The Photos Are A Memetic Cognitohazard

Sue Storm stared at the photos—and she knew, instantly, that they were of her. Yet that was impossible; she had never posed for any such nude pictures. She would have remembered. Her vision swam as three sets of images seemed overlaid, one atop the other. The photos of Sue naked, her breasts bared and thighs lasciviously spread, a surly leer on her lips—and that of another woman, in the exact same pose and with the same countenance on her face—and between the two a pattern, a weird fractal kind of image that seemed to swim in her vision like an optical illusion.

"Ugh!" Sue grunted at a sudden headache. She closed her eyes against those terrible visions.

Then her smartphone began to buzz and chirp angrily. Sue opened her eyes and saw that the whole screen had become a flashing warning.

MEMETIC COGNITOHAZARD DETECTED. MEMETIC COGNITOHAZARD DETECTED. MEMETIC COGNITOHAZARD DET...

The phone fell from suddenly nerveless fingers as the half-dressed Invisible Woman collapsed onto the bed. The headache which had started as a throbbing pain behind the eyes had become a single pulse of pure agony that seemed to envelope her entire head, as if her skull was several sizes too tight.

In moments, Reed Richards emerged from his lab. The phone continued to blare it warning, and throughout the Baxter Building the various computers and communication devices took up the call. As the alarm spread, the windows of the Baxter Building went black, the whole of Four Freedoms Plaza in total lockdown as it separated itself from all communications with the outside world.

"Jeez, Stretcho, what's goin' on?" The Thing asked, as he stood inside the doorway of the lab. "One minute I was readin' Alicia the news from the internet, and the next everythin's gone dark."

"A memetic cognitohazard, Ben," Reed said. "A viral idea that is transmitted through the senses Like a virus, but it exists as pure information. Potentially, a cognitohazardous sound or image could spread across the world quickly, and be almost impossible to contain or counteract. I've long suspected they can exist, and developed a countermeasure to detect and protect us for them. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an example of such an image to do more than develop a warning system to quarantine us before we can be exposed."

"What can happen if somebody gets exposed to one of these whatchamallits?" The Thing asked.

"I don't know for sure," Reed said as he stoked his chin. "I've theorized it could cause some specific types of brain damage. Although there are less destructive uses. For example, an advertisement to convince people to see a particular movie, or to join the military; or to make ice cream taste like the color blue. Reall, the possibilities are endless and fascinating..."

"Focus, Stretch," the Thing said. "If this countermeasure o' yours sealed us off, that means there's a cognitohazard thingy out there, right? And somebody in the Baxter Building got it?"

"Yes...quite possibly. It'll be difficult to study it. We can't risk being exposed," Reed said. "You were looking at the internet, you said. Did you see anything strange?"

"I dunno...I think there was some malware or somethin', cause there was a popup with a naked lady on it, an' then the screen went black and started to scream at me..." The Thing grumbled, an oddly recalcitrant tone in his voice.

Reed nodded. "Was there anything odd about the image?"

"I only saw it for a second, but..." Ben sucked in his breath. "...you're gonna think I'm crazy, but for a moment I was sure it was Suzy!"