On the naming of XM Artifacts, Catylists, Anomalies and WMDs
On the naming of XM Artifacts, Catylists, Anomalies and WMDs
Like agent Ravidor pointed out, the name "techthulu" is a portmanteau of "technology" and "Cthulu", the great old one from Howard Lovecraft's horror mythos. I don't really care for it.
As a biomedical scientist, I prefer descriptive names to eponyms, but they're hard to get rid of once they've become established. For example: you'll never replace Parkinson's with "rigid dyskinesia" or "paralysis agitans". Progress is being made, however. What was once "Mongolism" thankfully became known as "Down Syndrome" and is now known as Trisomy 21 in most clinical settings.
A big part of science if nomenclature. People everywhere should be able to know something by name, not dependent on having read the Call of Cthulu to infer that the suffix "-thulu" this is something huge, alien, and evil. Recent information suggests that this thing, whatever it is, isn't necessarily "evil". As we understand these structures better, the name should reflect that.
Likewise most past anomalies are also eponymous. Persepolis, Obsidian, Shonin... But the anomalies themselves follow a pattern, and we recognize that. We know what a "shard anomaly" is, what "clusters" are. And we have enough examples that we could start categorizing them.
I'd like to see if the community could suggest better naming conventions for anomalies and events, artifacts and prime objects, and maybe states of XM-sensitivity or integration?
Thoughts?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1962881/
Like agent Ravidor pointed out, the name "techthulu" is a portmanteau of "technology" and "Cthulu", the great old one from Howard Lovecraft's horror mythos. I don't really care for it.
As a biomedical scientist, I prefer descriptive names to eponyms, but they're hard to get rid of once they've become established. For example: you'll never replace Parkinson's with "rigid dyskinesia" or "paralysis agitans". Progress is being made, however. What was once "Mongolism" thankfully became known as "Down Syndrome" and is now known as Trisomy 21 in most clinical settings.
A big part of science if nomenclature. People everywhere should be able to know something by name, not dependent on having read the Call of Cthulu to infer that the suffix "-thulu" this is something huge, alien, and evil. Recent information suggests that this thing, whatever it is, isn't necessarily "evil". As we understand these structures better, the name should reflect that.
Likewise most past anomalies are also eponymous. Persepolis, Obsidian, Shonin... But the anomalies themselves follow a pattern, and we recognize that. We know what a "shard anomaly" is, what "clusters" are. And we have enough examples that we could start categorizing them.
I'd like to see if the community could suggest better naming conventions for anomalies and events, artifacts and prime objects, and maybe states of XM-sensitivity or integration?
Thoughts?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1962881/
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lnNWYMPs9sGYF2v35kzcOjSf0-XpN-8hxriKpY0R2xp0FmVvUHQmj0cIE9N4VtWGFbFKJH5M5KETLAfLitrPfDJPlgGqUNdlyIY=s0
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea.
ReplyDeleteMy personal idea as to why the Tecthullu is still named that was echoed in a much better way by Yik Sheng Lee:
"Seems like Tecthulhu, like most XM technology, is a double-edged sword. It builds and destroys."
The origin of the Tecthullu that we first learned of was from Nigel Moyer, who saw its destructive power and sought to hide it from the world out of fear of what it could do if it spread.
I mean, Tecthullus can even possess their own consciousness. They can whisper into the minds of their creators, shaping and influencing them even as the Tecthullu itself bends to the will of the creator.
Take into account what Hank Johnson, Misty Hannah and Devra Bogdanovich were talking about in a recent conversation:
JOHNSON: If we stop for just a moment, and consider that we might be on to something -- if all these major historical events and movements have involved MAGNUSES and a Tecthulhu, then Lynton-Wolfe's warning...
BOGDANOVICH: "Where there was one, there will be many."
HANNAH: Yeah... it sort of takes on a whole new meaning, doesn't it.
To me personally, I'm starting to think that the reason why the Tecthullu is named the way it is, despite the fact that it can do good, could be because there could be a hidden danger in interaction with them....we still know very little about how they operate within the XM universe and now there's even a challenge being issued to Agents to build their own.
To me, Tecthullus can do good but they're not 100% perfect and safe.
By that description though, it seems more of a tool or a catalyst than an independent consciousness. How do we even know if subtle influince is coming FROM the object or THROUGH it?
ReplyDeleteIt's just my instinct to question these sources. Not saying they're lying but their point of view might be manipulated. There's so much deception and obfuscation around XM research and use that honestly, I'd question ANYTHING that came from a single perspective.
I think techthulus is the plural of techthulu, assuming there have been other similar constructs in the past (or present, who knows?).
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't normally post this frequently, but I'm on "spring break" LOL
Spring break:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YvAtUa4vJ1MtowP6xel3QuOJ41VsZGFZkSmW8efESeTIXIzBnfH7mBVPlFochhNQZCLBTKy1KXvmVKV5rKuFTllpfU7-jKs3gdk=s0
I think, for when he was given to read so far in this matter, that the use of "Cthulhu" terminology is to be understood in the same way "δεινός" (transliterated deinos) in the word dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteA selected term to indicate a feeling aroused.
If in man of Darwin's time the dinosaur gave a feeling of terrible and fascinating, astonishing because never seen before, so the choice to tie this new term dates sensations from a cthulhu would like you to think of something dark, hidden, powerful but terrified in the negative - and not by its nature before, but because, taken in the simplest way, namely to give vent to hidden human desires, inevitably leads to something very negative - and that's why the techthulhu should be used / operated / put in place by a circle of 13 who can balance - the 13magnus
In addition, it seems that, for Lovecraft's own admission, the root of the term "Cthulhu" is to be found in the chthonic (χθόνιος), which, according to linguistic analysis can be understood not only something underground and obscure, but also:
ReplyDelete"[...] What is chthonic, therefore, is not only what is related to the land, to its epidermal fertility: what is chthonic is what is related to the earth and hidden in its depths, which is linked to the arcane lost in his fat gut.
It can be chthonic gold wonder of a wheat field; you can have the chthonic achievements being alone in the woods, sitting on the leaves that rot among the large roots of a tree - that plunge underground; and may confer additional solemnity to the moment, the chthonic sanctity of a burial, a scattering of ashes.
does not view because there is no light, no sound because there is nothing that produces noise in the underground chthonic remains only a tactile fusion, sexual, with the mystery of life. [...] "
Oh, nice work on the etymology. I was only familiar with the term from Lovecraft's fiction.
ReplyDeleteDuring my studies I spent much time on the Greek and Latin classics (did a grammar school), then, it is very nice for me to resume my studies notions passed to make us something new.
ReplyDeleteThere's good points on both sides here. The "Technological Cthulu" portmanteau feels a bit clumsy, but it does convey the meaning of something vast, unknowable, and awe-inspiring.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's been too long since I read Lovecraft but I really feel he emphasized the /evil/ as a fundamental characteristic of Chthulu, and "insanity-inducing alien-ness" :)
ReplyDelete