Different Kinds of Darkness

Hugo Award Winner HOMer Award Nominee The field of advanced mathematic imaging has taken a lethal turn in the form of the BLIT. Named after the now-deceased mathematician Vernon Berryman, the Berryman Logical Imaging Technique can create images that crash the human brain in the same way a computer crashes from a sufficiently complex query. Terrorists have killed millions using posters, graffiti—and television. Many parents have had secret biochips implanted in the optic nerves of their children to darken the world outside of their schools and homes. Now, with a mild-dose BLIT found in a copy machine, the secret student group known as the Shudder Club holds contests to see who can stare at it the longest and prove worthy of their tenet: That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.