Peter Watts

Blindsight, the 2006 hard science fiction novel by Peter Watts, is being discussed again online. The book, about a crew of altered humans investigating an alien presence after Earth is briefly probed by thousands of transient objects, is widely praised for its hard-SF rigor and its ideas about consciousness, intelligence and what awareness actually costs. Commenters frequently note it as one of the most intellectually demanding first-contact stories in modern science fiction.