This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Mr Etaoin Shrdlu: Should I remove the SCP Foundation image? It has no effect on me, but I understand it makes some people queasy.
GG Crono: I think the King in Yellow image should be restored. It's a much better-known example. I'd restore it myself, but it seems to have disappeared from the page history, or at least, I can't find it. Curious.
Mr Etaoin Shrdlu: Well, someone else appears to have reinstated the SCP Foundation image, but you can find the Lovecraft one on Cosmic Horror Story.
███████: The SCP Foundation image should be removed. Do I need to mention that it's supposed to be fatal to unauthorized personnel? How can we recruit new tropes in these conditions?
JJ Moses: I don't get it. It's not scary at all. It's kind of pretty.
Mr Etaoin Shrdlu: Fixed it.
Ununnilium: Sixth Column didn't use infrasound, did it? It used a piece of (oddly racist and apparently forced upon Heinlein by his editor) Applied Phlebotinum in the form of the "electromagnetogravitic spectrum" or somesuch.
Looney Toons: That was the MacGuffin for most of the book, yeah, but I'm thinking of the defenses of the "temple" — there's a scene where a PanAsian (I think that was the term used in the book) agent walks into the temple and suffers a panic attack, and in a back room somewhere one of the guys explains infrasonics to the another guy.
Ununnilium: Oh, I remember that now.
(random passer-by): It's been many years since I read Sixth Column but I seem to recall that Heinlein put a lot more than the usual amount of speculative science into that one. I believe that the book contained both references to infrasound and references to an extremely powerful and rather vaguely described gadget that could do everything from cure cancer to project gigantic hologram-ish illusions to blow stuff up.
Amusingly, or not amusingly, the "brown note" in the South Park episode has some scientific basis. A sufficiently powerful vibration, around 5 to 20 cycles per second, can cause instant uncontrollable diarrhea in susceptible persons. It isn't because they hear the beam, it's because the vibrations affect the autonomic nervous system and cause the intestines to do certain things uncontrollably. The French military experimented with the concept in the 1970s and 1980s and created what was basically a massive loudspeaker truck (well, for "loudspeaker" substitute "propane-fired acoustic detonation horn") using the concept for riot patrol. When they tried it in the field, they noticed that it also affected the crew of the truck as well as nearby riot police. Back to the drawing board.
Ununnilium: Edited out the sirens 'cause hypnosis isn't the same thing.
Fly:
- In Breath Of Fire, one of the things you could do to weaken the Big Bad, Zog, was to learn a melody and... put it in a bottle so you could use it in the fight. This also wounded the main character.A similar device shows up in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Mario's battle against the first boss, Hooktail, is made easier if Mario first finds and equips a badge that produces cricket noises when he attacks. Apparently, Hooktail can't stand the sound of crickets chirping, having gotten indigestion from eating one. ''
All well and good but it really has nothing to do with this trope - it's about something you don't see or hear, not a sound used as a weapon. Cutting 'em off.
crapface: what would you call It then?
Big T: Either this trope has changed tremendously since this comment, or Fly is the one who misunderstood the trope. It's about a sound that has an effect. The argument that these don't count would have to be based on the fact that they only work on a specific character.
Mr Etaoin Shrdlu: Then what's the difference between this and Make Me Wanna Shout?
Maureen Macdonald: What about the sound of drums from Doctor Who? Does having a drumbeat running through your head and driving you mad for centuries seem to fit?
Big T: No, but the sound running just beyond conscious hearing, causing people to trust Saxon would qualify.
- The Death Note is very much an example of this, as touching one affects one's memories and sense of sight.
- And it kills people. That probably counts, too.
In this case, it's not perception that causes the effect, it's just that it's a magic book that does magic stuff when you write in it or touch it.
I seem to remember a film, possibly called Videotron, which had a video Brown Note as its premise.
Pikawil: You mean Videodrome. Videotron is an actual, existing company.
AKK: There's a "mosquito repellent" that relies on emitting the sound of wingbeats of a male mosquito(Aedes, due to fears of dengue), in order to drive away mosquitoes. I dunno about them, but when it's switched on, I get horrendous sounds akin to the static whistle from switching on T Vs and the like. Of the half dozen or so family and army mates I've asked, only 1 other person seemed to be able to hear it. It should be noted that my brother is almost a year younger than me, and about half the army mates are under the age of 35...
David Harmon: Actually, there are several ultrasonic repellents for both mosquitoes and spiders. I haven't used the latter, but the former was more effective at repelling people than mosquitoes. (Also, I'm going to put the missing ! into fnord!, as it was specifically mentioned as significant in the book.)
There's also at least one SF story featuring images called "basilisks", which could kill anyone who viewed the image. (Whoops, never mind, you've already got Langford et seq.)
el Igore: Isn't the word with which the Fremen warriors fire their weapons in the original Dune movie an example of this?
Fast Eddie: Pulled all the quote crap. Can we save some room for the actual article?
Mr Etaoin Shrdlu: Oh, Fast Eddie, what would we do without you? You're the Tv Tropes equivalent of Dr. Clef, keeping this wiki from falling apart.
Dodger: Every single instance of Pheromones falls under the the specifics of what this trope defines itself as. Seriously. Pheromones are smells that cause behavioural changes and physical reactions. Owen spraying himself with alien cologne to make people want to shag him — that's just one example.
I don't know the name of the Pheromones trope... do we HAVE one?
Interestingly enough... if you think about it, many real world drugs are direct examples of smells directly affecting you. Pretty much anything anyone puts up one's nose — and an argument can be made for the mechanism of a 'contact high' gleaned from walking along the wrong floor of a dormitory, too.
Seanette: Nabbed deleted RL examples and put them in Brown Note.
Great Pikmin Fan: I thought of pink elephants and got nothing specail. What's supposed to happen?
Faste Eddie: Moving discussion out of article:
- The Schumann Computer — Against the advice of a friendly Chirp, Rick decides to invest in a massive supercomputer project designed to learn everything there is to know about the universe. The project appears to be quite successful, turning out discovery after discovery, but after having gathered a certain amount of knowledge, the computer becomes non-functional. There is nothing technically wrong with the equipment, it has simply ceased functioning. The Chirp then informs Rick that this has happened many times throughout the universe. Apparently once the computer discovers a certain amount of information about the universe, there is something about the information that causes them to decide to stop functioning entirely. Again, the Chirp decide that leaving well enough alone is the best course of action. (And when asked why the Chirp hadn't given him these details before, Rick is told "You didn't ask.")
- WRONG! Rick's computer suffered the intellectual equivalent of starvation: it learned everything within reach of its sensors and then just...shut down. That makes this a different trope.
- The Schumann Computer — Against the advice of a friendly Chirp, Rick decides to invest in a massive supercomputer project designed to learn everything there is to know about the universe. The project appears to be quite successful, turning out discovery after discovery, but after having gathered a certain amount of knowledge, the computer becomes non-functional. There is nothing technically wrong with the equipment, it has simply ceased functioning. The Chirp then informs Rick that this has happened many times throughout the universe. Apparently once the computer discovers a certain amount of information about the universe, there is something about the information that causes them to decide to stop functioning entirely. Again, the Chirp decide that leaving well enough alone is the best course of action. (And when asked why the Chirp hadn't given him these details before, Rick is told "You didn't ask.")
