About the prospects of a fight against a superintelligence:
Still, I could tell that Bates’ presence was a comfort, to the Human members of the crew at least. If you have to go up unarmed against an angry T-rex with a four-digit IQ, it can’t hurt to have a trained combat specialist at your side.
At the very least, she might be able to fashion a pointy stick from the branch of some convenient tree.
Great book, it’s freely available here, in plain html.
Can you recommend similar novels?
It’s risky, getting involved. Too many confounds. Every tool in the shed goes dull and rusty the moment you get entangled with the system you’re observing. Still serviceable in a pinch, though.
Unfortunately, I can’t: this kind of (strangely refreshing) cynicism is, in my limited experience, unique to Peter Watts, and the use of interesting “starfish aliens” seems to be quite rare.
There are, however, other short stories (not novels) of Peter Watts that have a somewhat similar mood , such as Ambassador, but you probably are already aware of them.
Quote from Peter Watts’ Blindsight.
About the prospects of a fight against a superintelligence:
Great book, it’s freely available here, in plain html.
Can you recommend similar novels?
Unfortunately, I can’t: this kind of (strangely refreshing) cynicism is, in my limited experience, unique to Peter Watts, and the use of interesting “starfish aliens” seems to be quite rare.
There are, however, other short stories (not novels) of Peter Watts that have a somewhat similar mood , such as Ambassador, but you probably are already aware of them.
How about R. Scott Bakker’s Disciple of the Dog and Neuropath? YMMV on his Second Apocalypse books.
I thought this book was really good up until the ending, which was beyond predictable—yet I had the impression it was meant to be quite the surprise.