[REDACTED]
October 7, 2022 8:36 PM Subscribe
Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams… But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?
Welcome to the Antimemetics Division.
No, this is not your first day.
fnord
posted by Going To Maine at 9:00 PM on October 7, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 9:00 PM on October 7, 2022 [18 favorites]
I skimmed a few of the links I found but I can't really remember anything about them.
posted by vrakatar at 9:41 PM on October 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by vrakatar at 9:41 PM on October 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
MeFi’s own!
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:01 PM on October 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:01 PM on October 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
all the redacted blackouts in the ebook managed to crash my Kindle every time I read it past a certain page.
Those crashes can be prevented by retrieving three identical key sets from the redaction key archive.
posted by flabdablet at 10:59 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Those crashes can be prevented by retrieving three identical key sets from the redaction key archive.
posted by flabdablet at 10:59 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Do I even have a Kindle?
YES, WE'VE GOT A VIDEO
posted by flabdablet at 11:13 PM on October 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
YES, WE'VE GOT A VIDEO
posted by flabdablet at 11:13 PM on October 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Oh, man, I made a post about 056 because it popped up on my YT before I found out about SCP. And now I come to find its founder is a MeFi's own. This place is one big ouroborosed bowl of creepypasta.
posted by y2karl at 11:58 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 11:58 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just in case someone unfamiliar with the SCP Wiki has stumbled upon this, here's a content warning cribbed from the most helpful 1-star Amazon review:>
There is nothing in the title, description or any of the existing reviews that would prepare you for the level of body-snatching, throat cutting, worms crawling out of people's eyes horror that this book primarily concerns itself with after the rather abstract and intellectual preview is past. So I thought I'd correct that impression. I very much do not like to read such material and would have appreciated some warning.posted by a car full of lions at 12:01 AM on October 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
To add onto that 1-star review—though I liked this series enough that I've reread it a couple of times since—there is a distinct divide, contentwise, between "high-concept logic-game horror" and "a bunch of gory gross shit," with the latter almost entirely disconnected from the former. The series starts out heavier on the former, but about a third of the way in, it's pretty much all megagore; there's a brief pause at the start of the second act, and then it plunges in and never goes back.
There are quite a few neat ideas in here, up to and including the nature of the apocalyptic Big Bad, and a couple of the more body-horror passages worked for me, but my initial impression was definitely that the antimeme-specific stuff was compelling, the "random giant spider legs plus blood" stuff was bland, and the ratio of antimeme-to-violence was disappointingly heavy on the violence. (Though I'm also about to post this and immediately hop in and reread a good chunk of it.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:59 AM on October 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
There are quite a few neat ideas in here, up to and including the nature of the apocalyptic Big Bad, and a couple of the more body-horror passages worked for me, but my initial impression was definitely that the antimeme-specific stuff was compelling, the "random giant spider legs plus blood" stuff was bland, and the ratio of antimeme-to-violence was disappointingly heavy on the violence. (Though I'm also about to post this and immediately hop in and reread a good chunk of it.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 12:59 AM on October 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
This is a double post.
I am absolutely sure of it.
posted by chavenet at 1:05 AM on October 8, 2022 [23 favorites]
I am absolutely sure of it.
posted by chavenet at 1:05 AM on October 8, 2022 [23 favorites]
Doesn't look like anything to me.
posted by lalochezia at 5:17 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 5:17 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
They're the same picture.
posted by adept256 at 6:43 AM on October 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by adept256 at 6:43 AM on October 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Looks a bit like a parrot.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:48 AM on October 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:48 AM on October 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
"a bunch of gory gross shit"
There is no antiemetics division.
posted by saturday_morning at 7:00 AM on October 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
There is no antiemetics division.
posted by saturday_morning at 7:00 AM on October 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
Can anyone see this comment? I seem to be trapped in the internet.
posted by fnord at 7:16 AM on October 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by fnord at 7:16 AM on October 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
qntm's book version of this material is one of the most interesting sci-fi novels I've read in the past few years. There is some horror in moments but it didn't feel inappropriate to me and it did seem thematically appropriate. But if you're sensitive to that, sure, maybe give it a pass.
I also love that this is the top Goodreads review:
posted by Nelson at 7:35 AM on October 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I also love that this is the top Goodreads review:
I'm resisting the urge to write any sort of in-universe or knowing wink of a review, and you should too. It would be like whipping out your recorder and tooting along to a symphony orchestra.Fortunately no one here has made the obvious joke, although there are a few comments here that don't look like anything to me.
posted by Nelson at 7:35 AM on October 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
qntm is also the creator of Absurdle (previously).
Wait, did I say something just now?
posted by mubba at 8:15 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Wait, did I say something just now?
posted by mubba at 8:15 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’ve been reading qntm’s stuff for years, and very much enjoyed watching these stories come out in real time as they were written. One thing I particularly enjoyed was the entry which had a part locked behind a security code (which I considered excellent SCP window dressing). The actual code didn’t get revealed until a later (and at the time, not yet written) entry. But an attentive reader could guess it, which I managed to do. There was a little bit of Easter Egg content inside, nothing really crucial but it was a fun thing to see. And for those who notice the code reveal and go back to the lock to open it up, it’s a similarly fun reward.
posted by notoriety public at 8:17 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 8:17 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's a matter of pride to have not read TFA.
(I enjoyed the book-form collection and it had my noodle thoroughly baked for a chunk of time. I skipped over the horror-like aspects -- they didn't happen so much as the memetics made them perceived to have happened as their brain tried to comprehend a thing they were losing ability to resolve into anything comprehensible.)
posted by k3ninho at 8:20 AM on October 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
(I enjoyed the book-form collection and it had my noodle thoroughly baked for a chunk of time. I skipped over the horror-like aspects -- they didn't happen so much as the memetics made them perceived to have happened as their brain tried to comprehend a thing they were losing ability to resolve into anything comprehensible.)
posted by k3ninho at 8:20 AM on October 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I agree that this is one of the more fun and conceptually striking sci-fi novels of the past few years. I had the feeling for quite a while that the sci-fi genre was going through a period of doldrums on conceptual acrobatics while the more fantasy end of things were really firing on all cylinders (cf. the Broken Earth trilogy). To be fair, there have been good (and great) sci-fi books that have come out (the Teixcalaan series, for example), but it was really nice to see something more conceptually weird like There Is No Antimemetics Division come from the more-sci-fi side of the spectrum.
posted by tclark at 9:17 AM on October 8, 2022
posted by tclark at 9:17 AM on October 8, 2022
I ordered the physical book from Amazon (and LOVED it BTW), which seems to be a print on demand sort of thing. It had a date of printing inside the cover for the day before it showed up, which made the whole thing even more surreal and fun!
posted by TheCoug at 10:35 AM on October 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by TheCoug at 10:35 AM on October 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
Related is the man in the tan jacket from Welcome to Nightvale:
"Countless residents have seen him, but no one can seem to remember exactly what he looks like - just that he has a tan jacket and a deerskin suitcase, and he has been spotted all over town."
posted by AlSweigart at 11:37 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Countless residents have seen him, but no one can seem to remember exactly what he looks like - just that he has a tan jacket and a deerskin suitcase, and he has been spotted all over town."
posted by AlSweigart at 11:37 AM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Reading SCP is like eating crab legs. With crab legs, you don't really get full as much as you get tired. Likewise, you don't ever get your fill of SCP creatures, you just get tired from wrapping your brain around the weirdness.
posted by ensign_ricky at 3:00 PM on October 8, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by ensign_ricky at 3:00 PM on October 8, 2022 [10 favorites]
love and have written for SCP, very excited to read the book form now that I know about it. lovely FPP!
posted by Kybard at 7:08 PM on October 8, 2022
posted by Kybard at 7:08 PM on October 8, 2022
Okay, this was an absolute delight. I've read parts of the SCP archive, but this was like mainlining the fun.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:33 AM on October 9, 2022
posted by rmd1023 at 7:33 AM on October 9, 2022
I just tried to describe this to my spouse and came up with "Stross's 'Atrocity Archives' by way of talk.bizarre", which seems about as accurate as I can get before I forget what I was talking about.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:49 AM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 7:49 AM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Tangentially, I describe Stross's Laundry books as "Lovecraft meets James Bond meets Yes Minister."
posted by notoriety public at 8:12 AM on October 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 8:12 AM on October 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
The paper books were some of the most fun reads I've had in years and brought back the feelings of why I ever loved SF in the first place.
posted by Dr. Twist at 11:50 AM on October 9, 2022
posted by Dr. Twist at 11:50 AM on October 9, 2022
You've probably heard the phrase "done with covid" or words to that effect. Maybe you've even said something like that yourself. Maybe you've looked at rising case numbers and wondered why nobody seems to care. Yes, SARS-CoV-2 has clearly and unambiguously demonstrated anti-memetic properties. Moreover, these anti-memetic properties directly contribute to its continued success in its evolutionary niche. You may not want to believe that. That is normal. Just recognise that it is true, obvious even, and try to remember it, if you can.
posted by swr at 3:05 PM on October 9, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by swr at 3:05 PM on October 9, 2022 [11 favorites]
Make new friends using negative prompt weights:
I discovered this woman, who I call Loab, in April. The AI reproduced her more easily than most celebrities. Her presence is persistent, and she haunts every image she touches. CW: Take a seat. This is a true horror story, and veers sharply macabre.posted by sebastienbailard at 9:18 PM on October 9, 2022
The fundamental working principle of propaganda: generate a truthy slogan that's 180° away from the actual truth, make it catchy enough that people start propagating it on their own (rhyming and alliteration can both help with this, though neither is strictly necessary) and over time it will almost completely suppress the truth and become "the common wisdom". This is anti-memetics via displacement.
The widespread perception that it's conservative administrations that are the "responsible economic managers" is the clearest instance of this pattern that I can think of. People will tie their worldviews into huge snarled knots just to avoid being able to perceive what Truss and Kwarteng are currently doing to the UK economy, for example, and after they're long gone those same people will be pining nostalgically for their "good old days" and singing their praises at the first hint of an economic misstep from any slightly more left-leaning Government.
posted by flabdablet at 4:38 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
The widespread perception that it's conservative administrations that are the "responsible economic managers" is the clearest instance of this pattern that I can think of. People will tie their worldviews into huge snarled knots just to avoid being able to perceive what Truss and Kwarteng are currently doing to the UK economy, for example, and after they're long gone those same people will be pining nostalgically for their "good old days" and singing their praises at the first hint of an economic misstep from any slightly more left-leaning Government.
posted by flabdablet at 4:38 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
A very odd exchange, keeping with the tone of There is no Antimim... qntm and qntm_ebooks tweeted at each other today. What even is a book? What are words?
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 5:36 PM on October 10, 2022
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 5:36 PM on October 10, 2022
SCP: Overlord
SCP: Dollhouse
SCP: 096
SCP: SITE 22
posted by jeffburdges at 6:51 PM on November 4, 2022
SCP: Dollhouse
SCP: 096
SCP: SITE 22
posted by jeffburdges at 6:51 PM on November 4, 2022
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qntm previously
posted by BungaDunga at 8:41 PM on October 7, 2022 [5 favorites]