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The big question of this whole book seems to be whether sentience (or maybe more properly, metacognition) is an essential element of intelligence or merely an evolutionary quirk.

An interesting question. And certainly I'll cut the author some slack on just how strange the aliens are in the end ( (view spoiler)[ or, more accurately, how the aliens we meet are nothing more than problem solving neurons in a larger mind with no unifying directive beyond survival (hide spoiler)] ) because this concept is so different from our human mode of thought.

But as interesting as the question is, I don't like how it is finally exposed to readers. There's such a build up of technical data, but the understanding does not come in any gradual unfolding of understanding or sudden moment of shock. To my reading, the answer comes (view spoiler)[ in a long, drawn out passage of exposition where we are given paragraph after paragraph of ranting about the inefficiency of metacognition, provided by the vampire (or computer, depending on your interpretation of that particular link)... but why should Sarasti be so opposed to human modes of thought? He is also self-aware, just evolved as a hunter of other self-aware creatures. You might even say he is more self-aware, given his ability to hold multiple viewpoints in the same moment). (hide spoiler)]

All a very long way to say that this Friday's xkcd seems quite relevant to the main question of Blindsight:

I'd never heard the idea of backwards evolution before, would that be devolution, haha. Ayway, I thought he was trying to say that mammals discard capabilities they no longer need, and that sentience had simply not proven useful to come out on top. Know yourself? Meh, why bother? What good does it do?

I think, therefore I'm troubled.

I think one of the unanswered questions is whether humans are actually sentient, or just highly invested in simulating it. Consider that the novel is related to us entirely through Siri, who is himself in a state of indeterminacy between sentience and non-sentience. He assumes that he's sentient, but others accuse him of being a very good Chinese Room.

Watts seems to come down against sentience being emergent of intelligence.

aldenoneil wrote: "I think, therefore I'm troubled."

I'm pink, therefore I'm spam.

Basil wrote: ""

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