# Blindsight ## Overview - Work_type:: hard-SF first-contact novel - Setting:: Late-21st / early-22nd century Solar System plus an interstellar mission - Scale:: Interstellar scouting mission with deep-time implications ## Trans-human form - Transhuman_type:: bio-enhanced - Mechanism:: Surgical and genetic modification, including radically different cognitive architectures and resurrected predator lineages - Degree_of_change:: Very high; some entities barely resemble baseline humans psychologically ## Survival logic - Survival_strategy:: Redesign cognition for efficiency and threat-detection rather than human-style self-awareness - Key_technologies:: Neural augmentation, specialized sensory suites, extreme biotech - Main_constraints_addressed:: Cognitive limits, signal interpretation in alien contexts, mission robustness ## View on baseline humanity - View_on_baseline:: replacement - Attitude:: Baseline consciousness may be a maladaptive side-effect; more efficient non-conscious minds might outcompete us - Identity_question:: Strongly questions whether post-human survivors would share any recognizably human inner life ## Notes - Themes:: Consciousness vs. intelligence, evolution of mind under selection - Open_questions:: Is human-style subjectivity an evolutionary dead end for space survival? - Links:: [[Trans-human Space Survival Schema]]