Creators on Reddit

Peter Watts

Science fiction author, Blindsight

How we know it's theirs

Their 2014 r/IAmA AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 5 posts and 312 comments from u/The-Squidnapper, dated 2014 to 2026, most often in r/books, r/IAmA and r/SF_Book_Club.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “IamA Science Fiction Author named Peter Watts. I am not any of those other Peter Wattses. AMA, within reason.”

Hi Dr. Watts -- big fan! I was the one who put together this in-depth guide to your work the other day for anybody unfamiliar -- thanks for dropping by in the comments! I was curious about the names you chose in Blindsight -- they seem split between the fairly ordinary (Susan…

u/The-Squidnapper replied

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And Jukka was the name of a friend of my first known overseas fan, in Finland; I was looking for a name with overtones of icy albino psychopathy, so who better than the Finns? (Actually, the Norwegians-- but I didn't have any Norwegian connections back then.) Little did I know that every third male in that blasted country is named "Jukka". When I did my book signings, I ran into so many Jukkas in the first five minutes that I thought either a) the whole damn con was yanking my chain, or b) Blindsight had been so influential that half the male population had had their names legally changed.

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More moments

A redditor posted in r/scifiwriting

How do I stop from having Peter Watts living rent free in my head?

You know it's a weird question... but let's here me. Most people here probably knows Blindsight, which is a pretty good though provoking book that asks us if human consciousness is a liability. I also love the idea of neural augmentations and the alterations of perception in…

u/The-Squidnapper replied

Please, please do not be discouraged. At least, not by me. I am actually quite cuddly in person. Listen to everyone else here. I officially approve their content.

That said, if you don't like me living rent-free in your head, you could always pay me to leave...

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A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “IamA Science Fiction Author named Peter Watts. I am not any of those other Peter Wattses. AMA, within reason.”

Do you have mapped out in your head some of the mysteries left in your books or do you leave them as mysteries for yourself as well, prefering to focus on what you decided was going to be the scope of story? In mysteries I'm thinking of things like spoilers for Blindsight what…

u/The-Squidnapper replied

My original draft of Starfish ended with Lenie crawling up on the shores of North America and dying, so I obviously had no future plans for her until my editor insisted that such an ending was insufficiently triumphal for American audiences and she would have to live.

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