Reddit reviews BLINDSIGHT (Firefall (1))
We found 41 Reddit comments about BLINDSIGHT (Firefall (1)). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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Reddit reviews BLINDSIGHT (Firefall (1))We found 41 Reddit comments about BLINDSIGHT (Firefall (1)). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
or
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Depends on what sort of stuff you like, Blindsight is darker and pretty philosophical, focusing especially on consciousness and perception, while Pushing Ice is more classical sci-fi on a grander scale with a good helping of technical stuff and character drama/politics.
Blindsight:
> Blindsight is the Hugo Award–nominated novel by Peter Watts, "a hard science fiction writer through and through and one of the very best alive" (The Globe and Mail).
>
> Two months have past since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since―until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who should we send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet?
>
> Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find―but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them. . . .
Blindsight by Peter Watts
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1407747083&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Blindsight+by+Peter+Watts
Awesome first-contact story, a small crew in deep space, all heavily-modded with augmentations, captained by a DNA-reconstructed vampire...making contact with an alien species that's even more bizarre.
I'll add my two cents since this is something I've put some thought into, and will point to some other works you can check out.
I'll go a step beyond McCarthy here by saying I'm a fan of Zapffe's idea that self-awareness might be a mistake, a evolutionary trap:
>Such a ‘feeling of cosmic panic’ is pivotal to every human mind. Indeed, the race appears destined to perish in so far as any effective preservation and continuation of life is ruled out when all of the individual’s attention and energy goes to endure, or relay, the catastrophic high tension within.
>The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment.
>In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.
I am very interested in the historical cases of feral children, and the reports of the attempts to re-integrate them after years away from other people. It seems there is a age past which the mind loses a certain plasticity of infancy and learning speech is no longer possible. Though of course the cases are rare and the reports often hobbled by the perceptions of their time, it is also of great interest to me that these children appear to stay at about the same general level of intelligence as the animals that raised them for the rest of their lives (if they were rescued after a certain developmental period). I wonder about the relationship between language and self-awareness and to what degree they depend upon each other. You could learn so much with just a handful of EXTREMELY UNETHICAL experiments.
Other fun notes:
Peter Watt's Blindsight is a recent sci-fi novel with aliens who work entirely "subconsciously" (without self-awareness) and are able to be much more efficient as a result.
People who speak languages with more colors are able to distingush more colors
There is a ton of interesting work out there that has been done about the ways that limited language can lead to limited thought, if you're interested.
I also recommend The Spell Of The Sensuous if this is interesting to you. One of my favorite books. Hopefully we can get to it in the book club some day.
Interesting - but a "strong sign" of what? A strong sign that it is not a good book, or worthy of award recognition? There is a strong horror element to the book that would turn off those who dislike disturbing reading. Maybe 20%? Regardless, whatever we might suppose "worthy" to be, I think we can agree that it means something other than popular.
For comparison, Blindsight by Peter Watts is often trotted out as one of the best in the sci-fi horror genre. It has a similar profile - arguably slightly less positive, with 29% at 3 stars or fewer.
I'd say they are somewhat similar novels - well written, imaginative, original takes, genre-bending, and just not everyone's cup of tea.
I will upvote you for knowing your lore but I disagree with you.
Peter Watts writes a lot about the possibility of intelligence without consciousness. I.e., something doesn't have to be conscious in order to react and manipulate it's environment at a high level. In a hyper-evolved creature, what can look like "marshaling troops", "laying plans", etc, is actually just completely mindless behavior, but at an order of magnitude that mimics conscious thought.
I'm explaining that rather badly, but what I'm trying to say is that the spawn are indeed a strategy, but simply an evolved strategy. We know that these Eldrazi have never been stopped, but pay attention to what Ugin said:
>"Worlds are dying," said Nahiri. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. "What wisdom could there be in leaving these things alive?"
>"Do you know what they are, Nahiri of Zendikar?" asked the dragon. He lowered his enormous head to look her in the eye. "Do you know if they inhabit some unseen ecology, or what will happen if they are destroyed? Do they deserve death? Does your moral judgment extend only to beings you understand? Can you answer any of these questions?"
The eldrazi are Apex Predators when it comes to our universe, but who knows how long it took for them to get that way. Billions of years? If so, they would have time to create multiple strategies to feed as quickly as possible. Hell, the eldrazi could just be 4 dimensional trees and their spawn are root systems.
So the reason I mention the spawn in connection with the Phyrexians, Nicol Bolas, and Theros: The spawn are a hyper-effiecient, proven way to take down any opposition from a plane.The phyrexians not only can become a willing army for the right "god", but their ability to quickly evolve puts them miles ahead of the Eldrazi spawn.
OK, it's 1AM where I live. I look forward to your response!
Blindsight by Peter Watts. Fantastic book, genre is sci-fi.
>Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story.
Here
The results had a p<0.05 so they are statistically significant.
The study has a citation index of 90 so it's been peer-reviewed.
Related links:
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
https://thebrainbank.scienceblog.com/2015/10/10/whats-going-on-in-your-head-the-science-behind-our-inner-voice/
Peter Watts' Blindsight and *Echopraxia are among the best philosophically-oriented novels I've ever read. As long as you're comfortable with fairly hard-core science fiction, they're very worth reading. They touch on issues in everything from ethics and political philosophy to artificial intelligence and philosophy of mind. They're great fun, and very, very smartly written. Blindsight is up for free here.
There's really no contest, IMO. Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Sounds like you might enjoy reading Watts' Blindsight. It's a sci-fi novel whose plot-driver is humanity trying to decide how to interact with an extra-solar alien species, evaluate their intentions, etc., after aliens make unexpected first contact with Earth.
Currently reading, and would like to finish:
Started in 2014, put down, would like to finish in 2015:
Would like to re-read in 2015:
Would like to read in 2015:
Try Peter Watts' Blindsight. It's fairly short but an excellent read. Also the next book in the series Echopraxia just came out in october.
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X
A little offtopic, but you might find the book Blindsight, by Peter Watts, interesting. It mostly features augmented humans, and engages with their different though processes. There are also just a bunch of really interesting ideas in the book.
If you like the theme of Consciousness try 'Blindsight' by Peter Watts
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
Blindsight by Peter Watts, and its sequel Echopraxia.
Amazon one-star reviews. There you go.
But it really is a fantastic book, so give it a shot.
It is discussed in some detail in the novel Blindsight by Peter Watts (as /u/cmfg said), and also in the short story I, Row Boat by Cory Doctorow. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind at least…
What very interesting questions you ask. Fascinating, truly! If we are to take the scientific view, logic dictates that all the personalities are equal. The problem is that human societies also have instincts, emotions, and other irrational things for which logic can’t always account for.
As for myself, I tend to be a logical person. The problem is logic doesn't work very well with evolution. What I mean to say is, new things happen all the time, unknown things, unknown until the time of learning that is. Until then logic cannot account for them. Maybe multiple-personality disorders will play a part in our evolution and will be heralded as the next big adaptation to our environment in the next 100,000 years, maybe not. But one thing we do know is: We do not know. Until we figure it out we must remain open to any possibilities and tweak our behavior as needed.
I can't help but give a knowing smile at the last paragraph, because it is something most humans share. Or at least I feel we do. An irrational thought as to how we see people. Science has well thought of positions on these matters (most of the time), because of the imperatives of science. Humans on the other hand tend to be more sentimental about it. I'll try to explain how I see a person in front of me.
A person is a body, but a body is only a tool of the mind. It has tugs and pulls, no doubt about it. But with a sufficiently trained mind (and I don't know many people which do not share the capability of this affliction) one can control his/her body within reasonable limits. A person is his/her actions, feelings, and thoughts (the body never comes into view unless the relationship requires it: a touch of skin to increase bonding and feelings of warmth, etc.) So what happens when the new set of actions/feelings/thoughts intrude as a new persona? If my friend were to die in a similar fashion which you've described, I'd probably mourn my friend, and feel loss. A selfish personality interrupted the growth of another one. I would probably feel sad for my friend too if (s)he had to watch another personality do that to him/her. Alas, I think such consequences can only be dealt emotionally, because logic sees nothing wrong with an individual dying and the species continuing. The selfish gene is with all of us, and most likely everyone has their own semi-unique way in which they handle such situations.
Now, let us meld society irrationalities with logical thought. A “sufferer” of MPD will be given two options if his/her personalities have been deemed disruptive (this concept is so fucked up it sickens me sometimes). They can choose to live with it, or try to merge the personalities into the dominant one. I don’t know if the dominant one is the original, but I assume (big if) that if one can pinpoint the “original” personality they will, and consider it “original”, and the others insignificant byproducts. I put original in quotations because I have no idea how you’d make such a judgment. Also, society will react as it sees things best for it. If one of the personalities threatens to kill itself, doctors will take steps to stop this: Suicide watch. Any threat which is perceived from this entity will be dealt with in the best interest of the tribe. The word has significance because we delve deep into our survival instinct to make these decisions.
Notice how my own thought patterns change. It is no longer a single person acting under a single will. We must change our approach to that entity in a way to take account for the extra unknowns. Maybe that entity is never human the way we understand humans: Predictable from the high viewpoint but individually unpredictable. What happens when you increase the unpredictability factor? A new theory of the mind will have to be developed to account for the new psyches present in the same physical space? One second’s ally can be the next second’s enemy. How would you know? I think this might go beyond the realm of human. My own feel for it. I couldn’t bring any convincing arguments to bypass our first instinct: looks like a person, talks like a person but isn’t a single person. I must be weary of that one. Unless you’ve come to appreciate each person and there is a finite number of them.
Some of these questions are put in a sci-fi book called Blindsight. In it we had a character which had multiple personalities that were in contact with each other and had a sort of consensus as to how they shared the body. Never going beyond the metaphor of 4 distinct people having to share the same body.
I must admit, reading the above paragraphs again, it feels like I’m trying to grip something with oil on my hands. Very slippery. Sorry for the wall of text.
Favorite book? As of recently it would have to be Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a fictional book, but the author, Watts, uses the situation of fist contact to explore many ideas of philosophy of mind, such as what makes a conscious being conscious? And the impact of transhumanism upon our culture/ lifestyle.
Series: The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. I've never read a book series so fun and adventerous, with the story taking the reader along with the characters into strange twists right when you think you've begun to follow the story. It's a story about a gunslinger named Roland, and his quest to get to an ominous tower known as The Dark Tower, or simply The Tower. Along the way he has to jump universes, save small towns from mysterious robots on mechanical horses, and encounter the god of their worlds himself. It's a fun adventure series that never gets boring, and if you ask me the opening line of the first book, The Gunslinger, is the best opening line of all times: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
Estou lendo o Echopraxia, a "sidequel" do Blindsight, a ficção científica mais depressiva de todos os tempos.
Such a concept is part of the setting in the novel Blindsight. I recommend it.
The book. Not the scary cult where you jack your brain into a hedonism machine with religious overtones, having granted the institution all your worldly goods, until your body atrophies away and die. That bit I don't particularly recommend. But...to each their own, I suppose.
Glad you liked it. Echopraxia is the sequal to his book Blindsight, which is a story about aliens, vampires and post singularity humans. Because Peter Watts is a biologist and only a somewhat recent author his sci fi writings reflect that. His perspective as a biologist yields impressive insights, and surprisingly beautiful prose, often philosophical in nature yet somehow not preachy.
Starfish is also highly enjoyable if you like deep ocean stuff. Peter Watts does what great sci fi authors are capable of, they take known concepts turn them on their head and allow you to look at them from a completely new perspective.
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Gender Identity Disorder is still listed in the DSM as a mental disorder. I think there are arguments to be made both ways about whether that's more a good thing or more a bad thing (realistically it's probably some of both).
As far as I understand, it's not at all a disorder in the sense that most psychological disorders are. The issue is that the "disorder" (the dysphoria - a sense of overwhelming wrongness and badness, contrast with "euphoria") is generally caused by a mismatch between a psychological property (the individual's gender) and a set of physical properties (the individual primary and/or secondary sex characteristics) as well as a social property (how the individual is seen and treated by society at large).
So, there is a disorder in the sense that, and to the extent that, this mismatch causes a great deal of suffering in someone's life. But let's take a hypothetical person who was assigned male at birth, who has a penis and male secondary sex characteristics, but who has a female gender. Again, the psychological component of this "disorder" is the female gender - but can we really call having a female gender a mental illness? (Of course, as sexist as our culture can be, perhaps some would like to.. but that's sort of tangential.) And the difference between this "disorder" and at least the vast majority of psychological disorders is that it is, I believe, largely fixable - my understanding is that most trans folks who transition experience are much, much happier afterward; the "disorder" is pretty much solved. And it's important to note that the fix for this is a physical fix, not a mental one - from what I've seen, if you asked most trans people "Hey, if you had a magic wand that would allow you to live your life comfortably as the gender you were assigned at birth, would you use it?" the most common answer would probably be something like "No - why would I want to change who I am?".
Further factors of course include the fact that "mental disorder" is a pretty stigmatizing term, and has a set of connotations that don't really make sense for this issue, and the history of access to hormones and surgery being contingent on the diagnoses of psychologists, some of whom would (and in some places still do) dick people around if they don't hear exactly the narrative they're expecting to hear. On the other hand, I've heard concerns voiced that were it removed from the DSM, it might be harder for trans individuals to get the treatments that they needed, for insurance reasons.
(You can read more on this subject here.)
> Anyway, I was hoping maybe someone could shed a light on what exactly it means to be a "girl" or a "boy"? Is it based on likes/interests/personality/tendencies? I mean, personhood is pretty hard to define already, so how do you define a female person?
That's a tough one to get at, because I think you pretty much have to rely on people's own self-reported experiences, and nobody can get at what other people's experiences are. I can't really answer this one clearly (shit, I'm struggling with my own gender identity as it is), but I can highly recommend to you, if you're interested in reading further on the subject, the book Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. It gets into a lot of stuff about trans issues, the way our culture defines and interacts with gender, the "scapegoating of femininity" (as she puts it), etc. It's also available in Kindle form if you want to pay a little bit less or if you're worried about people asking awkward questions about what you're reading (I read it on my phone, personally, for that reason).
> Will we eventually be recognizing people with multiple personality disorder as multiple people stuck in one body in society?
I doubt it. As far as I've heard, psychology in general isn't even really sure that Dissociative Identity Disorder is a thing at all - it's sort of elusive and hard to demonstrate, and some (maybe a lot?) of people who ostensibly had it turned out to be faking it (see Wikipedia).. On the other hand, if it is a legit thing? Yeah, I think that would be a fair way to treat it. (If that's a subject that interests you, and if you're into hard, gritty sci-fi, allow me to recommend Peter Watts's excellent book Blindsight, which features among other things a character who does indeed have multiple personalities, who are pretty much distinct people.)
Já leu Gaiman? Pratchett?
Aleatórios, talvez tenha alguma coisa que te interesse:
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/
https://www.amazon.com/Ninefox-Gambit-Yoon-Ha-Lee/dp/1781084491
https://www.amazon.com/Rivers-of-London/dp/1407243160
Absolutely. And worth the price to have a durable, re-readable hardcover copy on the shelf. This book turned me on to neuropsychology.
How many SF books come with a bibliography?
I agree. That said, I highly recommend Peter Watts's book Blindsight to anyone who's interested in the subject of aliens that are more truly alien (and also people who like dark sci-fi in general, or explorations of the theme that humans are basically just really smart animals, but no less nasty for it).
Guy's background is marine biology, so he's definitely got some perspective on the "life can look and act in really bizarre ways" thing. :)
Blindsight by Peter Watts for a very gritty, and sometimes challenging, take on "First Contact", the nature of consciousness and an unusual scientific explanation for a very common horror trope. Highly recommended.
The debate lies mainly in what you consider consciousness. If you describe it as being consciously aware of your stream of thought, then you are actually not conscious throughout lots of your day (we slip into flow-like states all the time).
But there isn't much of a debate anymore about "where" consciousness is in the brain. This used to be a big deal in neuroscience, but we've learned it's not really how consciousness probably comes about, because even centers of the brain that are integral to who your are, your memories, your personality--even if those are shut down selectively, you are still going to be conscious, even if just altered, unable to recall certain things, or having a vastly different personality.
Here is a Ted Talk Dan Dennett gives about it. Dennett is a much more science-based philosopher, and his take on this isn't super controversial any more I don't think (speaking strictly about consciousness as an emergent property--his whole "free will" stuff I think is totally up for debate and depends on interpretation). I have heard Dr. Steve Novella (Skeptics Guide to the Universe host, practicing neuroscientist, and president of the New England Skeptical Society) say pretty much verbatim the things Dan Dennett says about our modern understanding of what consciousness is and isn't.
Fascinating stuff. If you're into hard sci-fi, I recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts, a first-contact story that really gets to the bones of what is and isn't consciousness. A weird, fascinating sci-fi story that will change the way you think about consciousness forever, probably.
I would highly recommend a book I'm currently reading, Echopraxia
Even though it's 2nd in a series to another (equally great) book of Peter Watts' called BlindSight
some of the best Hard Science Fiction in recent decades, IMHO..
and it goes into precisely those speculations that stimulated your post.
If you like SciFi, do yourself a favor and pick it up right now..
If you're not that into SciFi, this might just get you into it more.
Recently I read Blindsight by Peter Watts. This is some worldview-changing stuff. No cheap tropes or cliches in it. Also, I really did like Arrival based on a Ted Chiang story not to mention the all around super-hit Stranger Things (it is a mash-up of cliches, but it's done so tastefully).
SF horror is an important subgenre because it's been the source of so many movies. Hollywood loves science fiction with horror elements. Hell, look at VanderMeer's Annihilation.
One of the best SF horror novels is Peter Watts' Blindsight; terrific fun. Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo, I think you could include Legacy of Heorot by Niven, a lot of Stephen King's novels are SF horror, such as Tommyknockers and Dreamcatcher. Dan Simmon's Carrion Comfort is horror, but it has strong SF elements, etc.
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http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Runners-Handbook-13-Week-Walk-Run/dp/1553650875/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1298575384&amp;sr=8-1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574581891694514228.html
http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Foods-Adventure/dp/1423601505
http://www.amazon.com/Shoppers-Guide-Organic-Food/dp/1857028406/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1308213453&amp;sr=1-16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_writing
http://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/#fast-food-nation-by-eric-schlosser
http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1258348123&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-apnea/continuous-positive-airway-pressure-cpap-for-obstructive-sleep-apnea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye
http://www.amazon.com/Catch-22-Joseph-Heller/dp/0684833395
http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-2nd-Mark-Rippetoe/dp/0976805421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1253993543&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Aero-Speed-Hyperformance-Jump-Rope/dp/B00017XHO8
http://www.invisibleshoe.com/#ecwid:category=135066&amp;mode=product&amp;product=278983
http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe621670756c0575741d&amp;m=fe7215707561047d7315&amp;ls=fde817797d6d037977177974&amp;l=fe9215717260007a70&amp;s=fe2d13707d600478751c72&amp;jb=ffcf14&amp;ju=fe2e167375640d75711576&amp;r=0
http://www.amazon.com/Element-Surprise-Navy-Seals-Vietnam/dp/0804105812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1304634342&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Survivor-Eyewitness-Account-Operation/dp/0316067598
http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Bell-Butterfly-Memoir-Death/dp/0375701214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1312848167&amp;sr=8-1
Political
Iraq Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Tawhid_Wal-Jihad
http://www.ontheissues.org/Drugs.htm#Barack_Obama
Congress Related
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_1.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/
http://www.issuedictionary.com/Barack_Obama.cgi
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r110:75:./temp/~r110y7HfAa::
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists
/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237
http://allafrica.com/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/??
Health & Exercise
Green Tea
http://www.teatrekker.com/store/tea/green/green+-+japan.php
http://www.o-cha.com/brew.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2080066_steep-loose-leaf-tea.html
http://cooksshophere.com/products/tea/green_tea.htm
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&amp;dbid=146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tea
http://blackdragonteabar.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
http://blackdragonteabar.blogspot.com/
https://www.itoen.com/leaf/index.cfm
http://www.maiko.ne.jp/english/
http://www.mellowmonk.com/buyGreenTea.htm
http://www.o-cha.com/home.php
http://www.denstea.com/
http://www.theteaavenue.com/chgrtea.html
http://www.teafrog.com/teas/finum-tea-brewing-basket.html
Definitely "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It's about as hard as sci-fi can get, but it's one of those rare books that can completely blow your mind. It's a First Contact story with a really fascinating take on the evolution of consciousness, with profound implications for human cognition. Watts just released a sequel, "Echopraxia," which is equally great.
If you read hard scifi at all I HIGHLY recommend Peter Watt's Blindsight.
It dives deep into ideas of self identity and consciousness and would be very topical to your post. Can't recommend it enough if you enjoy the genre.
Book:
Blindsight + Echopraxia by Peter Watts!
Deep, dark, Sci-fi. The only two books that I've ever read more than once in a year. (Re-reading the two for a 4th time currently).
Snippet from amazon:
>^^Send ^^a ^^linguist ^^with ^^multiple-personality ^^disorder ^^and ^^a ^^biologist ^^so ^^spliced ^^with ^^machinery ^^that ^^he ^^can't ^^feel ^^his ^^own ^^flesh. ^^Send ^^a ^^pacifist ^^warrior ^^and ^^a ^^vampire ^^recalled ^^from ^^the ^^grave ^^by ^^the ^^voodoo ^^of ^^paleogenetics. ^^Send ^^a ^^man ^^with ^^half ^^his ^^mind ^^gone ^^since ^^childhood. ^^Send ^^them ^^to ^^the ^^edge ^^of ^^the ^^solar ^^system, ^^praying ^^you ^^can ^^trust ^^such ^^freaks ^^and ^^monsters ^^with ^^the ^^fate ^^of ^^a ^^world. ^^You ^^fear ^^they ^^may ^^be ^^more ^^alien ^^than ^^the ^^thing ^^they've ^^been ^^sent ^^to ^^find―but ^^you'd ^^give ^^anything ^^for ^^that ^^to ^^be ^^true, ^^if ^^you ^^knew ^^what ^^was ^^waiting ^^for ^^them. ^^. ^^. ^^.
They contain tons of memorable (and quotable) quotes, such as:
>^“Not ^even ^the ^most ^heavily-armed ^police ^state ^can ^exert ^brute ^force ^to ^all ^of ^its ^citizens ^all ^of ^the ^time. ^Meme ^management ^is ^so ^much ^subtler; ^the ^rose-tinted ^refraction ^of ^perceived ^reality, ^the ^contagious ^fear ^of ^threatening ^alternatives.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Blindsight
or...
>^“Fifty ^thousand ^years ^ago ^there ^were ^these ^three ^guys ^spread ^out ^across ^the ^plain ^and ^they ^each ^heard ^something ^rustling ^in ^the ^grass. ^The ^first ^one ^thought ^it ^was ^a ^tiger, ^and ^he ^ran ^like ^hell, ^and ^it ^was ^a ^tiger ^but ^the ^guy ^got ^away. ^The ^second ^one ^thought ^the ^rustling ^was ^a ^tiger ^and ^he ^ran ^like ^hell, ^but ^it ^was ^only ^the ^wind ^and ^his ^friends ^all ^laughed ^at ^him ^for ^being ^such ^a ^chickenshit. ^But ^the ^third ^guy ^thought ^it ^was ^only ^the ^wind, ^so ^he ^shrugged ^it ^off ^and ^the ^tiger ^had ^him ^for ^dinner. ^And ^the ^same ^thing ^happened ^a ^million ^times ^across ^ten ^thousand ^generations ^- ^and ^after ^a ^while ^everyone ^was ^seeing ^tigers ^in ^the ^grass ^even ^when ^there ^were`t ^any ^tigers, ^because ^even ^chickenshits ^have ^more ^kids ^than ^corpses ^do. ^And ^from ^those ^humble ^beginnings ^we ^learn ^to ^see ^faces ^in ^the ^clouds ^and ^portents ^in ^the ^stars, ^to ^see ^agency ^in ^randomness, ^because ^natural ^selection ^favours ^the ^paranoid. ^Even ^here ^in ^the ^21st ^century ^we ^can ^make ^people ^more ^honest ^just ^by ^scribbling ^a ^pair ^of ^eyes ^on ^the ^wall ^with ^a ^Sharpie. ^Even ^now ^we ^are ^wired ^to ^believe ^that ^unseen ^things ^are ^watching ^us.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Echopraxia
Or perhaps one that might resonate with many INTPs...
>^“I ^really ^wanted ^to ^talk ^to ^her.
^I ^just ^couldn't ^find ^an ^algorithm ^that ^fit.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Blindsight
In fact... Here is a repository of some fun Watts quotes. I have this page bookmarked since I read it so often. If any of these appeal to you, read the books! Blindsight is even free on his website.
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Anime:
Shinsekai Yori (From the new world)
The link has a nice description, but the entry into this universe was a strange one for me. It starts as so calm and Utopian, but everyone has cool powers (which is based on science so advanced that it appears as magic)! More is revealed about the world, interesting details and insights, but eventually something dark is slowly realized. My favorite anime series of all time - With art design as beautiful as any Miyazaki film and a storyline as fascinating as a science fiction novel, I would recommend this to anyone.
_
Music:
Dryft - No vocals, but rich stories. Complex but ambient, like relaxing by a waterfall on an artificial habitat in outer space as you watch the stars through the dome above you.
These are favorites of mine that I don't expect will make it on other lists:
The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Blindsight by Peter Watts
The 1st Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Culture Saga by Iain M. Banks
The Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard K. Morgan
Another very good book addressing this topic is Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Check out Blindsight by Peter Watts—it's very much in this vein of "spacetravel to a new planet" but (1) it's hard SF, which can turn some people off, and (2) the writing is a bit strange. Not bad, though—I honestly find the writing to be impeccable, but I feel like it could be off-putting to people who are more used to traditional writing styles.