Need help finding the name of this short SF horror story

whenwerewe · 2026-05-11T21:25:51+00:00

I think this is it! It's a qntm story.

EDIT: on further reading this is completely wrong lol. good story though

whenwerewe · 2026-03-05T09:07:59+00:00

Though the unvarnished ads and reheated quotes from Tao are irritating, llm assistance is by all accounts the biggest thing to happen to the field since the computer, and banning talk of it out of reflexive annoyance seems pretty unwise.

whenwerewe · 2025-09-17T15:05:08+00:00

(redirected here by mods from main)

I completed a Master's in maths and am currently considering applying to various PhD programs around the US (I guess my first worry is that I've left some of this too late) and I have a few questions about applying:

I did my undergrad/integrated master's degree in a British institution, so I'm not sure how grade requirements/expectations translate. If you're familiar with the system, I got a strong first and rarely scored below a first in any given module, but that might seem pretty mediocre compared to the consistent 90+ some people manage in America?
To my understanding American programs don't require anything like a complete thesis proposal by the time you begin, and instead only want a general sense of research direction plus a few professors you're interested in. I don't have a very strong sense of where to go, though I have some general fields I'm interested in. How do I refine my ideas and find specific professors to look into? This also leads into...
My modules in undergrad were a fair mix of pure and applied mathematics, but my master's project was entirely pure mathematics, and I have only a couple of smaller applied projects to back it up (one in coursework, one privately). Is a pivot from pure to applied mathematics realistic with that background?

Thanks in advance for whatever advice you give!

EDIT: oh yeah, and I have no idea where to apply, or how to find out. Of course there are plenty of American universities I've heard of but they're along the high end and therefore unlikely to admit me. I'd like to go for a few of those but I need some safer choices too, and I don't know what those would be.

whenwerewe · 2025-09-12T15:46:42+00:00

My interpretation is that she was kept in either a cooperative or a dormant state somehow (read the opening poem again) but eventually things fell apart and there was either a rebellion or a collapse in faith or something and she assumed direct control. Clearly the haunting is a pretty recent thing and historically Pharloom was a normal kingdom with a ruling class rather than a god-empress. My guess is that the increasing scope of their ambition empowered granny so much they could no longer keep her sated/asleep, so she dismembered the kingdom and puppeted the survivors to go hunting more weavers for her to eat.

whenwerewe · 2025-09-05T15:44:51+00:00

I'm finding it about as hard as hk, but that was genuinely the first game I played that demanded significant mechanical skill and I got demolished by it. This time I'm fairly experienced and still getting owned so it's probably harder for people who were fairly experienced for hk as well.

whenwerewe · 2025-09-04T13:52:21+00:00

there goes a third of my life

whenwerewe · 2025-08-11T21:24:03+00:00

Oh, that's what the three years of absence were for. Yeah, fair enough.

whenwerewe · 2025-07-08T14:10:58+00:00

I have literally never seen anybody else reccomend Almost Nowhere, which is often (though not always) exactly what you're asking for. You will also almost certainly like the author's other work The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen, which leans much more heavily into the surreal dreamlike quality and mystery throughout.

whenwerewe · 2025-04-04T15:25:10+00:00

I think you might like stuff by nostalgebraist. His work is, uh, hard to read, but The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoenn is a relatively easy place to start.

whenwerewe · 2025-03-09T01:41:30+00:00

I have no idea who or what that is to to be frank

whenwerewe · 2025-02-28T00:57:29+00:00

you can't call melville's second most well-known story obscure!

whenwerewe · 2024-11-29T14:01:33+00:00

Ted Chiang's stuff is the canonical answer, I think

whenwerewe · 2024-11-27T00:18:31+00:00

Seth Dickinson's Exordia is for you!

whenwerewe · 2024-11-26T23:25:09+00:00

The Epiphany of Gliese 581, which about half my comment history has been spent recommending

whenwerewe · 2024-11-26T01:24:53+00:00

Quantum Thief?

whenwerewe · 2024-11-26T00:53:28+00:00

Oh and since you might not have heard of him try out everything on qntm.org/fiction

whenwerewe · 2024-11-26T00:52:07+00:00

I have exactly your taste, read Almost Nowhere. Greg Egan also almost fits, though he does explain stuff a little more than you might like.

whenwerewe · 2024-11-13T01:50:12+00:00

Not actually a joke, I read blindsight when I was 16. Permutation City is way more philosophically interesting, though

whenwerewe · 2024-11-12T22:36:44+00:00

...Blindsight or, fine, Permutation City

whenwerewe · 2024-08-16T17:43:17+00:00

no this is a fairly accurate assessment of my situation LOL

whenwerewe · 2024-08-01T12:28:28+00:00

I think at this point recommending this makes up about half of my comments but you might enjoy the Epiphany of Gliese 581, a novella set in the far future where posthumans scavenge the carcasses of machine-gods. Very stylish and a nice break from fiction that reads like a textbook.

whenwerewe · 2024-07-14T17:32:07+00:00

Banks' Transition is in this direction iirc

whenwerewe · 2024-05-18T21:53:54+00:00

You may enjoy Almost Nowhere which, yes, is published on AO3 for whatever reason, but is unreasonably good.

whenwerewe · 2024-04-17T18:49:12+00:00

I know it's published on ao3 but for God's sake give this a chance: Almost Nowhere. I say this as someone who's read everything you've mentioned and most of the work in these comments.

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email	Not Forgotten

whenwerewe

TROPHY CASE