Recently I read a scifi book by Peter Watts called Hindsight. It's "first contact" story: humans having their first encounter with an alien civilization. These aliens are highly intelligent but not "sentient" in the sense of seeing themselves as "I." This lack of self-awareness gives the aliens a great advantage over humans, who worry about getting killed and other such trivial matters. The idea is that sentience is maladaptive; we think we're the best, but we're like the dodo bird on an island with no predators. An interesting book. Here's Peter Watts's website.
Recently I read a scifi book by Peter Watts called Hindsight. It's "first contact" story: humans having their first encounter with an alien civilization. These aliens are highly intelligent but not "sentient" in the sense of seeing themselves as "I." This lack of self-awareness gives the aliens a great advantage over humans, who worry about getting killed and other such trivial matters. The idea is that sentience is maladaptive; we think we're the best, but we're like the dodo bird on an island with no predators. An interesting book. Here's Peter Watts's website.
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