“There was a model of the world, and we didn’t look outward at all; our conscious selves saw only the simulation in our heads, an interpretation of reality, endlessly refreshed by input from the senses.” (193)
Reading through the density of Blindsight and having to pick a single most important sentence out the novel I first thought was going to be indeed a very difficult task. Yet instead of trying to capture an all-encompassing sentence that summarized the essence of the novel, I decided to hone in on a specific theme of the novel: that is, the loss of what is real and the element of humanity. I think that this sentence reflects on this overlying theme. In the novel what is known to be real, what is normal, are humans whose brains are genetically modified. Thus when looking at this sentence we can see the narrator’s perspective on the perception of reality. It doesn’t come from the outside, but rather from the self. And thus when these genetically modified humans view reality they see it only as their inward selves are programmed to see it, not necessarily as what is true “baseline” reality. As Watts says it is only a mere “interpretation,” a “simulation,” as depicted by their own inward minds. This stood out as one of the most important and reflective sentences in the novel.
