13 KiB
[HSF][C] CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good
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Author: u/Escapement Ankh-Morpork City Watch*
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URL: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6178036/chapters/14154868
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Score: 56
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Created: 2016-03-26T17:54:11
Post:
Comments:
u/Escapement [+16] Ankh-Morpork City Watch*
This is sort of amazing as a story, and just really a good read. Many horror elements. Bills itself as irrationalfic, for extremely obvious reasons if you read it. Writing quality is astounding. Story is amazing, thought provoking. Found this while reading Nostalgebraist's tumblr, originally posted by tumblr user somnilogical. Edit for clarity: The author of this story is Benedict_SC, I just was mentioning the chain of users I found out about the story from.
u/Drazelic [+4] Dai-Gurren Brigade*
originally posted by tumblr user somnilogical Excuse me? This was written by Benedict_SC, whose tumblr is itsbenedict.tumblr.com.
u/Escapement [+7] Ankh-Morpork City Watch*
Sorry if my post above was unclear. I found out about the existence of this fic because Nostalgebraist responded (positively) to a post on Tumblr about it. The origin of the post Nostalgebraist was responding to, which was just asking that people read the fic, was written by somnilogical. The writer of the story is indeed Benedict_SC.
u/Drazelic [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade*
It's fine, I might have reacted a bit overly quickly there. Thanks for editing your comment!
u/EliezerYudkowsky [+13] Godric Gryffindor*
This story has the best opening paragraph I've seen in a while.
u/gryfft [+7] *
A very enjoyable read. Dramatic irony doesn't get much better than I think my favorite thing about this work is the complexity of each character's theory of mind, and the realistic failures to properly model one aspect or another. e.g. The characters' identities and were a pleasant surprise, too. I'd rather like to see how the SCP Foundation would deal with this particular I think an enjoyable crossover could be written detailing the Foundation's involvement in the development and deployment of
u/superk2001 [+2] *
I imagine at this point they would use SCP-2000
u/gryfft [+2] *
u/etarletons [+2] *
I think WoG is that the spores die out after a few months with no host.
u/MugaSofer [+1] *
I can definitely imagine [spoiler](#s ""SCP-4632 - an idea that makes your head explode." Containment procedure: anyone who has this idea should be amnesticized before they can tell anyone and/or before their head explodes.")
u/None [+9] *
Managed to kill myself within the first few paragraphs. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing...
u/FeepingCreature [+3] GCV Literally The Entire Culture*
I got it completely wrong. From the title of the fic, I thought it was like Prototype, with the protagonist "being" an organism that had actually infested their brain and was in the process of gobbling up their memories.
u/None [+3] *
You can tell that's not the case from: Spoiler
u/Bowbreaker [+1] Solitary Locust*
Could you explain what you mean by that? Feel free to use spoiler tags.
u/None [+6] *
u/Lugnut1206 [+3] *
well, hopefully you'd only get a headache
u/itaibn0 [+9] *
u/awesomeideas [+5] Dai stiho, cousin.*
We also had the 'benefit' of the title helping us out.
u/Roxolan [+3] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager*
Maybe after enough resets you'd accumulate enough brain damage to stop figuring it out. As to whether that counts as a good thing...
u/Lugnut1206 [+1] *
true... i forgot about that aspect
u/gryfft [+6] *
Speculation: Magician's INO index is... [2?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magician_(Tarot_card))
u/Transfuturist [+4] Carthago delenda est.*
He is the same person as "Old Fool", right?
u/gryfft [+3] *
HOW DID I MISS THAT.
u/MugaSofer [+3] *
Ah, [of course](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)! Never made the tarot connection before now.
u/protagnostic [+7] *
What was up with Magician? Why did he initially have the impression that he was immune to the 'elephant'?
u/Benedict_SC [+16] *
He was, initially- I wanted to explain that later, but there was never really an opportunity.
u/gryfft [+10] *
I got the impression he was a carrier. Which, I now realize, is something of a pun, the mail carrier being a male carrier.
u/Bowbreaker [+5] Solitary Locust*
Huh. He was the first explicitly male character in the story. Coincidence?
u/want_to_want [+7] *
Good story! But I wish it was more serious and less Tumblr-y:
- pink elephant
- heads exploding
- they they they they they
- peanut allergy and lactose intolerance
- online friendship + random love confession
- ...
u/Transfuturist [+15] Carthago delenda est.*
The only remotely tumblr-y thing there is the gender neutrality. Pink elephant? Peanut allergies?
u/MugaSofer [+4] *
And, as it turns out later [minor spoiler](#s "the protagonists have a very good reason to be "tumblr-y" about gender pronouns - they're both transgender.")
u/Transfuturist [+7] Carthago delenda est.*
Trans people don't real, they're fabricated by those tumblr teens. looks at self wait, shit,
u/None [+10] *
literally what's "tumblr-y" about any of these things? are you just offended about gender neutral pronouns?
u/Transfuturist [+4] Carthago delenda est.*
Arc...
u/None [+4] *
I can't quite tell if this fic is rational or not... On one hand, both characters do actually take the time to think, something I see a lot in rational fics. And, when the perspective shifts, each character is shown to not only have distinctive personalities, but also distinctive minds (they think differently, and this is explored quite well), something I also see quite often in good rational fics. But I don't know enough about rationality to actually know if the characters (the main characters or the doctors) were acting rationally, or if they just thought they were... Anybody want to clear this up for me?
u/Benedict_SC [+14] *
I didn't really think of it on that level, actually- it was kind of in the back of my mind, but since the scenario was contrived to make it such that acquiring useful knowledge and reaching correct conclusions is a bad thing, I'm not sure it would have helped if they'd used specific rationality techniques (hence the "Irrationalfic" tag.) (I did write the two main characters to be smart, and some of that's going to be informed by my having read the Sequences, but I didn't actively work to double-check their logic and make sure they were really behaving optimally.)
u/Bowbreaker [+3] Solitary Locust*
Well, Arc was always taking the idea that everyone was more likely to be their enemy, and a competent one at that, first before even remotely considering the possibility of benevolence, coincidence or even just general incompetence in anyone.
u/Lugnut1206 [+2] *
this story is wonderful, just wanted to say that
u/itisike [+2] Dragon Army*
Latest xkcd is relevant.
u/xkcd_transcriber [+2] *
Image Mobile Title: Mycology Title-text: Conspiracy theory: There's no such thing as corn. Those fields you see are just the stalks of a fungus that's controlling our brains to make us want to spread it. Comic Explanation Stats: This comic has been referenced 7 times, representing 0.0066% of referenced xkcds.
^xkcd.com ^| ^xkcd sub ^| ^Problems/Bugs? ^| ^Statistics ^| ^Stop Replying ^| ^Delete
u/Bowbreaker [+6] Solitary Locust*
Arc seemed to either work off of pretty bad priors or simply applied his intelligence more for rationalization than for rationalism. Sometimes he even seemed to use Occam's Razor backwards!
u/chaosmosis [+3] and with strange aeons, even death may die*
If you use a strict enough definition, it is very easy to intentionally avoid thinking of an elephant. Generally, my first thought when I hear the phrase "don't think of an elephant" is to recognize that the phrase is a trope. My second thought is to imagine a cartoon Dumbo. My third thought is to imagine an online photograph of an elephant. My fourth thought is, "it is very easy to intentionally avoid thinking of an elephant". If the phrase "don't think of an elephant" is interpreted to mean "don't think of any particular elephant", I have it very easy, since I don't actually know any elephants, and so I am perfectly safe from memetic infection. Naturally, this is the interpretation I favor.
u/BlueSigil [+2] *
Great story, the author really nailed the ending.
u/None [+1] *
[deleted]
u/Transfuturist [+1] Carthago delenda est.*
Right.
u/Lugnut1206 [+1] *
yes, it was presumably solely biological however, Spoiler
u/eaglejarl [+1] *
I had some trouble with, like, the verbal tic of the writing. After, like, two paragraphs, I had to, like, stop reading. Which is, like, a shame because from what other people say it sounds like a good story.
u/None [+8] *
There are multiple narrators, so it gets better in that regard.
u/Lugnut1206 [+7] *
definitely keep reading. also, keep that observation in mind, it might help with figuring out that given character's backstory
u/Floofy-Bumblebee [+1] *
Binge read this story in four hours. One of my favorites. Been a while since I've read something this intriguing and captivating! Very interesting! Loved it 🐘🍄❤️
u/sara2015jackson [+1] *
Lot of arcs in this comment section lol