Questioning Consciousness: Review of Peter Watts’ Fold Catastrophes

Allison Pottern Under Review:Fold Catastrophes. Peter Watts. Tachyon, September 2026. A friend recently invited me to join a reading and discussion group on the nature of consciousness. As a science fiction author and reader, it feels especially relevant to have a deeper understanding of the implications of consciousness and intelligence. With large-language models and AI generation engines creating believable simulacra of people, stories, and conversations, it seems just a short step to creating a believable form of life.How fortunate to have finished reading Peter Watts’ newest short story collection Fold Catastrophes just as I was beginning to dig into philosophical definitions of consciousness. Watts contends with the mind-body problem on every page, whether it’s a vast collection of humans hooked together to generate a god-like consciousness in “Twenty-One Second God” or soldiers recruited from the nearly-dead to ride backseat while their non-conscious self goes to battle in…