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What is man that you are mindful of him?
Thanks for the feedback from #site19, and especially to Zolgamax and Huitzil.
E: I realize this is a little late, but I have changed the article in hopes of reducing its bad.
Just kinda seems like a mash-up of the Toaster and the LaBeouf Viewer :\ -1
There's a few amusing lines in there, but I dun like it overall :<
butts
I don't really care for the term "extreme sociopathy". Might be better to use like, actual scientific terms like "antisocial personality disorder". I also question what the hell is a moderate case of sociopathy. Or even a mild case.
than that, while I love the concept I dislike the execution.
Living the dream, or dreaming the life?
Changed to APD.
My apologies for you not liking the execution. Any ideas on how it might be improved?
Personally I'd get down and dirty with the abstract. What does it mean to be human? What is the human condition and what does it mean to suddenly have it thrust upon you? What is a creature to do with the humanity that overwhelms what sense of self of their own creaturehood? Does a fish mourn the lack of lungs? Does a shark long for affection? Does the Octopus find their lack of joints disturbing? Or do they gain the sense of something more, do they hope and dream? Do they grieve? Do they despair?
If even feeling inhuman is part of the experience of humanity, how do nonhuman creatures cope? Ask the big questions. See where it leads you. It might result in something beautiful.
Living the dream, or dreaming the life?
I feel like that's missing the point. The idea is that the SCP's effects are metaphysical rather than real physical changes. Things affected don't actually become human, they just become classified as human. I interpret the metaphysical aspect as something like metadata on a computer. If I were to alter the metadata of an image file and say, change the name of the author/creator to someone else, the main contents of the photo would not change, you would still see the same photo. However, anything relying on the metadata to determine who created the image would be fooled into thinking it was someone else. Similarly, this thing somehow messes with the universe metaphysically to make these things seem like humans without actually changing anything physically about the objects affected. Even though their intelligence, behavior, and all physical aspects remain the same, people think they're human because their "metadata" says they're human.
I agree with SoullessSingularity. There is a good idea here, but the writeup comes across as one-note and off-tone.
It seems like the SCP would be the area of affect, not the abstract concept. Also, the effect would be described with regard to how it makes people recognize things as human, as opposed to suggesting that it imbues the metaphysical concept of humanity.
I'm quite tired today, so I might just be being dopey, but it took me way too long to understand what this did, exactly. The fact that it took me until 'black and brown-spotted human' makes me think it's probably just me. Nevertheless, I just don't like this overall - if feels too long and cluttered for what it is, and what it is isn't even that interesting. -1 Downvote rescinded and replaced with an upvote. 2014-me was not a particularly smart article-reader, clearly.
I liked it, but I agree with Mortte in that the Foundation would come at it with the mindset of "It's probably memetic or something" rather than "Oh man this changes things into HUMANS wow!"
Also, the ship should probably be talked about as a person when it's in the area. It's capable of movement, and probably has an autopilot. Most large ships do.
Did you not catch the location in the logs being indicated as "onboard Ms. Twain"?
As for why it's not memetic: I tend to think memetics can be treated with amnestics and are infectious. This can't be treated and doesn't propagate outside its area. But maybe that's just me.
Oh man, can't believe I missed that.
"Probably memetic or something" is just a phrase that I used to describe weird brain shit. I think the Foundation would probably think about it more as "a place that makes people think moving stuff is human" rather than "a place that makes moving stuff metaphysically human". I'm pretty sure that's the bit that's pushing people towards a downvote; the Foundation generally doesn't work with deep metaphysical truth, they work with things that make you think wrong.
What they generally work with is no concern of mine, the foundationverse doesn't bend to the foundation's whims. BUT I see what you're saying in that foundation researchers would prefer to think of this as memetic-or-something rather than an underlying truth. The problem is that they can't be accurate and think it's memetic at the same time. I chose to take the angle that they would go for accuracy, even if it conforms to the skip's "wishes." Unfortunately, their need for accuracy gets in the way of their attempts to reach the source of 2025.
But it is absolutely not memetic in any way, shape, or form. "Memetic" has a specific meaning, and it's much more narrow than "stuff what fucks with your brain". Understanding Memetics gives a much better explanation than I can put in this comment field.
As for being able to demonstrate that it gives things the metaphysical property of "humanity" as opposed to just being a cognitohazard, there's plenty of SCPs out there that only work when operated by a human.
Piffy is an SCP Foundation Moderator, Lv. 9001 Squishy Wizard, and Knight of the Red Pen.
You'd need either a non-anomalous item that only works for humans, or a majority of O5s to agree to cross-testing at this point. It's easier from an economical, safety and "we got it" standpoint to deal with the effect and find command staff for the area that understand going in what it does.
Why do you think they kept getting veterinary and technical people instead of the items that were requested? My issue with that is people on the supply side could read this article and interpret any communications coming from inside the area of effect.
I agree with Mortte; the SCP should be the area it occupies, not the effect. Those are traditionally -1 or -A items (subset of overall SCP).
This is still screwing with my head the morning after reading it. +1, great concept.
Edit: Crosstesting would never be requested; they're already human.
I liked this one when it was first submitted in the chat, and I still like it now.
Is it a little bit silly and "out there"? Yes, and that's part of why I like it.
Sure, the Foundation would theoretically approach something like this with the idea that "it's probably memetic or something", but I really like the idea that there's an object out there with an effect strong enough to catch a researcher off guard. Plus, I like the idea that the employees outside the area of effect are becoming increasingly frustrated with the employees inside the area of effect due to their inability to "see things clearly", and vice versa.
I also really like the fact that, every time I read this article, I think, "Wait, why isn't X considered a human?", and then go back and discover some little twist of wordplay revealing that X is in fact considered as such.
Lastly, I actually like the fact that the scip is identified as the concept of humanity in the area of effect, and not the area itself. It gives the article an opening that really caught me by surprise, and I like that, even if it is a little bit nonstandard.
So it's an areas where people think animals and things are "humanity" then?
Sprague-Dawley lab humans.
Had to google Sprague-Dawley to understand that. Why is it again that the researchers are referring to the rats as humans? Shouldn't they know they are not, or at least be able to go back and change that to be correct?
I'm still unclear about the whole, "abstract concept humanity" thing. I don't see why they wouldn't just assume this thing/area/ship, makes you think things are human when they are not. Much like the one scip that makes people think lamps are people.
It's a really thick read for me personally, and I have to go back through it several times to get what is being said/described.
The nature of SCP-2025 is such that any animate object within SCP-2025-A (including but not limited to humans, amphibians, [REDACTED], and remote controlled drones)
Why is there a redacted in there and why are we clarifying it includes humans and amphibians ?
Note: D-0854, SD-0577, SD-0578 have been buried at sea in accordance with Foundation "Disposal of Human Cadaver" guidelines.
Not sure it really is necessary to not what happened to him. D-Class tend to get swept under the rug fairly often without incident.
Using the restraints, D-0930 began [REDACTED], (since confirmed to be an approximation of his previous modus operandi).
Dog rape?
Addendum: Status Report 27/06/2008:
So why are they so hell bent on drilling to this thing? It will become unreachable, but it is, growing? Maybe? Or is it shrinking? Expanding? Too many redacteds, too much not clear for me. Also, why are the people working on this important assignment either not aware of the effects and constantly getting personnel and equipment confused? Once, happens! Twice or more, really?
Sorry, not feeling this one.
Because, they can't tell what's actually human and what's actually not-human.
Imagine you wake up one day and everything looks like pie.
The doors are pie, your bed is pie, the walls, floor, ceiling is pie. Everything is pie!
You can't tell what's pie and what's not. There is no discernible difference between pie and not-pie. To your knowledge, everything is pie now.
EVERYTHING IS PIE!
Or, at least, that's what I'm getting from this. I could be wrong.
Bees. Pie is bees. Dog is bees. Camera is made of bees.
Except here, everything is human.
I really like o0s metatag analogy upthread.
SCP-2025 is moving under his own power. Therefore he's human. We have to save him from disappearing under the sea floor! (Who's also human, due to seismic activity.)
Although it is a bit daunting at first (to wrap your head around that is), I think this is a good idea overall, albeit could use some polishing.
I second that. The idea is quite good and leads to some funny wordings and subtle hints, but there are a few details that confuse it a bit. And I did not get why the Foundation was attempting to drill to prevent the SCP for sinking into the crust, apart from allowing the joke with drillmen complaining of the inhumane conditions.
We contain.
We protect.
But we can't do either of those if we don't secure first.
