doom

The first-person shooter that defined the phrase, uploaded as shareware to a university FTP server in December 1993 while so many people waited that the server had to be cleared. It ran on office networks against company policy, was blamed for Columbine in 1999, and now runs on anything with a screen. The 2016 reboot brought it back at speed.

'hi every1 im new!!!!!!! *holds up spork*' — the opening of a mid-2000s copypasta written in the voice of a hyperactive forum newcomer who is 'random' and 'lol so quirky', signed 't3h PeNgU1N oF d00m'. The record notes it was a parody when it was written, that it is now the only surviving specimen of the style it parodied, and that the spork is still held up.

Someone who thinks AI is likely to kill everyone, as labelled by someone who does not. The word arrived in 2023 from the older internet 'doomer' and was used by the accelerationists to cover everyone from Yudkowsky, who called for bombing data centres, to researchers who wanted a licensing regime. Some of the accused took the label on. The labs' safety teams did not.

id Software's 2025 medieval prequel, with a shield saw, a dragon, a giant mech and a launch on Game Pass on day one, which produced the argument about whether a game can be a hit without a sales figure. Reviewed well, played by millions on subscription, and reported as having 'underperformed' by people who had no number to underperform against. The record's entry for the Game Pass launch problem.

A wojak in a black hoodie smoking, with a playlist of sad songs and no hope: the doomer, one of the 2018 wojak types, for the young man who has read too much and gone outside too little. The record's entry for the mood that became a character.

Your personal probability that AI ends the world, given as a percentage and asked as an icebreaker. The notation is from the rationalist forums; the habit of demanding it in interviews began in 2023, when Anthropic's chief executive put his between ten and twenty-five, Yudkowsky put his above ninety-five, and Yann LeCun put his near zero. It became a badge, a joke, and a way of sorting a dinner party.

Buying things to feel better about the news — the retail form of doomscrolling — named in late 2023 and adopted immediately by everyone who had bought a candle after reading a headline. The record's entry for the economy as a coping mechanism.

Continuing to read bad news past the point of information. The rare coinage that named a behaviour people already recognised in themselves.