A very enjoyable and thorough SCP!
+1
SCP-1324 / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-1324.
The ending felt a little melodramatic and on-the-nose, but I like the essential concept and enjoyed the details. +1.
Population number was stated to be one-billion (1 000 000 000 000).
The number in brackets is one trillion. Quite enjoyable overall, though!
It is a billion anywhere not in USA, because 1e9 is a milliard there.
Ahh, my bad, I'm in Canada and it's the same as US. I feel dumb for not knowing this.
Huh? I don't get what you mean. I thought standard form was the standard everywhere .
It's not. "A billion" is a different value in some cultures than it is in others, because the there was a mass change in the definition of it in some Western nations at some point.
In things like the military and scientific institutions where it's vitally important that everyone be on the same page about that sort of thing, they use a a standard. But everywhere else, it's a local thing.
I should make a note here: this is based on an idea BBritain graciously gave me. I'd like to thank him for the inspiration.
omg thanks for writing this. ;_;
Upboated
I come up with ideas but never implement them lol
The printer in that picture is identical to my printer. Not including the anomalous stuff, of course.
(It's a good article, too. +1.)
I don't understand Incident 1324-2, can someone explain it to me?
Basically, the printer realised that what was going on wasn't real. Prior to this, it had thought that the creatures it poorly simulated evolution were real, living creatures.
And then it came to its attention that its reality was an empty sham. So it tried to kill itself using the only information available to it.
My interpretation was that the printer doesn't exactly know the meaning of all the words it uses.
The second picture is running into the boxes, at least for me.
Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!
Liked it until Incident 1324-2. Then I hated it. There are plenty of emotional responses available to a sapient evolution-simulating printer besides suicidal despair. That's the part of this SCP that jumped out at me as being jarringly unrealistic, gods help me.
Unrealistic?
Everything the printer thought it was working for since who knows when has turned out to be false, a simulation.
People have offed themselves for less.
Well, and it's a sapient evolution-simulating printer, so saying the psychology is "unrealistic" seems like the wrong accusation anyway. Nevertheless.
While it's true that people have offed themselves for less, as far as I can tell the printer's internal, subjective life had been just peachy up until this point. Most people don't commit suicide because a single thing goes wrong, however devastatingly wrong it might go; generally there was already something going badly, and then the devastating thing pushes one over the edge. If things were already going fine, and then some surprising terrible thing happens, we have a robust array of psychological defense mechanisms to get through first.
The printer doesn't seem to reach out to other sources of information (and it should be able to infer that there's something else out there to communicate with, since it's getting input from somewhere), it doesn't try to rationalize that the simulations must have some worth even if they are only simulations, it doesn't burn with rage against the source of its input for lying to it all this time, it doesn't turn to the Printer God for solace, it doesn't become delusional in an attempt to find an alternate explanation for the input it received (for example, by deciding that perhaps some of the text is actually pictures of animals that just happen to look a great deal like nonsense text), etc.
Yes, I am aware that the article describes a 30-minute delay, and we don't know how fast it thinks so it's possible all sorts of things were going on in its head during the delay. Since it doesn't refer to any of that thought process in its suicide note, though, there's at least a weak indication that none of those were considered, and we know for sure that it didn't attempt to contact whoever was providing it with input.
Whether this seems reasonable to anybody else is really none of my business. I'm just saying that from my particular perspective, I find the immediate jump to despair unlikely, melodramatic, and unconvincing.
Most people don't commit suicide because a single thing goes wrong, however devastatingly wrong it might go;
Not if the single thing is as important to them as this was to the printer i.e. just about the sole thing they care about.
Also. … who knows whether it wasn't rationalizing shit like hunter-killer chairs all the time, and the piece of text with dummy input was the bit that made it finally click together?
Yes, I am aware that the article describes a 30-minute delay, and we don't know how fast it thinks so it's possible all sorts of things were going on in its head during the delay.
I for one think it went through some sort of a thought process like that. Besides, not like it'd consider the outside world reliable anymore at that point - it might well feel betrayed by whoever it thought it was getting the tasks from.
Whether this seems reasonable to anybody else is really none of my business. I'm just saying that from my particular perspective, I find the immediate jump to despair unlikely, melodramatic, and unconvincing.
And that's fine - in the same vein, I'm disagreeing with you because I liked that particular bit of the entry, and all in all, we are arguing in front of an audience who might well be swayed by one or another POV.
To tell you the truth, I wouldn't be happy with this article terminating in anything but complete disillusionment. Regardless of the effect it might have to remove that, I would be unsatisfied for it and it drive me absolutely mad.
I may rewrite this, however, to make that culmination more natural and convincing. Until then, I'll just leave this is as a slightly more grand matter of "you can't please everyone".
I liked it because of the end. Gave me chills.
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page revision: 0, last edited: 05 Dec 2015 04:09
