COMP.BASILISK FAQ Frequently Asked Questions About Basilisks

futures COMP.BASILISK FAQ Frequently asked questions about basilisks. the hoary coincidence that Macroscope David Langford appeared in the same year and month as the first episode of the British TV programme 1. What is the purpose of this newsgroup? Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with its famous To provide a forum for discussion of basilisk sketch about the World’s Funniest Joke that OLIVER BURSTON (BLIT) images. Newsnet readers who prefer causes all hearers to laugh themselves to death. low traffic should read comp.basilisk.mod- erated, which carries only high-priority 5. How does a basilisk operate? warnings and identifications of new forms. The short answer is: we mustn’t say. Detailed information is classified beyond Top Secret. 2. Can I post binary files here? The longer answer is based on a popular- If you are capable of asking this question science article by Berryman (New Scientist, you MUST immediately read news.an- 2001), which outlines his thinking. He imag- nounce.newusers, where regular postings ined the human mind as a formal, determin- warn that binary and especially image files istic computational system — a system that, may emphatically not be posted to any as predicted by a variant of Gödel’s Theorem newsgroup. Many countries impose a in mathematics, can be crashed by thoughts mandatory death penalty for such action. that the mind is physically or logically inca- pable of thinking. The Logical Imaging 3. Where does the acronym BLIT come from? Technique presents such a thought in purely The late unlamented Dr Vernon Berryman’s visual form as a basilisk image which our system of maths-to-visual algorithms is optic nerves can’t help but accept. The result known as the Berryman Logical Imaging is disastrous, like a software stealth-virus Technique. This reflected the original smuggled into the brain. paper’s title: “On Thinkable Forms, with Notes towards a Logical Imaging Tech- 6. Why ‘basilisk’? nique” (V. Berryman & K. Turner, Nature It’s the name of a mythical creature: a rep- 409, 340–342; 2001). Inevitably, the paper tile whose mere gaze can turn people to has since been suppressed and classified to a stone. According to ancient myth, a basilisk high level. can be safely viewed in a mirror. This is not generally true of the modern version — 4. Is it true that science-fiction authors predicted although some highly asymmetric basilisks basilisks? like B-756 are lethal only in unreflected or Yes and no. The idea of unthinkable infor- reflected form, depending on the dominant mation that cracks the mind has a long SF hemisphere of the victim’s brain. pedigree, but no one got it quite right. William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), the 7. Is it just an urban legend that the first basilisk magnification. No, we’re not telling you novel that popularized cyberspace, is often destroyed its creator? where. cited for its concept of ‘black ice’ software Almost everything about the incident at the which strikes back at the minds of hackers Cambridge IV supercomputer facility 9. How can I get permission to display images on my — but this assumes direct neural connec- where Berryman conducted his last experi- website? tion to the net. Basilisks are far more deadly ments has been suppressed and classified as This is a news.announce.newusers question, because they require no physical contact. highly undesirable knowledge. It’s generally but keeps cropping up here. In brief: you Much earlier, Fred Hoyle’s The Black believed that Berryman and most of the can’t, without a rarely granted government Cloud (1957) suggested that a download of facility staff died. licence. Using anything other than plain knowledge provided by a would-be-helpful Subsequently, copies of basilisk B-1 ASCII text on websites or in e-mail is a alien (who has superhuman mental capacity) leaked out. This image is famously known as guaranteed way of terminating your net could overload and burn out human minds. the Parrot for its shape when blurred enough account. We’re all nostalgic about the old, A remarkable near-miss features in The to allow safe viewing. B-1 remains the colourful web, and about television, but Shapes of Sleep(1962) by J. B. Priestley, which favourite choice of urban terrorists who use today’s risks are simply too great. imagines archetypal shapes that compul- aerosols and stencils to spray basilisk images sively evoke particular emotions, intended on walls by night. 10. Is it true that Microsoft uses basilisk booby-traps for use in advertising. But others were at work on Berryman’s to protect Windows 2005 from disassembly and Piers Anthony’s Macroscope (1969) speculations. B-2 was soon generated at the pirating? described the ‘Destroyer sequence’, a pur- Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and, disas- We could not possibly comment. poseful sequence of images used to safeguard trously, B-3 at MIT. (Revised 27 June 2006) the privacy of galactic communications by erasing the minds of eavesdroppers. 8. Are there basilisks in the Mandelbrot set fractal? David Langford, a former weapons physicist, has The comp.basilisk community does not Yes. There are two known families, at sym- won many of science fiction’s Hugo awards for want ever again to see another posting about metrical positions, visible under extreme criticism and commentary in the field. NATURE | VOL 402 | 2 DECEMBER 1999 | www.nature.com © 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd 465.

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