Qntm

Last updated

Sam Hughes
Born1983 (age 4041)
Pen nameqntm
Occupation
  • Author
  • programmer
NationalityBritish
Genre Science fiction
Notable works
  • There Is No Antimemetics Division
  • "Lena"
Website
qntm.org

Sam Hughes (born 1983), [1] known online as and publishing under the pen name qntm (pronounced "quantum"), [2] is a British programmer and science fiction author. [3] Hughes writes short stories such as "Lena", about the first digital snapshot of a human brain, and serial novels such as Ra and Fine Structure. [1] [4] [5] He has also written for the SCP Wiki, and his book There Is No Antimemetics Division is set in that fictional universe. [6] [7] He contributed to SCP-055 alongside user CptBellman. [8]

Contents

In 2022, Hughes created Absurdle , a variant of Wordle wherein the word changes with every guess, while still remaining true to previous hints. [3] [9] [10] The Guardian described it as "the Machiavellian version of Wordle", and Hughes described it as an "experiment to find the most difficult [...] variant of Wordle", comparing it to one of his previous projects, the Tetris variant Hatetris. [11]

Bibliography

Versions of most of Hughes' serials and short stories have been initially made freely available online prior to being published.

Related Research Articles

<i>Dying Earth</i> Series of fantasy novels by Jack Vance

Dying Earth is a speculative fiction series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up, perhaps all the way to novel.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. As of April 2022, the site had catalogued 2,002,324 story titles from 232,816 authors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. O'Conor Sloane</span> American scientist

Thomas O'Conor Sloane was an American scientist, inventor, author, editor, educator, and linguist, perhaps best known for writing The Standard Electrical Dictionary and as the editor of Scientific American, from 1886 to 1896 and the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, from 1929 to 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhys Hughes</span> Welsh writer (born 1966)

Rhys Henry Hughes is a Welsh fantasy writer and essayist.

S. Andrew Swann is an American science fiction and fantasy author living in Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where much of his fiction is set. He was born Steven Swiniarski and has published some of his books as Swiniarski, and some as Swann. He has been published by DAW Books and by Ballantine Spectra, a division of Random House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon Sanderson</span> American fantasy and science fiction writer

Brandon Winn Sanderson is an American author of young adult high fantasy and science fiction books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David H. Keller</span> American writer (1880–1966)

David Henry Keller was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell-shocked soldiers during World War I and World War II, and his experience treating mentally ill people is evident in some of his writing, which contains references to mental disorders. He initially wrote short stories as a hobby and published his first science fiction story in Amazing Stories in 1928. He continued to work as a psychiatrist while publishing over sixty short stories in science fiction and horror genres. Technically, his stories were not well-written, but focused on the emotional aspects of imaginative situations, which was unusual for stories at the time.

Michael Shayne Bell is an American science fiction writer, editor, and poet. He won the second quarter of the 1986 Writers of the Future contest with his story, "Jacob's Ladder". His short works have been nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula Awards. The Association for Mormon Letters awarded him for editorial excellence with his Washed by a Wave of Wind: Science Fiction from the Corridor anthology in 1994. Baen Books published Nicoji, a novel based on his short story of the same name, in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula K. Le Guin bibliography</span>

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was an American author of speculative fiction, realistic fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, librettos, essays, poetry, speeches, translations, literary critiques, chapbooks, and children's fiction. She was primarily known for her works of speculative fiction. These include works set in the fictional world of Earthsea, stories in the Hainish Cycle, and standalone novels and short stories. Though frequently referred to as an author of science fiction, critics have described her work as being difficult to classify.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad R. Torgersen</span> American science fiction author (born 1974)

Brad R. Torgersen is an American science fiction author whose short stories regularly appear in various anthologies and magazines, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creepypasta</span> Horror-related media shared around the Internet

A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet. The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet. These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories that are intended to frighten readers. The subjects of creepypasta vary widely and can include topics such as ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon supernatural entities, haunted television shows, and video games. Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series that can span multiple media types, some lasting for years.

Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai science fiction and fantasy writer, who is also known for her controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for Scale-Bright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SCP Foundation</span> Online collaborative writing project

The SCP Foundation is a fictional organization featuring in stories created by the SCP Wiki, a wiki-based collaborative writing project. Within the project's shared fictional universe, the SCP Foundation is a secret organization that is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena, while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam J. Miller</span> English science fiction, fantasy and horror short fiction author

Sam J. Miller is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror short fiction author. His stories have appeared in publications such as Clarkesworld, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Lightspeed, along with over 15 "year's best" story collections. He was finalist for multiple Nebula Awards along with the World Fantasy and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. He won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for his short story "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides." His debut novel, The Art of Starving, was published in 2017 and his novel Blackfish City won the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

David John Butler is an American speculative fiction author. His epic flintlock fantasy novel Witchy Kingdom won the Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel in 2020. Witchy Winter won the 2018 AML Award for Best Novel and the 2018 Whitney Award for Best Speculative Fiction, and Witchy Eye was a preliminary nominee for the Gemmell Morningstar Award.

Michael A. Rothman is an American engineer and writer of science fiction, epic fantasy, and techno thriller novels. His fiction books are generally published under the name M. A. Rothman. He holds over 1000 patents worldwide, and is one of the primary architects of the UEFI standard. He has co-authored two books and six papers about the standard.

Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of coloured tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word. During 2023, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times.

Absurdle is a 2022 web-based puzzle word game created by Sam Hughes, commonly known as qntm. It is a Wordle clone in which the player attempts to guess a five-letter word while the game changes the solution. Inspired by his other project Hatetris, he created Absurdle to experiment the passive-aggressiveness of the former game.

<i>Afterland</i> 2020 novel by Lauren Beukes

Afterland is a 2020 science fiction novel by South African writer Lauren Beukes. It takes place during "Manfall", a 2020 pandemic which has killed off almost all the world's men. Three years later In the United States, Cole and her twelve-year-old son, Miles are trying to flee to their home in South Africa. Miles is one of the few surviving males, and is sought after by US government researchers and boy traffickers.

References

  1. 1 2 "Summary Bibliography: Sam Hughes". Internet Speculative Fiction Database .
  2. qntm. "About me". Things of Interest.
  3. 1 2 McCammon, Sarah (23 January 2022). "You've heard of Wordle — now get ready for Sweardle and Absurdle". NPR (Interview). Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  4. Adee, Sally (9 February 2022). "Mickey7 review: If you want to live forever, read the small print" . New Scientist . Retrieved 24 October 2022. A well-meaning neuroscience grad student donates his digital consciousness to science, a decision he may find he "lives" to regret.
  5. Ritter, Dan (20 June 2018). "SF For Nothing, Stories For Free". Charlie's Diary. Charles Stross . Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  6. Adee, Sally (6 April 2022). "Sci-fi is starting to exploit the infectious horrors of memes" . New Scientist . Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  7. O'Connor, Alice (2 February 2022). "Iconic Internet monster SCP-173 is losing its look". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved 24 October 2022. I liked the There Is No Antimemetics Division tales by "qntm", who also wrote SCP/Control crossover fanfic. And I've only just realized qntm is also behind Absurdle, a Wordle variant that changes the answer while you play. Huh!
  8. Potvin, James (22 September 2022). "What Is The SCP Foundation? 15 Best Pieces Every New Fan Should Read". Screen Rant . Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  9. Haysom, Sam (20 January 2022). "Hooked on 'Wordle'? You're really going to hate 'Absurdle'". Mashable . Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  10. Rocha, Paul (8 May 2022). "How and where to play Absurdle". Dot Esports . Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  11. Winkie, Luke (14 January 2022). "Absurdle: the machiavellian version of Wordle". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 October 2022.