“Brains are survival engines, not truth detectors. If self-deception promotes fitness, the brain lies. Stops noticing— irrelevant things. Truth never matters. Only fitness. By now you don’t experience the world as it exists at all. You experience a simulation built from assumptions. Shortcuts. Lies. Whole species is agnosiac by default.”
~Blindsight
BTW, I’ll not read better poetry than you post this day!
You’ve activated my trap card! Read the book 14 times or so, and it’s not a long read. Finally feel I’ve caught most of the thing. Caveat: I’m not that bright.
Here’s another taste to whet your appetite:
“I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old tradition— the severed genitalia of another species, offered as a pre-copulatory bribe—and then I recited my story just as we were about to fuck. To this day, I still don’t know what went wrong.”
(The character quoted had half his brain dug out as a child, some sort of viral epilepsy, replaced with some sort of electronics. He’s basically hyper-autistic. He’s also the unreliable narrator.)
Blindsight is hard science fiction. The spaceship captain is a vampire, an obligate carnivore from the Pleistocene era, our ancient enemy. Yes, it works.
“Brains are survival engines, not truth detectors. If self-deception promotes fitness, the brain lies. Stops noticing— irrelevant things. Truth never matters. Only fitness. By now you don’t experience the world as it exists at all. You experience a simulation built from assumptions. Shortcuts. Lies. Whole species is agnosiac by default.”
~Blindsight
BTW, I’ll not read better poetry than you post this day!
I’ve not read blindsight, now I feel I need to!
Thanks for the quote ^_^
You’ve activated my trap card! Read the book 14 times or so, and it’s not a long read. Finally feel I’ve caught most of the thing. Caveat: I’m not that bright.
Here’s another taste to whet your appetite:
“I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old tradition— the severed genitalia of another species, offered as a pre-copulatory bribe—and then I recited my story just as we were about to fuck. To this day, I still don’t know what went wrong.”
(The character quoted had half his brain dug out as a child, some sort of viral epilepsy, replaced with some sort of electronics. He’s basically hyper-autistic. He’s also the unreliable narrator.)
Blindsight is hard science fiction. The spaceship captain is a vampire, an obligate carnivore from the Pleistocene era, our ancient enemy. Yes, it works.