Memetic Birdsong

Summary:

Crows remember their enemies' faces. What if birds knew more?

Memetic Birdsong

Sonderance 03 Mar 2020 23:48

Seeking Greenlights: Yes

Page Type: SCP Article

Genre: Drama/Emotional

Elevator Pitch: A song written by a Foundation-killed anomalous composer teaches birds (and others) to identify and hunt Foundation personnel.

Page Layout:

• Basic Layout (Standard Containment Procedures, Description, etc.)
• (Optional) Log of failed retrieval of composer
• A letter by the composer to their future child
• Truncated log of bird attacks and locations to depict the spread of the song

Central Narrative:

+ Open

• There was a composer with the ability to encode memetic data into his music for non-human minds to receive
• He practiced this ability on the birds around his studio due to their natural affinity for musical sounds, teaching them to avoid or attack any predatory animals
• During the initial retrieval attempt, the birds attack the 'predatory' field agents
• Panicking field agents fire their weapons, killing some of the birds and the composer
• The birds that survive the retrieval go on to teach the melody to other birds, transferring the hostility toward the Foundation agents
• At this point, we learn that the composer intended for the song to be learned by his unborn child, allowing it to identify anybody who would harm it
• The birdsong spreads and reaches other species, despite the Foundation’s best attempts to control it

Hook/Attention-Grabber: In my opinion, the hook of this is that the main message is directly contrary to this site’s theme: at the end of the day, you can’t control the spread of information any more than you can silence birdsong.

Additional Notes: It might be difficult to express in the piece, but I'd love to somehow work in that the Foundation agents are now being attacked because they are trying to contain the affected birds, thereby wishing harm to intrinsically free creatures.

Last edited on 05 Mar 2020 00:32 by Sonderance Show more

Re: Memetic Birdsong

MalyceGraves 04 Mar 2020 18:41

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Shit, your narrative hook caught me. I dig the idea of the metaphor of warning here. "You can't contain everything." is a powerful message.

Moving on ->

That being said, I am personally not at all a fan of skips that reveal the story exclusively through retrieval and experimental logs. I want to hear about what's going on in the voice of the people involved.

Why did this composer just decide out of the blue to teach his birds to hunt Foundation agents? There had to have been precursor events that lead to this. Maybe it started with the Foundation finding out about him, and they make several attempts to silence his work/locate him before they finally do.

You could tell the story through a critic's review of one of his performances. Or maybe through journal entries, or letters to a family member.

There are lots of ways to convey this story that don't involve repetitious logs.

Also, the last bit about it beginning to work on humans? Does that imply that somehow the memetic agent is getting stronger? Bird brains don't work at all the same way human brains do, so I'm… hesitant to approve that.

That being said, flesh out the idea a bit and shoot me a DM or ping me on IRC.

Last edited on 04 Mar 2020 20:00 by MalyceGraves Show more

Re: Memetic Birdsong

Sonderance 05 Mar 2020 00:52

Geez, you make some stellar points! I've edited my initial post. Individual responses are in the collapsible.

Click here for more!

I want to hear about what's going on in the voice of the people involved.

Why did this composer just decide out of the blue to teach his birds to hunt Foundation agents?

This is a great point, and so I've decided to redirect the main motive of the composer.

• Instead of him teaching the birds to protect himself from the Foundation, he's doing it because they are naturally capable at expressing and receiving information through song, making them perfect test subjects
• Instead of inspiring hostility in animals out of self-preservation, he's doing it in order to develop a way to memetically transfer a heightened sense of danger to protect his loved ones
• The composer tests new iterations of the song on an absent-minded loved one to see if he's succeeded at making the memetic transfer work for humans, but he is unsuccessful

Most of this will be reflected in the letter to his unborn child that will hopefully replace any need for an expositionary retrieval log. I think changing the composer from a stereotypical "reclusive genius" to someone who's directly motivated by anxiety about the future will make him much more relatable.

Also, the last bit about it beginning to work on humans? Does that imply that somehow the memetic agent is getting stronger? Bird brains don't work at all the same way human brains do, so I'm… hesitant to approve that.

Once again, solid point. No spread to humans, but potentially, with natural adaptation (i.e. memetic mutation), it could transfer the info to other animals, presenting a much larger threat.

Re: Memetic Birdsong

MalyceGraves 06 Mar 2020 15:28

This definitely takes the story up a notch. The idea of an anomalous object being created to help a loved one is one that has been done many times, but that doesn't mean the idea isn't a good one.

Don't rely on tropes to get your message across, write a solid story, and this will be good.

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