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The villain Achilles Desjardins (I don't think he shows up in Starfish? been some time since I read it) is possibly one of the most villainous and sociopath characters I've ever read in a book.
The whole Rifters trilogy (quadrilogy?) is amazing, Starfish is actually my least favourite of the Rifters' books but still really good. The villain Achilles Desjardins (I don't think he shows up in Starfish? been some time since I read it) is possibly one of the most villainous and sociopath characters I've ever read in a book.
Read for free on his webite: https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterWatts_TheIsland.pdf
Or collected in The Freeze-Frame Revolution here: https://www.amazon.com/Freeze-Frame-Revolution-Peter-Watts-e...
I should read his long form stuff, I don't do anywhere near enough long form reading these days. I read "Malak" in Engineering Infinity years ago and it's very good indeed.
No one has ever made me feel horror and despair like Peter Watts. His books stare directly into the abyss. I think it's what makes the hope you feel at the end seem earned. If you haven't read his work but you spend time thinking about HCI, you should.
I see people differently after reading Blindsight; The picture is much darker , concretely more accurate, with what light is there geared to all hell and so much brighter. I'm better for it and at a greater peace.
I need to give this a re-read. I really enjoyed my Blindsight re-read recently. But Starfish and Maelstrom after it are such uhh, not to pun to hard but, such high pressure intense sci-fi stories. Amazing ambiance, creeping horror, in such incredible backdrops. Watts just kept going with his universe. It was and is so good. Such an incredible reflection of the world at the time of writing, and I've found it's lost so…
Recently finished the Starfish quadrilogy and adored it as well. One thing I particularly like is how this theme of evolutionary pressure applies to everyone alike; characters, software, ideologies, neural nets. Also Watts manages to conjure this feeling of future shock I've only previously felt with Charles Stross' work.
(Sue Burke's Semiosis trilogy is worth a read, too, in a similar evolutionary SF vein.)
No one has ever made me feel horror and despair like Peter Watts. His books stare directly into the abyss. I think it's what makes the hope you feel at the end seem earned. If you haven't read his work but you spend time thinking about HCI, you should.
I see people differently after reading Blindsight; The picture is much darker , concretely more accurate, with what light is there geared to all hell and so much brighter. I'm better for it and at a greater peace.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see people differently after reading Blindsight; The picture is much darker , concretely more accurate, with what light is there geared to all hell and so much brighter. I'm better for it and at a greater peace.
Eh, I love blindsight, but I really think it oversold the case against consciousness and for belligerent intelligent life.
I'd say the case it was making has only become more relevant with the chatbot age.