise to pop in for air). If i didn’t have a good choosing algorithm by now i’d be in analysis paralysis (for relatively trivial decisions: if you have multiple equally good options, flip a coin. use chwazi. roll a die. whatever works for that number. if, while doing the random number generator you find yourself hoping for a specific option, you know what you really want. if not, go with the random choice. you’re equally happy with all of them so what do you care if you randomly go with number eight? go with number eight.) One of the best problems to have (too many good choices).
TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Now what did you think of Echopraxia?
daannii@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I’ll be honest, I’ve read Blindsight a few times and pretty sure only read echopraxia once. Like 10 years ago.
But I re-read the synopsis to refresh my memory.
I remember liking Blindsight more. But not why.
I’m also not sure which story elements I’m remembering came from which book.
Was the whole vampire arch and twist from book 1 or 2?
Can you remind me of a few specific points ? Maybe that will jog my memory. Or maybe I just need to re-read it.