Blindsight is a gorgeous animated short by Danil Krivoruchko that teases the possibility of a film adaptation of the 2006 Peter Watts book.

Peter himself gives the backstory:

Image: YouTube / Danil Krivoruchko

Blue writes, "Peter Watts has be stricken with debilitating pain, loss of range of motion and motor control. Watts' doctors remain baffled despite a battery of tests, and Watts has reached out to his fans to ask for their theories and ideas as to what might be causing his illness."

Science fiction writer and biologist Peter Watts gave a spectacular talk to the Symposium of the International Association of Privacy Professional, called The Scorched Earth Society: A Suicide Bomber's Guide to Online Privacy (PDF); Watts draws on his two disciplines to produce a stirring, darkly comic picture of the psychological toll of the surveillance society. — Read the rest

Tony Smith from the StarShipSofa podcast sez, "Just a final reminder… SofaCON is this Sunday and there's time to snag yourself a ticket to the online science fiction convention of 2013 . Guests include Peter Watts, Amy H Sturgis, Lois McMaster Bujold and Greg Frost." — Read the rest

Tony Smith sez,

Hugo Award winning science fiction podcast StarShipSofa presents SofaCON: An Online International Science Fiction Convention

Guest include Peter Watts as GoH, plus Special Guest Lois McMaster Bujold and many more Ted Kosmatka, Grey Frost. Join the crew of the Hugo Award winning StarShipSofa, their special guests, and friends from all over the world as a new tradition begins: SofaCON, An Online International Science Fiction Convention.

Jordan sez, "Tuesday, February 26 @ 1pm PST/4pm EST/9pm GMT: Peter Watts, who has been mentioned repeatedly on BoingBoing (beaten and arrested at US border, survived flesh-eating bacteria, etc.!) will be answering questions about writing sf for an online Star Trek role-playing group."

Tony from the StarShipSofa podcast sez, "This week on StarShipSofa we play the short story Malak, by science fiction writer Peter Watts. Malak was originally published in the anthology Engineering Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan and views the world of a semi-autonomous combat drone called Azrael and throws in some very powerful ethical questions. — Read the rest

Tony Smith sez, "Why Science Fiction is Too Important To Be Left to the Scientists will be a talk given by scientist and science fiction writer Peter Watts for a online writers workshop held in March by StarShipSofa. Other guests include Ann VanderMeer and Nancy Kress. — Read the rest

Science fiction writer Peter Watts can't catch a break. After being brutally beaten without provocation by US customs guards last year and then charged with a felony, he's now contracted "flesh-eating bacteria" (that is, necrotising fasciitis) in his leg after a routine skin biopsy in a Toronto hospital. — Read the rest

Kathryn sez,

Last year Canadian marine biologist and science fiction writer Dr Peter Watts underwent a terrifying ordeal at the hands of overzealous border crossing guards in Port Huron, USA. While leaving the United States on December 8, 2009, he was subject to an exit search, then beaten, maced and arrested when he tried to find out what was going on.

Tony from the StarShipSofa podcast sez, "Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer talks openly to Sofanauts host Tony C. Smith about his arrest by US border guards, being maced, imprisoned, punched in the face and his feelings towards the people that did this. — Read the rest

Madeline Ashby, Dr Peter Watt's friend (and mine) has written a beautiful piece on Tor.com about Peter's sentencing hearing: "This is a love story. This is the story of one man who had no idea how many people were in his corner. — Read the rest

The absurd and awful saga of sf writer Dr Peter Watts's adventures with the US border are finally at a close, and the news is moderately good. For those of you who missed it the first time around: Peter is a Canadian marine biologist and sf writer. — Read the rest

Canadian author Peter Watts was convicted of disobeying a border guard, but the Port Huron Times-Herald also claims he was convicted of assault. The story–already much-cited on the internet–is wrong on that point and some others. But the web self-corrects at light speed: one of the jurors who convicted him is apparently in the comment thread at the misleading story, debunking it. — Read the rest

I've spent the last day in a funk at the news that my friend, Canadian sf writer Peter Watts was convicted of obstruction for getting out of his car at a US Border crossing and asking what was going on, then not complying fast enough when he was told to get back in the car. — Read the rest

Early terse reports are that the jury has returned a guilty verdict for Dr Peter Watts, a science fiction writer who was beaten at the US-Canada border when he got out of his car to ask why it was being searched, then charged with assault. — Read the rest

My friend, the wonderful sf writer Peter Watts was beaten without provocation and arrested by US border guards on Tuesday. I heard about it early Wednesday morning in London and called Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. — Read the rest

Peter Watts is the wildly imaginative dystopian science fiction writer whose novels Starfish, Maelstrom, and Behemoth B-Max/Behemoth Seppuku track the progress of a work-gang of sociopaths who are relegated to a geothermal work-station on the ocean's floor, their bodies and minds heavily modified to survive the intese pressures
(see my post about Maelstrom for more). — Read the rest

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my May, 2018 Locus column, "The Engagement-Maximization Presidency," where I propose a theory to explain the political phenomenon of Donald Trump: we live in a world in which communications platforms amplify anything that gets "engagement" and provides feedback on just how much your message has been amplified so you can tune and re-tune for maximum amplification.

Locus Magazine has published its annual Locus Award finalists, a shortlist of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past calendar year. I rely on this list to find the books I've overlooked (so. many. books.). This year's looks like a bumper crop.