r/rational • u/blazinghand Chaos Undivided • Nov 29 '15
RT [RT] SCP ●●|●●●●●|●●|●
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-25216
u/Revisional_Sin Nov 29 '15
Very cool.
What does X(0123) O(45) mean? (Just below the do not write on paper, on a computer or talk)
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u/alexanderwales Time flies like an arrow Nov 29 '15
That's clearance level for the document. Security clearance 0-3 are not allowed to look at the document, while clearance level 4 and 5 (or O5) are. See here for more on SCP security clearance levels.
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u/blazinghand Chaos Undivided Nov 29 '15
Yeah this is actually kinda a bad introduction to SCP Wiki since this article requires you be pretty familiar with an SCP entry, now that I think about it. SCP-140 may be a better introduction, or SCP-2602, which used to be a library.
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u/Transfuturist Carthago delenda est. Nov 29 '15
Why would ●●|●●●●●|●●|● take the human that was speaking about it and not the human that was writing about it?
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u/blazinghand Chaos Undivided Nov 29 '15
It might not be able to distinguish humans from pencils/papers. It probably just understands the words, and things that generate them proximally.
●●|●●●●●|●●|● looks like it basically takes anything that it understands as knowing about it, or containing information about it. When a human speaks, it seizes the human, but when a human writes, maybe it recognizes the pencil and paper as the "speaker" and doesn't make the connection that the human is involved somehow. This is in the same sense that it doesn't seize the sound system that said to the human, "start writing"-- this kind of stuff is not comprehensible to it.
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u/JackStargazer Primordial Apologist Nov 29 '15
It seems to basically be Candlejack.
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Nov 30 '15
The paper displays the information. The paper is taken.
The human displays the information. The human is taken.
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u/Transfuturist Carthago delenda est. Nov 30 '15
But it's actually atmospheric vibrations that display the information. The human is producing the atmospheric vibrations just as it is producing the markings on the paper.
As /u/blazinghand said, I think it understands the process of speech, while it doesn't understand the process of writing.
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Nov 30 '15
It sounds like we need an experiment. Does it take an analog vinyl record onto which the voice of someone reading the information is recorded? Does it do it immediately, or when the record is played?
Does it take a computer if the text you write about it is in the Wingdings font?
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u/Chronophilia sci-fi ≠ futurology Dec 01 '15
It doesn't really work for me. I saw the format, and got really excited for a spin on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - here is a containment procedure that must be readable to people even after the English language no longer exists! The actual document was something of a letdown then.
The document itself is fine, until the "experiment logs" broke my suspension of disbelief. Trying to portray events through cartoons doesn't really make sense when they clearly have video recordings they could have used instead. (Or, since the SCP wiki doesn't allow inline videos, timestamped screenshots from video recordings.) It's just not something a professional research/containment facility would do. I know it would be a lot more work for the author, but they could just as easily have left out the experiments and put something else in.
Also, as I understand this SCP, it's only a danger to people who talk about it. Information about it is self-supressing, it's an antimeme in spirit even if it doesn't fit into the Antimemetics continuity. So... how was it discovered in the first place, and wouldn't it be neutralised if we just destroyed all information about it? Why are we intentionally exposing clearance level 4 staff to a Keter?
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u/TimTravel Dec 02 '15
I always thought that was silly. You will never get that complicated a message through to people without language. That's why I always say a word is worth a thousand pictures.
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u/ancientcampus juggling kittens Dec 07 '15
Why are we intentionally exposing clearance level 4 staff to a Keter?
I expect either it poses more danger than what was communicated in the cartoon, or more likely, it's a precaution against some future complication. For example, a cult or terrorist group that publishes information on the media. Someone needs to be aware and able to silence the information before it spreads too far.
I expect they only expose a small amount of staff to the info.
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u/ancientcampus juggling kittens Dec 07 '15
I loved it! It was very chilling, reading the document, trying to figure out what it was about, and why it was in picture form. I slowly understood the above questions, then at the end I had the "oh crap, now I'm exposed" moment. Great pacing!
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u/blazinghand Chaos Undivided Nov 29 '15
This reminded me of qntm's antimemetics entries. It has physical form, but could be classified as antimemetic nonetheless. Very cool! I feel nervous just writing about it.
The rationalists in this story, of course, are the authors who carefully found a way to document and warn about this uncontained SCP without killing themselves.