[katabasis]

This is a great first-contact novel, probably my favorite example of this genre. The book concludes with some ideas about the nature of consciousness that I found to be legitimately frightening. I read the book years ago but it feels even more relevant now as we watch new forms of “intelligence” like ChatGPT beginning to emerge.

[deepspace]

Exactly. Blindsight is a hard read, but it is as frightening as any horror story I have ever read. It absolutely deserves a place in the list of best alien stories.

Every time I use ChatGPT, I think about Blindsight's premise of intelligence without consciousness. Interacting with the AI feels so much like the alien interactions in that book, it is scary.

[duskwuff]

At least none of the LLMs I've worked with have decided to refer to themselves as Rorschach.

Yet.