'Blindsight' by Peter Watts - Life is too short for chess

Корабль Theseus со специально отобранными людьми для первого контакта. Н̶Ё̶Х̶ Роршах - потенциальная китайская комната - структура размером с город, которая училась языку только по разговорам между кораблями и случайно пойманным передачам с Земли после дней демонстрации того, что она осознает в лучшем случае только синтаксис английского, внезапно говорит: “I see what you’re up to now, you cocksuckers. Do you think we’re fucking blind down here?” [...] “Oh, right,” Rorschach said suddenly. “We get it now. You don’t think there’s anyone here, do you? You’ve got some high-priced consultant telling you there’s nothing to worry about.” [...] “You think we’re nothing but a Chinese Room,” Rorschach sneered.

[Probe] stumbled towards collision, grasping for something to hang on to.

“Your mistake, Theseus.”

It hit something. It stuck.

And suddenly Rorschach snapped into view — no refractory composites, no profiles or simulations in false color. There it was at last, naked even to Human eyes. 

Imagine a crown of thorns, twisted, dark and unreflective, grown too thickly tangled to ever rest on any human head. Put it in orbit around a failed star whose own reflected half-light does little more than throw its satellites into silhouette. Occasional bloody highlights glinted like dim embers from its twists and crannies; they only emphasized the darkness everywhere else.

Imagine an artefact that embodies the very notion of torture, something so wrenched and disfigured that even across uncounted lightyears and unimaginable differences in biology and outlook, you can’t help but feel that somehow, the structure itself is in pain.

Now make it the size of a city.

[...] “Now it’s too late,” something said from deep inside. “Now every last one of you is dead. And Susan? You there, Susan?

We’re taking you first.”