Editing David Langford (section)

====Basilisks====
A number of Langford's stories are set in a [[future]] containing images, colloquially called "basilisks", which [[crash (computing)|crash]] the human mind by triggering thoughts that the mind is physically or logically incapable of thinking.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westfahl |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Westfahl |title=[[Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia]] |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-4408-6617-3 |location=Santa Barbara, California |pages=232 |language=en |chapter=Dimensions |oclc=1224044572 |quote=David Langford's Blit (1988) features images generated by fractals that drive people insane. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA232}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-05-22|title=Author Spotlight: David Langford|url=https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-david-langford/|access-date=2021-08-20|website=Lightspeed Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> The first of these stories was "[[BLIT (short story)|BLIT]]" (''[[Interzone (magazine)|Interzone]]'', 1988); others include "What Happened at Cambridge IV" (''Digital Dreams'', 1990); "comp.basilisk FAQ",<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Langford|first=David|date=1999-12-02|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=402|issue=6761|pages=465|doi=10.1038/44964|issn=1476-4687|bibcode=1999Natur.402..465L|title=Comp.basilisk Faq|doi-access=free}}</ref> and the [[Hugo Award for Best Short Story|Hugo]]-winning<ref>{{Cite web|date=2007-07-26|title=2001 Hugo Awards|url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2001-hugo-awards/|access-date=2021-08-20|website=The Hugo Awards|language=en-US}}</ref> "Different Kinds of Darkness" (''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction|F&SF]]'', 2000).

The idea has appeared elsewhere; in one of his novels, [[Ken MacLeod]] has characters explicitly mention (and worry about encountering) the "Langford Visual Hack".<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://ansible.uk/writing/t3_002.html|title=What if ... the human brain could be hacked into?|website=Ansible.uk|access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref> Similar references, also mentioning Langford by name, feature in works by [[Greg Egan]]<ref name="auto"/> and [[Charles Stross]].  The eponymous ''[[Snow Crash]]'' of [[Neal Stephenson]]'s novel is a combination mental/[[computer virus]] capable of infecting the minds of [[Security hacker|hackers]] via their [[visual cortex]]. The idea also appears in ''[[Blindsight (science fiction novel)|Blindsight]]'' by [[Peter Watts (author)|Peter Watts]] where a particular combination of right angles is a harmful image to [[Vampire|vampires]]. The roleplaying game ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' has so-called "Basilisk hacks", sensory or linguistic attacks on cognitive processes. The concept of a "[[:wikt:cognitohazard|cognitohazard]]", largely identical to Langford's basilisks, is sometimes used in the fictional universe of the [[SCP Foundation]].

The image's name comes from the [[basilisk]], a legendary reptile said to have the power to cause death with a single glance.