Semiohazard
An SCP Foundation term that refers to anomalies that can change the very fundamental structures of logic and its axioms to the point that they will be (and have always been) considered a definite fact by all of consensus reality, as it reshapes itself in accordance with the new retroactively changed "law". This effect extends to mathematics, identifiers, chronology and even semantics, rendering communicating any information that is affected by a semiohazard extremely difficult.
For example;
- Changing your own "name" into another, more abstract personal identifier like PERSON, HUMAN or RESEARCHER. Subsequently, you yourself and every other person would only identify "you" using only the identifier that you are given/cursed. Nobody can ever identify or refer to you as any other name or identifier, no matter how trivial the conversation of information may be. Of course, changing your identifier afterward is fundamentally impossible.
- An instance of a semiohazardous man, whom can live for as long as he... well, he doesn't actually want to live, because he doesn't know what "living" really is, as he also doesn't know what "death" is either. After only just learning about the concept of death by a fellow researcher one day, he then swiftly and instantly dies on the spot.
- "Sally has 2 apples. Someone gave her another 2 apples. Now, Sally has 10 apples."
Confused? Well, you shouldn't be, because this situation is done entirely with Base-4, instead of Base-10.
For example;
- Changing your own "name" into another, more abstract personal identifier like PERSON, HUMAN or RESEARCHER. Subsequently, you yourself and every other person would only identify "you" using only the identifier that you are given/cursed. Nobody can ever identify or refer to you as any other name or identifier, no matter how trivial the conversation of information may be. Of course, changing your identifier afterward is fundamentally impossible.
- An instance of a semiohazardous man, whom can live for as long as he... well, he doesn't actually want to live, because he doesn't know what "living" really is, as he also doesn't know what "death" is either. After only just learning about the concept of death by a fellow researcher one day, he then swiftly and instantly dies on the spot.
- "Sally has 2 apples. Someone gave her another 2 apples. Now, Sally has 10 apples."
Confused? Well, you shouldn't be, because this situation is done entirely with Base-4, instead of Base-10.
"A particularly costly example of a semiohazard: 'the operations of 'YWTGTSYT' are perfectly legal,' one which has obligated the Foundation Legal Department to entirely redraft Texas' corporate laws. These things are perceived facts of baseline reality; they always have been, and always will be, apparently true. But they shouldn't, and we know they shouldn't. They aren't part of reality because reality says so, but because reality has been pulled inside-out by the perceptual nature of semantic equivalence.
Read on, knowing that you must accept what the universe says is true, even if it doesn't make sense; one plus one doesn't always equal two."
— Dr. Eli Forkley
Director of Miscommunications
from "SCP-INTEGER", aka "SCP-5242"
"A semiohazard, informally, is a fact of the universe that just shouldn't be true, but functionally is. They are inherently abstract and affect the way that we think and communicate about reality."
— Intro to Semiospherics
S. M. Katz, Esq. et al
Read on, knowing that you must accept what the universe says is true, even if it doesn't make sense; one plus one doesn't always equal two."
— Dr. Eli Forkley
Director of Miscommunications
from "SCP-INTEGER", aka "SCP-5242"
"A semiohazard, informally, is a fact of the universe that just shouldn't be true, but functionally is. They are inherently abstract and affect the way that we think and communicate about reality."
— Intro to Semiospherics
S. M. Katz, Esq. et al
Semiohazard by Zack-1 January 26, 2024
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