Sam Hughes (born 1983), known online as and publishing under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

qntm (pronounced "

quantum In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

"), is a British programmer and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

author. 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''. He has also written for the

SCP Foundation The SCP Foundation is a fictional organization featured in stories created by contributors on the SCP Wiki, a wiki-based Collaborative fiction, collaborative writing project. Within the project's shared universe, shared fictional universe, the ...

wiki. His book '' There Is No Antimemetics Division'', a

high-concept High concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with low concept, which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summariz ...

blend of science fiction and

cosmic horror Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is nam ...

, began as a

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

on the wiki. In 2024,

Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is an imprint (trade name), imprint of the Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House. The imprint was established in 1977 under the editorship of Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, author Lester del Rey. Today, th ...

acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the book, while

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

acquired the US rights. qntm also contributed to SCP-055 alongside user CptBellman. In 2022, Hughes created '' Absurdle'', a variant of ''

Wordle ''Wordle'' is a web-based word game created and developed by the Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. In the game, players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, receiving feedback through colored tiles that indicate correct letters a ...

'' wherein the word changes with every guess, while still remaining true to previous hints. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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 ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

'' variant ''Hatetris''.

Bibliography

Versions of most of Hughes' serials and short stories have been initially made freely available online prior to being published. * * * * * Containing: ** "Lena" (reprinted in ) ** "If You Are Reading This" ** "The Frame-by-Frame" ** "The Difference" ** "Gorge" ** "cripes does anybody remember Google People" ** "Driver" ** "I Don't Know, Timmy, Being God Is a Big Responsibility" ** "A Powerful Culture" ** "Valuable Humans in Transit"

References

External links

*
qntm's author page
at the

wiki
Sam Hughes
at the

Internet Speculative Fiction Database 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 ...

{{SCP Foundation British science fiction writers Living people SCP Foundation 1983 births