[unaindz]

We could even argue that we are good at thinking we are in control of our own thoughts.

If you haven't looked into it already I recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts followed by the short story The Colonel and Echopraxia.

They talk a lot about human consciousness and it's importance or lack thereof. With an actually original and scary alien contact (related to the topic at hand), scary non cringe hard scify vampires (also related), in my opinion really good prose and in general high density of interesting concepts per page. With bonus real life papers at the end that extrapolated could explain the ideas presented in the books.

I'm gonna stop because I'm far past the point that Watts should pay me ad money.

It's licenced under Creative Commons. You can get it for free here (epub link at the top or read it straight from the page): https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

I would tell you to donate/buy it if you like it but maybe if he feels the pressure in his bank account he finally writes the next one. jk please pay him, he deserves it.

[exe34]

loved blindsight. read it twice and both times it left me very shaken for several weeks after. brilliant masterpiece!

[unaindz]

Between blindsight and anihilation I recovered my passion for reading after years of not doing it.

And It's been a year since I read it and I still think about it often. I have some backlog I wanna go through first but I feel a reread is due already.

[exe34]

i take it you've read crystal society, diaspora and the metamorphosis of prime intellect?