Cassiterite

NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

The following database entry contains information or claims that are currently disputed. Due to the reorganization of assets via Project Saibasek, the anomalous nature of this item(s) is under review. For further information, contact your RAISA representative.

— Alexa Sugar, Assistant to the Vice Director, RAISA

Item#: XXXX

Level5

Containment Class:

keter

Secondary Class:

none

Disruption Class:

ekhi

Risk Class:

warning

link to memo

EYES ONLY - LEVEL 5/XXXX PERSONNEL

NOCOPY NOCOPY NOCOPY

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PATAPHYSICS DEPARTMENT CLASSIFIED MATERIAL - FOR USE INTERNALLY ONLY

+ Disclaimer from the Pataphysics Department (click to expand)

This item refers to a set of events that is, not to put too fine a point on it, happening to you. It’s happening to everyone around you, in a reality that you inhabit, in a way that is maybe “too soon” to write an article about. The power that non-anomalous people, entities or corporations wield shouldn’t be discarded or cheapened by fanciful stories about paranormal powers or anomalous artifacts.

There are real monsters out there. Expect more of these boxes.

~ Dr. Reader

—-

The currently active SCP-XXXX iteration is: Iteration X.

—-

Special Containment Procedures:

The effects of SCP-XXXX are to be identified wherever possible through the large-scale monitoring of mass media technologies and countered through the injection of countermemes where feasible; in the case of social media, online-facing AIAD constructs (sockpuppet.aic) are to be employed where such an action does not constitute a contravention of the Veil Protocol.

Countermemetics development is to continue indefinitely.

Permanent installations are to be maintained in countries comprising the Anglosphere¹, suborned to their resident Sites’ media management divisions. XXXX-management installations are to maintain an independent network of communications, centered at Provisional Site-42-OBLAST. Installations are to maintain the highest standard of memetic screening, cognitohazardous activity monitoring, and fact-checking. In the event of an outbreak, each installation has the emergency right to requisition Site resources such as but not exclusive to:

• MTF assets,
• IT department personnel,
• Memetics Division expertise (on an as-needed basis),
• Shipping & Receiving priority status,
• (CONT’D IN DOCUMENT XXXX-Hector A.12 “Requisitions”).

Proposed Foundation involvement in curbing the susceptibility of the general population against SCP-XXXX is currently tabled for debate by an extraordinary general session of the O5 Council and Ethics Committee. Assets stationed within the following: the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge Assessment International Education, the Educational Testing Service, the American Psychological Association, [FULL LIST REDACTED - ACCESS RESTRICTED TO FIELD AGENTS 3/XXXX] are to immediately stand down and cease ongoing operations until further notice.

Personnel with a high level of engagement in institutions beyond the Veil are to be screened for infection and quarantined if found positive². Suspected infection vectors and infectees must submit to investigation, regardless of anomalous or non-anomalous exposure. Critical thinking seminars are to be held bi-monthly at all major sites and bi-weekly at all sites housing a XXXX-management installation.

In accordance with the original operational procedures put forward in Document XXXX-Balstov-1, response to an outbreak of SCP-XXXX shall consist of:

1. Members of MTF-Phi-6 (“Anonymous Posters”) shall be mobilized at relevant installations to disseminate documents consistent with dominant reality. These may take the form of electronic or physical items of media evidence (fabricated statements, “tweets”, press material), orchestrated activities with intent to be witnessed or recorded by members of the public (demonstrations, public protests, community events), and/or targeted amnesticization of infection vectors.
2. In extreme cases, MTF-Phi-5 (“Miracle Workers”) may be called upon for tactical response measures. These include but are not limited to: deployment of temporary Scranton Reality Anchors, mass use of aerosolized amnestics, abduction operations against infection vectors, emergency short-range non-nuclear missile launch, use of credulity-enhancing cognitohazards, (CONT’D IN DOCUMENT XXXX-Hector D.2.2 “Emergency Measures”).
3. Unless absolutely necessary, use of amnestics is to be kept to a minimum; amnesticized individuals are to be briefed and inoculated immediately before release, to prevent reinfection. Amnesticised and recently infected individuals represent the highest risk of a tabula rasa spontaneous generation of contagious memes; inoculation with appropriate media is the safest and easiest method by which this can be prevented.
4. Members of MTF-Phi-6 should remain onsite, gathering data, until Hume measurements stabilize across a one-week period.

Opinion polls of statistically significant demographics across the Anglosphere are to be conducted unobtrusively and regularly, determining the public credulity threshold for active memeplexes in the current iteration. Where feasible, calculation of consensus dominance should be done at the nearest geographically convenient XXXX-management installation.

Consensus dominance maps are available on request for researchers with appropriate clearance.

No action is to be taken to preference Stream A or B, nor their relevant consensus dominance.

- Amendment ██-██-20██

EMERGENCY RESOLUTION CYGNUS

To preserve the nature of consensus reality, Stream A is to be prioritized over Stream B at all costs.

—-

Project Saibasek is currently authorized for 12 24 36 hours indefinite continuous operation at up to but not exceeding 105% overdrive. Component Scranton Reality Anchors are to be replaced on an upon-failure scenario or when efficicacy of an individual unit drops below 30% or 0.8 is:ought amplifications. Hume levels at Provisional Site-42-OBLAST are to be held steady at 20 Hm with a maximum allowed deviation of +/- 0.05 at any measured interval from 5 seconds and up, irrespective of fluctuations outside its capable field of influence.

+ Notes from Project Saibasek

Pre-emptive note from Saibasek Team Leads…

Hi! If you're reading this, you may have a few objections as to the way the Saibasek Complex is being run! Yes, we are aware we are running this facility into the ground! We are aware that our consumption of power, resources, and sand is unsustainable, and that we're overworked, low on sleep, and at any one time half the Foundation doesn't even remember we exist, because we don't, and that some of us are on our last legs being real so that the rest of you don't have to!

Please send coffee.

— Team Lead Researcher Findlay, Project Saibasek

Due to security interlocks involving the artificially stable Hume level maintained at Provisional Site-42-OBLAST, access is restricted to Foundation personnel with a Combined Reality Aggregate (Pataphysical) score of at least 5 or over; individuals with a score not exceeding this will fail to recognize the Site's existence, perceiving only the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Maintaining Hume levels at the Saibasek Complex is hence critical for the continued maintenance of the SCP-XXXX management network.

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Description:

SCP-XXXX is an anomalous³ phenomenon wherein the nature of consensus reality begins to come under dispute. While alternative realities and consensus are not new to the human cultural noosphere, the basic nature of reality has been accepted without major change since recorded history. This basic nature is represented through tenets such as:

• Cause following effect
• Inductive and deductive logic
• Basic geometry
• The laws of physics
• The tendency for explanations to trend towards the simpler (Occam's Razor)

Among others, these comprise the foundation for a consensus that, aside from the spontaneous generation of metaphysical explanations for what is not yet known (such as elemental, polytheistic pantheons or didactic/etiological myths and fables characterizing the same), has carried reality in a way that is for the most part self-consistent and self-propagating throughout recorded human history.

In these terms, SCP-XXXX is a description of the social-memetic process which occurs when data that is inconsistent with these tenets presents itself in a way credible enough to an individual or group as to prompt the formation of a mutually incompatible, self-propagating reality that acts in contention to the consensus. This new reality, or "stream", produces a measurable change in behavior among those affected by it; the most common symptom observed is an inclination in infectees to spread and propagate the memeplexes that characterize their stream.

Data collected from longitudinal Hume level studies suggests that SCP-XXXX is a function of the interaction between the collective human mind and reality itself, and plays an important part in the operation of the Veil Protocol. The Foundation and its predecessor organizations are considered an active part of maintaining a single consensus reality and it is the position of the O5 Council that multiple realities propagating at once represents an unacceptable risk to the Veil.

The resolution of SCP-XXXX represents a conceptual CK-Class Reality Restructuring Scenario, wherein one stream of reality becomes predominant over competing streams. Due to the nature of these events, it is not clear how many of these events are part of the historical record. The terminology for a state of affairs wherein competition between streams of reality becomes manifest is termed an iteration.

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+ Archive of notable past SCP-XXXX iterations

Date4	Summary	Notes
██-10-193█	First Foundation-recorded iteration of SCP-XXXX. File retroactively opened due to recognition of SCP-XXXX as an anomaly in its own right. This iteration has been designated Iteration C.	Iteration C resolved ██-06-193█. Remaining documentation archived as SCP-8900-EX. Minutes of the O5 Council tabled and archived as ██████-█████.
██-11-195█	Developments in epistemological theory propose a restructuring of scientific reasoning away from the presumption of truth and towards that of falsifiable premises upon which consensus can be constructed. Foundation assets intercept GoI-0015 SAPPHIRE communications discussing the paradigm shift and positively detect signature drops in Hume levels corresponding to an iteration of SCP-XXXX. Iteration has been designated Iteration P.	Resolution of Iteration P took place slowly over the next decade, but never penetrated the barrier of public scientific literacy. Iteration P was considered notable for three primary reasons: First recorded evidence of GoI knowledge regarding SCP-XXXX; Confirmation of theories involving change in Hume levels following propagation of altered realities; Resolution or change in consensus occurred through the reinterpretation of existing realities rather than a violent restructuring scenario.
20-07-196█	Joint operations to contain knowledge of SCP-4220's anomalous properties, involving the deployment of SCP-1812, collaboration with GoI-616 "Pentagram"5 assets, and the until-then widest deployment of civilian information suppression to date, result in the emergence of a particularly virulent iteration of SCP-XXXX, designated Iteration M.	MTF Phi-4 ("Missing Tapes") formally organized in a historic collaboration between Pentagram and Foundation assets. Censured and disbanded after Operation "Men in Black" backfires due to incautious conduct by Pentagram agents. Iteration M declared resolved ██-07-197█ as plausibility for its representative reality stream drops below the public credulity threshold. However, Iteration M represents the first recorded instance of fringe elements continuing to circulate under the threshold, and many of its component memeplexes (e.g. distrust of authority figures, wilful ignorance of evidence) will become emblematic of future iterations. In your reality, the moon landing did happen, which makes this all the more complicated. The lessons we have to learn are a lot bigger than just being able to tell fiction from reality, but the sad (alternative?) fact is that we all have to start somewhere. ~ Dr. Reader
██-04-198█	A failed utilization/weaponization of SCP-XXXX by assets affiliated with GOI-124 "GRU, Division 'P'" results in the short-lived artificial Iteration Cx. Nuclear engineers ██████ ██████████ and ████ ████████, along with GRU-P dark assets team "Brukhanoi", made use of an unknown anomalous item or items codenamed "Moonshot" on ██ April.6 As best as can be determined, parties involved attempted to alter consensus reality in an attempt to reverse the ongoing ████████ disaster, but failed due to information leakage crossing beyond their ability to control.	Primarily, confusion over jurisdiction reigned [language barriers? cultural differences? try this again later] [TODO]
15-07-20██	A new iteration of SCP-XXXX is uncovered by management installation at Site-38 after investigation into records discrepancies regarding the "███████████ ████████ of ██████████". Followup research from independent observers stationed at Installation-38 confirmed distinctive spikes in local Hume levels; Iteration S is designated and sequestration/management protocols are put into place. This is complicated by the primary locations of the outbreak being situated within Foundation assets, forcing intensive memetics screening before management personnel can be allowed to operate.	Due to complications in containment of Iteration S and a poor understanding of the novel anomalous infection vector involved, Foundation staff now represent estimated 97.9% of remaining infected, with all other known infection vectors behind the Veil. As this effectively constitutes limited containment, and consensus reality beyond the Veil appears to have been resolved, Iteration S has been reclassified SCP-1173.

Nominally, changes in consensus reality outside of Foundation jurisdiction fall under the category of items beyond the Veil, hence beyond the Foundation’s responsibility. However, the pace and direction by which Iteration X has eventuated represent significant challenges in effective containment;

Iteration X represents the propagation of an alternative reality (henceforth Stream B) where existing scientific consensus and the scientific method have been repudiated; within this reality truth is defined through intuition, popular belief, and various foundational, immutable texts. As a result the collective noosphere of individuals in Stream B is highly contaminated with self-propagating manipulative memeplexes (often characterized by, but not limited to, cults) which take advantage of social dynamics, memetic mutation, and erroneous pattern-matching to replicate themselves. Due to their dependence on Iteration X for survival, these memeplexes are fundamentally intertwined with SCP-XXXX, but represent a separate class of memetic hazards.

Aside from Iteration X’s native memeplexes, SCP-XXXX itself is characterized by a highly contagious memetic component (henceforth designated SCP-XXXX-1) which has the effect of altering the perception of reality and belief in an infected individual; after exposure, the individual becomes convinced of the reality represented by Stream B. It is important to note that these beliefs are then reinforced through non-anomalous cognitive and social processes such as peer pressure, subjective bias, and thought-terminating cliches. While the SCP-XXXX-1 memetic component is thought to have anomalous means of transmission, real-world experimentation suggests it transmits itself as a foundational part of Stream B memeplexes.

Preliminary findings suggest that certain underlying structures of belief are required for a susceptible individual to become infected, after which point they become attuned to the changes in reality caused by SCP-XXXX. The concentration of belief in an individual appears to correlate with susceptibility to the memetic vector; experimental data suggests that spikes in ambient Akiva radiation are correlated with infection but a causal link is yet to be properly identified. Observations note that high independent levels of religious belief are a common comorbidity with SCP-XXXX infection, but no deific interference is suspected at this time.^{[speculative]}

On a wider scale, the effects of SCP-XXXX can be detected through an abnormally large drop in Hume levels following an event wherein matters of record, key details, and/or issues of rhetorical framing come under significant dispute.

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In response to the rising prevalence and visibility of SCP-XXXX outbreaks under Iteration M, the Foundation put into action a provisional plan codenamed Protocol Balstov, which in turn would later be folded into the larger assets of Operation Saibasek.

The original Protocol Balstov, as drafted, involved rapid local deployment of MTF assets to the site of an event, tasked with creating and disseminating media consistent with consensus reality. 'Agile' development strategies and reorganization of focus on containment-at-all-costs allowed for a record ~3-6 hour response to outbreaks, leading to exemplary outcomes in outbreaks throughout the 70s and 80s. However, aggressive amnestic use on civilian populations by MTF assets peaked during this period, leading to unforeseen complications (for further details, see Document XXXX-memetics-study: “Streisand Effect”). Protocol Balstov was revised ██ times under supervision by the Ethics Committee, but ultimately proved unable to adapt to rapidly changing field conditions. For this reason, Operation Saibasek…[TODO]

Addendum-XXXX-C: [TODO: O5 MEETING MINUTES]

Footnotes

1. While it is suspected that SCP-XXXX and attendant Iteration X memeplexes are transmissible across language barriers, PROTOCOL BABEL mandates a intra-Foundation compartmentalization of any language-based cognitohazard.

2. RAISA note: The definition of what signifies a positive SCP-XXXX infection is currently disputed.

3. RAISA note: Evidence of anomalous qualities exhibited through the spread of SCP-XXXX is currently disputed.

4. By best reckoning, subjective historical time.

5. Occult division for the United States Department of Defense.

6. Records of the use of Moonshot and further details of Iteration Cx were largely lost during its failed resolution; the sequence of events listed here have been reconstructed based on a matter of historical record.