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Blindsight (science fiction novel)

Blindsight
Blindsight (book cover).jpg
Author Peter Watts
Cover artist Thomas Pringle
Country Canada
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Tor Books
Publication date
3 October 2006
Media type Print (hardback)
Pages 384 pp
ISBN
OCLC 64289149
813/.622
LC Class PR9199.3.W386 B58 2006
Followed by Echopraxia

Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. It garnered nominations for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and a Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The novel follows a crew of astronauts sent out as the third wave, following two series of probes, to investigate a trans-Neptunian Kuiper belt comet dubbed 'Burns-Caulfield' that has been found to be transmitting an unidentified radio signal to an as-yet unknown destination elsewhere in the solar system, followed by their subsequent first contact. The novel explores questions of identity, consciousness, free will, artificial intelligence, neurology, game theory as well as evolution and biology. Blindsight is available online under a Creative Commons license. Its sequel Echopraxia came out in 2014.

In the year 2082, thousands of large, coordinated objects of an unknown origin, dubbed "Fireflies", burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in a precise grid, while momentarily broadcasting across an immense portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, catching humanity off guard and alerting it to an undeniable extraterrestrial presence. It is suspected that the entire planet has been surveyed in one effective sweep. Despite the magnitude of this 'Firefall', human politics soon return to normal.


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