Blindsight book club questions

1. 1.

   Watts's central argument is that consciousness might be an evolutionary liability rather than an advantage. Does the novel persuade you, or does it feel like motivated nihilism?

2. 2.

   Siri describes himself as a 'Chinese Room' — processing language and behavior without genuine understanding. Does the novel ultimately agree with him, or is it showing us that he's wrong about himself?

3. 3.

   The vampires are cold, brilliant, and predatory. Does Sarasti read as a character to you, or as a philosophical thought experiment wearing a character's shape?

4. 4.

   The crew members have all modified or fractured their humanity in different ways. Is the novel suggesting this is the next step, or a cautionary catalogue of what's lost?

5. 5.

   Rorschach — the alien structure — resists interpretation throughout. How did you read the aliens' behavior by the end? Hostile? Indifferent? Something else?

6. 6.

   Watts argues the aliens may have intelligence without consciousness. Does that distinction matter to you morally? Would it change how you'd treat them?

7. 7.

   The retrospective narration means we know Siri survives but don't know what he understood. Did you trust him as a narrator? At what point did his reliability start to feel uncertain?

8. 8.

   The novel is heavily footnoted with real science. Did that apparatus make the philosophical claims more or less unsettling — does grounding in reality help or does it just make it worse?

9. 9.

   Compared to a first-contact story like Contact by Carl Sagan, where does Blindsight land harder — and what does the difference say about how each author thinks about intelligence?

10. 10.

    By the end, do you think the crew's mission was a success, a failure, or simply the wrong question?

11. 11.

    If consciousness is indeed an epiphenomenon — if your sense of making decisions is an after-the-fact story your brain tells — does that change how you think about responsibility or choice?

12. 12.

    Watts has said the novel is a horror story about what we might find out about ourselves. Did it read as horror to you, or as something else?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.