8.7 KiB
[RT] SCP ●●|●●●●●|●●|●
-
Author: u/blazinghand Chaos Undivided*
-
Score: 27
-
Created: 2015-11-29T20:00:14
Post:
Comments:
u/blazinghand [+9] Chaos Undivided (4 minutes later)
This reminded me of qntm's antimemetics entries. It has physical form, but could be classified as antimemetic nonetheless. Very cool! I feel nervous just writing about it.
The rationalists in this story, of course, are the authors who carefully found a way to document and warn about this uncontained SCP without killing themselves.
u/Transfuturist [+6] Carthago delenda est. (28 minutes later)
It has physical form, but could be classified as antimemetic nonetheless
Memes can be held in artifacts as well as minds.
u/None [+4] (an hour later)
[deleted]
u/Geminii27 [+7] (4 hours later)
It's possible it reacts to a sentient mind's processing of visual information, and that processing of self-contained graphics (one graphic image per concept) is different from processing of text (where a series of non-overlapping images/letters in a very particular order make up the concept).
That being the case, presumably languages with 'letters' originally derived from images, such as characters in a number of Asian languages and things like hieroglyphics, would produce the same results as English, as they require a number of characters next to each other to form a sequence associated with a concept not implicit in the individual characters.
However, communication systems such as cave paintings should be able to describe ●●|●●●●●|●●|● without evoking it.
u/mycroftxxx42 [+4] (16 hours later)
It's worth noting that minds can be considered fundamental in the SCP-verse. Coincidentally, this from the point of view of another piece of Yudkowski fanfic:
Anyway, Maria, the logic of the events you're describing is one where consciousness has effects that take precedence over the laws of physics - where lower levels of organization give way to higher levels of organization. There are universes where the visible rules are simple, mathematical, and fundamental, and everything that happens, happens within them. And there are universes where the visible rules are complicated and have explicit special cases for surface phenomena - and usually some of the visible rules are about mental phenomena, and don't visibly reduce to rules about non-mental parts. We call the former sort of universe 'natural', and the latter sort 'magical'.
The SCP-verse definitely qualifies as magical. (referencing Yudkowski to explain everything seems reasonable, considering that I think this is one of the pieces that he will neither confirm nor deny)
u/Revisional_Sin [+5] (13 minutes later)
Very cool.
What does X(0123) O(45) mean? (Just below the do not write on paper, on a computer or talk)
u/alexanderwales [+13] Time flies like an arrow (17 minutes later)
That's clearance level for the document. Security clearance 0-3 are not allowed to look at the document, while clearance level 4 and 5 (or O5) are. See here for more on SCP security clearance levels.
u/blazinghand [+15] Chaos Undivided (29 minutes later)
Yeah this is actually kinda a bad introduction to SCP Wiki since this article requires you be pretty familiar with an SCP entry, now that I think about it. SCP-140 may be a better introduction, or SCP-2602, which used to be a library.
u/None [+7] (2 hours later)
[deleted]
u/blazinghand [+7] Chaos Undivided (2 hours later)
I mostly just follow links and look at random SCPs. A couple favorites:
u/Transfuturist [+4] Carthago delenda est. (39 minutes later)
Why would ●●|●●●●●|●●|● take the human that was speaking about it and not the human that was writing about it?
u/blazinghand [+14] Chaos Undivided (48 minutes later)
It might not be able to distinguish humans from pencils/papers. It probably just understands the words, and things that generate them proximally.
●●|●●●●●|●●|● looks like it basically takes anything that it understands as knowing about it, or containing information about it. When a human speaks, it seizes the human, but when a human writes, maybe it recognizes the pencil and paper as the "speaker" and doesn't make the connection that the human is involved somehow. This is in the same sense that it doesn't seize the sound system that said to the human, "start writing"-- this kind of stuff is not comprehensible to it.
u/JackStargazer [+6] Primordial Apologist (53 minutes later)
It seems to basically be Candlejack.
u/Transfuturist [+6] Carthago delenda est. (an hour later)
Oh my god, it is Candlej
u/ZeroNihilist [+9] (3 hours later)
Good guy Candlejack, presses "save" aft
u/None [+2] (23 hours later)
The paper displays the information. The paper is taken.
The human displays the information. The human is taken.
u/Transfuturist [+1] Carthago delenda est. (a day later)
But it's actually atmospheric vibrations that display the information. The human is producing the atmospheric vibrations just as it is producing the markings on the paper.
As /u/blazinghand said, I think it understands the process of speech, while it doesn't understand the process of writing.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
It sounds like we need an experiment. Does it take an analog vinyl record onto which the voice of someone reading the information is recorded? Does it do it immediately, or when the record is played?
Does it take a computer if the text you write about it is in the Wingdings font?
u/Chronophilia [+1] sci-fi ≠ futurology (a day later)
It doesn't really work for me. I saw the format, and got really excited for a spin on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - here is a containment procedure that must be readable to people even after the English language no longer exists! The actual document was something of a letdown then.
The document itself is fine, until the "experiment logs" broke my suspension of disbelief. Trying to portray events through cartoons doesn't really make sense when they clearly have video recordings they could have used instead. (Or, since the SCP wiki doesn't allow inline videos, timestamped screenshots from video recordings.) It's just not something a professional research/containment facility would do. I know it would be a lot more work for the author, but they could just as easily have left out the experiments and put something else in.
Also, as I understand this SCP, it's only a danger to people who talk about it. Information about it is self-supressing, it's an antimeme in spirit even if it doesn't fit into the Antimemetics continuity. So... how was it discovered in the first place, and wouldn't it be neutralised if we just destroyed all information about it? Why are we intentionally exposing clearance level 4 staff to a Keter?
u/TimTravel [+2] (2 days later)
I always thought that was silly. You will never get that complicated a message through to people without language. That's why I always say a word is worth a thousand pictures.
u/ancientcampus [+1] juggling kittens (7 days later)
Why are we intentionally exposing clearance level 4 staff to a Keter?
I expect either it poses more danger than what was communicated in the cartoon, or more likely, it's a precaution against some future complication. For example, a cult or terrorist group that publishes information on the media. Someone needs to be aware and able to silence the information before it spreads too far.
I expect they only expose a small amount of staff to the info.
u/ancientcampus [+1] juggling kittens (7 days later)
I loved it! It was very chilling, reading the document, trying to figure out what it was about, and why it was in picture form. I slowly understood the above questions, then at the end I had the "oh crap, now I'm exposed" moment. Great pacing!