Here's one that sends chills down my spine...

[scribble]

I so hoped the movie "The Ring" would be about something like this.

I've read the fiction they mention and the idea's always spooked the bejeesus out of me.

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v402/n6761/full/402465a0_fs.html

Spooky thought, eh? Could such a thing be made?

[Drooper]

I don't get it. Nature? And it wasn't even published on April 1st.

Anyway, the article is clearly deeply flawed, because they left out a reference to that movie with James Woods in it that touched on the same subject. I tihnk it was called Videodrome?

[scribble]

It's a sci-fi bit from when they used to run them. The idea has been used lots of places, I just happened to stumble across this one. Godel, Escher, Bach is one place it's examined that I don't see mentioned, either.

[The Don]

To implement a "universal basilisk" assumes that everybody's mind would respone to a particular set of stimulii in the same way. I'm not sure that this could ever be the case (though I understand that whatever it is may be stimulating the most basic parts of the brain) given that psychotic people behave and react very differenly from the norm.

A selective basilik has already been unleashed. Look at any cult which calls for its adherents to kill themselves.

[Matabiri]

Originally posted by Drooper
I don't get it. Nature? And it wasn't even published on April 1st.


But it is "last reviewed June 2006".

[CurtC]

I was going to comment that it sounds a lot like the Funniest Joke from Flying Circus, but I see the article already mentions that.

I guess I just don't get it. The Funniest Joke skit was pretty entertaining. Does the writer of this article actully believe the crap he's writing?

[scribble]

Originally posted by scribble
It's a sci-fi bit from when they used to run them.

[Donn]

er... regarding that link and all... I had something important to post, but my mind seems to have gone blank.

Just kinda wiped clean...

wierd.
;)

[Wrath of the Swarm]

In a sense, this is already known to be possible. The whole "episode of Pokemon causing seizures" is an example.

But there are several problems with the "basilisks" as envisioned in the article:

1) The human brain seems to be quite resistant to crashing. It's possible to induce a seizure, but then the brain reboots right back up again. Some memory is lost, and (depending on the nature and severity of the seizure) there may be some organic damage to the system. It's possible that stored information might be affected. But on the whole, the person is fine, afterwards.

2) Brains are all very different from one another. The Pokemon problem only happened in a small percentage of children, and only because their visual nerves and processing centers shared a certain similarity. Presumably there are factors in common with almost all human brains, but we have no idea how to find and exploit any of them.

3) It's quite unlikely that a "useful" lethal pattern could be found that worked on a sufficiently fundamental level. Higher-level patterns of various kinds of input that are lethal are known to exist, but they don't work outside of specific cultures. (For example, there supposedly really were African priests/witchdoctors who could kill people at a distance with a ritual. However, it wouldn't have an effect if the target wasn't informed of the ritual. When told, it seems the targets' belief in the effectiveness of the ritual was so great that they frightened themselves to death.)

[Hexxenhammer]

This was the plot of "Snow Crash." Viral binary code viewed as visual "snow" caused hackers brain's to crash because subconciously they could read the code even in the "snow". There was also some cool stuff with katanas and gatling guns.

[scribble]

Oh, sure, I didn't even think of the video-induced seizure connection. Maybe that's why this kind of thing as an eventuality sounds "possible".

That's possible in the sense of star trek transporters and such, I mean - something that makes sense on the surface. Heh.

Anyhow, that's a good connection. This same author has a free story online and another short story for-pay that I also took the time to read, regarding the same idea. Both lacked the punch I'd have liked to see, but were good short stories nonetheless.

[Dancing David]

Oh, please!

I would assume that this is a spoof or some serious whackos, this harkens back to the 'killer sound' concept which is what the Flying Circus was spoofing in the first place.

I would say that it would take subliminal implanting for the scheme to work, another whacked out concept!

[Wrath of the Swarm]

It could be worse. It could be the dreaded Brown Note. [duh duh dum]

[scribble]

Originally posted by Dancing David
[B]Oh, please!

I would assume that this is a spoof or some serious whackos, this harkens back to the 'killer sound' concept which is what the Flying Circus was spoofing in the first place.


Okay, one more time for the slow kids.

(say it with me!)
IT'S A SCI-FI BIT FROM WHEN THEY USED TO RUN SCIENCE *FICTION* PEICES.

[Bottle or the Gun]

Why video? If I was demon, I'd use as a trigger for the evil a DVD or a movie getting swapped on the internet. Get way more victims that way.

As for the Basilisk concept, John Barnes' novel 'Candle' is a great example.

[Wrath of the Swarm]

As a book about basilisks, or a basilisk itself?

[scribble]

Originally posted by Wrath of the Swarm
As a book about basilisks, or a basilisk itself?

hahaha... I've certainly read books before that made me feel brain-dead...

[Peter Morris]

Originally posted by CurtC
I was going to comment that it sounds a lot like the Funniest Joke from Flying Circus, but I see the article already mentions that.

I guess I just don't get it. The Funniest Joke skit was pretty entertaining. Does the writer of this article actully believe the crap he's writing?

Given that David Langford is a well known science fiction author, reviewer and essayist, I'd say probably not.

[Darat]

Originally posted by Peter Morris


Given that David Langford is a well known science fiction author, reviewer and essayist, I'd say probably not.

And he produced one of the best spoof “UFO experience” books ever called, "An Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World, 1871" http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/books/account.html .

The amazing thing about the above work of fiction is how it has been quoted and used, as fact by many "UFOs are aliens" supporters over the years, have a read of http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/writing/ft86.html

...snip...

Nigel Blundell and Roger Boar wrote it up in The World's Greatest UFO Mysteries (1983) and recycled the identical paraphrase in The World's Strangest Mysteries (1987). This was where Whitley Strieber read it and, pausing to do in-depth research by writing to the publishers and getting no reply, decided to incorporate it into his 1989 `Roswell Incident' novel Majestic ... where it features as part of a US intelligence estimate of `flying disks', dated 1947.

...snip...

[JamesM]

David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest also has a similar plot device: a film so good that you stop wanting to do anything else but watch it. It is used as a terrorist device by some wheelchair-bound Quebecois separatists. A pretty good book.

On the subject of the Pokemon seizure, there was an article about that in Fortean Times a few years ago, and the incident shared many similarities with episodes of mass hysteria (whatever that turns out to be) - the affected were children, and it was coming up to exam time - so the underlying mechanism may be more complicated than "just" flashing lights.

[Jaan]

It's a cool idea because it has a great geek appeal, but as usual the solution to the desired outcomes is much simpler and boring.

If you want to change human behavior, just brainwash people. The military boot camp has perfected this technique, as well as many other examples I'm sure we can all think of.

If you want to get information out of someone, just keep them awake for a few days.

If you want to erase someone's memory, just shoot them. Dead men tell no tales.

However, if you're talking about a magic virtual bullet that could manipulate peoples minds, like the "flashy" thing in MIB ... why not?

People who have epilepsy and view flashing patterns can go into seizers. It would not be outside the realm of possibilities that once we understand the hard wiring of the brain similar results can be achieved.

Sure, people are different, but how different fundamentally? And if there are many different types of people, why not make something that would work for them all? Bits and pieces of the pattern directed at different brain types all in the same pattern.

Let's say were talking about flashes of light hat would generate an effect, like in MIB. Assuming advanced technology the device would produce control patterns, and also read the brain patterns of the target subject and then manipulate the patterns of flashing to elicit the desired effect. It would adjust itself according to what's occurring in the subjects brain in real time. Of course, if a level of technology existed to create such a device then the flashing may be pointless, you could probably manipulate the brain patterns more directly without the subject even knowing, perhaps even in sleep.

[zer0vector]

It's the name of a mythical creature: a reptile whose mere gaze can turn people to stone. According to ancient myth, a basilisk can be safely viewed in a mirror. This is not generally true of the modern version — although some highly asymmetric basilisks like B-756 are lethal only in unreflected or reflected form, depending on the dominant hemisphere of the victim's brain.

Wait just a second. I thought it was the medusa that turned people to stone, although she could be easily viewed with a mirror (if Clash of the Titans has taught us anything). I was under the impression touching a basilisk would lead to death, or something like that.

Edited to add:

(Revised 27 June 2006)

WTF?

[zer0vector]

As if it wasn't ridiculous enough, their one literature reference:

Nature 409, 340–342; 2001

Doesn't actually exist, unless they mistook it with:

Three-butterfly system provides a field test of müllerian mimicry ( Nature 409, 338)

[Checkmite]

I thought this article might be at least somewhat relevant, even though the conclusions involved are very far from being accepted.

Man's Amnesia Said Induced by Nightmare (http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/19/nightmare.amnesia.ap/index.html)

[JamesM]

ZV,

there are lots of monsters in Greek mythology that could kill with a glance or with its breath. The basilisk is one of them. Also, the reference is supposed to be made up.

I think we have a bit of a Ghostwatch thing going on here.

[Bottle or the Gun]

Originally posted by Wrath of the Swarm
As a book about basilisks, or a basilisk itself?

Self-replicating software that infects people, controlling them.

[Timble]

David Langford as pointed out earlier, is a British SF writer.

His version of a mind destroying image comes from his short story 'BLIT' which was published in the SF magazine Interzone (25) in 1988. I've got it in a box somewhere.

See the bottom of this page:
http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/books/dkod.html

SCRIBBLE is right - the thing's a spoof.

[Wrath of the Swarm]

The basic idea is brought up again in Greg Egan's "TAP", in which some believe that a revolutionary brain implant has a critical vulnerability that permits a hostile user to send "death words".

[jlakbj]

It is a cool idea; here's another vote for Snow Crash and Infinite Jest, though the latter doesn't live up to its fantastic opening chapter.

[NullPointerException]

All organic components supposedly have a "suicide" button that lets them kill themselves.

[scribble]

Originally posted by Jaan
[B]It's a cool idea because it has a great geek appeal, but as usual the solution to the desired outcomes is much simpler and boring.


I think I know why the idea has so much ... spine-chilling appeal to me. It's because I'm a compulsive reader, I expect. The idea of being able to say, read a phrase that would kill me is just too spooky to resist. Hehehe

Anyhow, imagine the applications - you could wipe out most of a country just by broadcasting an image like described on national television.

[Jaan]

Originally posted by scribble


I think I know why the idea has so much ... spine-chilling appeal to me. It's because I'm a compulsive reader, I expect. The idea of being able to say, read a phrase that would kill me is just too spooky to resist. Hehehe

Anyhow, imagine the applications - you could wipe out most of a country just by broadcasting an image like described on national television.

I know what you mean although it's difficult to describe. There's a certain "elegance" to being able to do something like that.

However, we have the technological ability to wipe out most of a country already ... and all life on this planet several times over. For some reason though, simply blowing up a few bombs doesn't seem as cool as a basilisk. It's probably just because we're familiar with explosives and therefore they're not "spine-chilling".

Some time ago, I had a discussion with a Satanist. He told me with great authority that he could kill me with a word. I told him to go right ahead. I dared him. He of course gave me some jive about it being too powerful and yadda yadda. So I then informed him I could kill him with a twitch of my finger. I was carrying a handgun concealed you see (c: I knew he could not kill me with a word, and I knew for a fact I could kill him with a simple hand gesture ... but I suppose it would be neat to be able to yell "badoinklamise" and see your enemies drop dead. Be easier to explain in court that's for sure.

Not to get too paranoid ... I worked in television as an editor for 10 years. Even though I know how it's done, it still scares me how easily the media controls how people thing. Take the evening news for example ... ever notice how they're always giving you answers? When they interview a person on the street they will sit there and talk to them until the person gives them some sort of definitive (sounding) answer, and that's the sound bite that's used. Often times, the person they're interviewing is just an average joe without any special knowledge of events.

Look at what happened with Rodney King in LA. The media conveniently edited out the part where he jumped out of his car and attacked the officer. They only showed a little part of the video over and over and over and over, completely skewing what actually took place and manipulating the nation. If you think about it enough, that will scare you as much as a basilisk.