What does the phrase 'they blue screened' mean to you?

[Naruzeldamaster]

When me and my buddy use this phrase, it's usually used as shorthand for saying 'x character completely blanked out for a hot second' typically for when trying to figure out what (typically absurd thing) was just said to them, or maybe make sense of the situation they were thrown into. Rarely do I use it in my own writing but I used it in my own writing last night (in a DND esque fantasy setting, but there's a few computer based elements to it's lore.) so it made me wonder if that phrase was self explanatory enough for others to understand it.

When I think about it deeply, to me it's like saying 'oh their brain just couldn't process what just happened to them and they went wtf and checked out to regain sanity for a few seconds' cause in computer terminology it generally means the computer is either doing the same, and had to shut down, or bricked. (Though usually if the PC is bricked we get the Red Screen now and not the blue screen)

I've used the phrase in normal conversations in the wild, and nobody seems phased by it so I feel like most people understand what the phrase itself means, at least people who use computers.

 

[pmmg]

When computers malfunction they blue screen. This is just applying it to humans.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

When computers malfunction they blue screen. This is just applying it to humans.

I mean yes, but the application makes sense in the context of 'their brain froze' because generally that's what the blue screen is used for.

 

[pmmg]

What you are describing is cognitive dissonance. Blue screening seems a modern term for it.

But, I can never assume. While computers still blue screen, they dont do so nearly as often as they had in the past. In the age of 486s and pentiums, it was pretty common, specially if you used a non-intel processor. Now, it not an everyday occurrence. I'd not be surprised if a younger generation did not know the reference.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

What you are describing is cognitive dissonance. Blue screening seems a modern term for it.

But, I can never assume. While computers still blue screen, they dont do so nearly as often as they had in the past. In the age of 486s and pentiums, it was pretty common, specially if you used a non-intel processor. Now, it not an everyday occurrence. I'd not be surprised if a younger generation did not know the reference.

To be fair the character basically clarifies that her brain shut down for a hot second, her response being "Damn, I...don't have a response for that one." when for most of her engagement with the other character she had some kind of response or quip. The two get on like water and oil at first but they slowly start to like eachother as they fight eachother (it's a much longer fight)

I might keep it, might remove it, for now I'll just leave it in until I think of a better phrasing. I do see your point about it not being as common these days.
Frankly the only time I see them anymore on AMD hardware is if Windows Borked one of their updates during the update process, which...has happened a few times.

 

[pmmg]

Thats pretty much what cognitive dissonance is. Something you believe to be true is shown not to be, and your brain cant compute it. You pretty much shut down and have to reset.

Once I was lost in Wash DC, and my girlfriend at the time was like, 'We have to get away from the washington monument', and I was like 'We are nowhere near the monument', and just as I said that I could see outside her passenger window, the base of the washington monument drifting by. Everything I believed was suddenly wrong. Had to reset and get a different picture. Course...that was many years ago. I got over it

Typically, people retreat back into something else that is not true, but truth hurts sometimes.

Also...AMD and Intel seem to be equally good for PCs today. Cyrix and Texas Instruments have disappeared. I still prefer Intel cause you never get over all the headaches earlier AMD chips caused, but I've not seen one fail like that in a long time. Now when you get Blue Screens its mostly cause of bad RAM.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Unfortunately, my mind immediately goes to the TV Tropes page, 'Heroic Blue Screen of Death' [or Heroic BSD for short]. I say unfortunately because I spent way too much time on TV Tropes in the past. These days I avoid it by virtue of it not accepting my adblocker, and refusing to show any pages at all.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Thats pretty much what cognitive dissonance is. Something you believe to be true is shown not to be, and your brain cant compute it. You pretty much shut down and have to reset.

Once I was lost in Wash DC, and my girlfriend at the time was like, 'We have to get away from the washington monument', and I was like 'We are nowhere near the monument', and just as I said that I could see outside her passenger window, the base of the washington monument drifting by. Everything I believed was suddenly wrong. Had to reset and get a different picture. Course...that was many years ago. I got over it

Typically, people retreat back into something else that is not true, but truth hurts sometimes.

Also...AMD and Intel seem to be equally good for PCs today. Cyrix and Texas Instruments have disappeared. I still prefer Intel cause you never get over all the headaches earlier AMD chips caused, but I've not seen one fail like that in a long time. Now when you get Blue Screens its mostly cause of bad RAM.

Yeah, she spends a fair bit of the chapter thinking one way about the guy (Because most of his behavior justifies her honestly justified pre-assessment, though it was one of those 'on the spot before I know you' sort of assessments) but then he does something unexpected, thereby confirming that yes, he really is just that spacey, and needs someone strong willed to straighten him out. (which is part of the joke of the pairing)

The guy blatantly admits he's not very tactful which is what really shocks her (and thus her brain has to shut down for a second to process what he said) since he seemed 'unaware' and was just 'being a man' up to this point. He boldly admits he actually likes her and would like it if she stuck around to 'straighten him out' though he's not entirely sure how. In this moment she realizes he's not quite as much the 'pig' she thought he was at the start of the chapter, he just lacked brain cells. Maybe he just needed a little...ahem, let's say, coaching from someone willing to put the time in.

Long Story short, She's the straight man, He's the Wise guy, and they both kind of share the same brain cell. (which also makes the pairing kinda funny)

There's a couple of pairings like this in this story and the second one is a bit funnier because the second pair can't decide who 'wears the pants in the relationship'

In regards to computers: you don't see the BSOD that often anymore but when you do it's enough to make you panic. Cause when the BSOD shows up, something has to be really, really wrong with your pc. Even worse is the much less common Red Screen of Death which means, 'yup, your PC is dead chum'

 

[Penpilot]

I have a CompSci degree, (but it's been a long time since I used it) and my initial reaction is their brain crashed, and there's no getting out of it until they do a hard reboot. To me, it's not a momentary pause. To me, what you describe is akin to bottle-necking.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I've used the phrase in normal conversations in the wild, and nobody seems phased by it so I feel like most people understand what the phrase itself means, at least people who use computers.

I think the important thing is this bit: many people will understand the reference if it's used in the right context and it's obvious from the context what it means.

It's basically a human superpower. We're great at inferring the meaning of stuff from what's happening around it. It's after all, how we learn languages in the first place.

I do agree with Penpilot that I would think it's more than a momentary pause

 

[El_d_ray]

Without context and just reading the title, my brain went to the movies, when blue screen is the same as green screen used in some scenario. Reading it, I would definitely connect to the computer error kind of things, and applied to humans would be something like "phase out for a moment". I think if I'd read a story about tech people or set in some cyberpunk-esqe setting this line could fit in nicely. But I wouldn't use it often.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I think the important thing is this bit: many people will understand the reference if it's used in the right context and it's obvious from the context what it means.

It's basically a human superpower. We're great at inferring the meaning of stuff from what's happening around it. It's after all, how we learn languages in the first place.

I do agree with Penpilot that I would think it's more than a momentary pause

Yeah I'm not quite sure what to replace it with though is the thing.
Unless we straight up want to say disassociate or whatever PMMing was saying earlier.
As of now the narrator is a yet unnamed character (she has a name, but she hasn't been mentioned by other characters by name) with no presence in the story. She is certainly brainy enough to use that kind of vocab, but at this point in the story she hadn't properly 'met' the characters.

 

[diabolicalplotter]

I understood your meaning in that context, though a blue screen to me always means it's not going to come back without a full reboot, ha. Lately I've been saying "hold on... buffering..." in conversation for moments like those. But I would totally get your meaning, reading it in that context.

 

[pmmg]

Another computer related term I hear, is Bandwidth, as in, I dont have the bandwidth for that right now. Its slowly sneaking in to our everyday use.

 

[pmmg]

Unless we straight up want to say disassociate or whatever PMMing was saying earlier.

Well...you can lead a horse to water...

I would use the term Blue Screened in my writing, if the setting allowed, and I think you should use it in yours.

 

[skip.knox]

The phrase makes me think of a rather old version of Windows. Macintoshes don't blue screen. Linux doesn't blue screen. The reference is so specific and definitely dated.

Moreover, it works only by analogy, since humans are not computers. So you are depending on the reader understanding a reference that had specificity 25 years ago, then making the analogy in the way you hope they do.

Alternatively, if you say the character's brain froze for a moment, that is more evocative because most everyone knows what "freezing" is. There are many other ways of saying that a character was at a loss for words, or did not know what to make of another's actions. And many ways of saying that colorfully, if that's what you are after. But the blue screen reference may not land the way you're hoping.

I am reminded of William Gibson's famous opening line from Neuromancer:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
Now, us old-timers know what that looks like. We called it "snow" sometimes--speckles of gray and white, in many shades. But I'm pretty sure my grandchildren would not know what to visualize from that sentence, and it will be less and less effective over time. I mean, even the concept of a "dead channel" belongs to another era.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Well...you can lead a horse to water...

I would use the term Blue Screened in my writing, if the setting allowed, and I think you should use it in yours.

To be fair, the whole reason I'm debating changing the phrase is because it's a 'fantasy' setting with a mix of 'normal' technology (TV's, soda machines, regular computers etc) and 'magical' technology. The characters would know what that phrase meant if they said it out loud, to eachother, at least the more tech-y ones into the 'antique' stuff. And there's a Clan of Mages who are all about computers n stuff, who write in L33T speak.

I'll probably keep it for now and if my editor (when I get to that point) says 'change it' when I get to that point I probably will.

 

[Penpilot]

I was just reading through the new post in this thread, and it triggered a memory of a phrase I heard used during a sports broadcast, which I though was pretty cool, when a player had a bit of a brain fart. That phrase was "mental vapor lock" derived from engine vapor lock. Engine vapor lock is a disruption of fuel to the engine by an air bubble resulting in an engine stall.