Item #: SCP-4000
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4000 cannot be contained due to its unpredictability. An 1 m * 1 m * 1 m space centered at the gamma ray source identified from the SCP-4000 events in Site-63 is to be sealed with gamma ray shielding materials. Currently, the shielding material is chosen as bismuth crystals kept at 70 K by liquid nitrogen. A spherical array of gamma ray detectors are to be installed within the 1 m * 1 m * 1 m space to probe SCP-4000 events. Research on SCP-4000 is to be conducted under the supervision of the acting Senior Researcher on duty (currently Dr. Medina). The primary goal of the research is to (1) trace the SCP-4000 events in history and (2) elucidate the origin of SCP-4000. Researchers assigned to SCP-4000 may contact external scientists specialized in quantum physics for discussion. However, the discussion is to be based on the knowledge known to public. An external scientist may be recruited into the Foundation and assigned to SCP-4000 under the permission of personnel with Level 4/4000 clearance.
A cover story has been made for personnel with Level 2 clearance or lower to describe SCP-4000 as an anomalous space in the conference room where SCP-4000 was first discovered.
Description: SCP-4000 are a series of quantum fluctuation events that have major impact on the development of organisms. Based on their effect, SCP-4000 events can be classified as SCP-4000-A and SCP-4000-Ω. For more details about the effect of SCP-4000-A, see Addendum 4000.2 and 4000.3. Level 4/4000 clearance is required for accessing information about SCP-4000-Ω.
On 201█/██/██, an SCP-4000-A event took place in a conference room in Site-63 during a safety training for Level 2 and 3 personnel. At 10:██ am, 23 personnel in the room were exposed to high energy gamma rays generated by SCP-4000 and died due to acute radiation syndrome. After required medical treatments and interviews, personnel survived from the SCP-4000 event were implanted with artificial memory about the materialization of an instance during the SCP-4000 event.
The incident was investigated by a team led by Dr. Medina, a Senior Researcher stationed at Site-63 with expertise in nuclear physics and quantum physics. The shielding materials and gamma ray detectors described in the Special Containment Procedures were established after the investigation. Two months later, a second SCP-4000 event was probed by the gamma ray detectors. Using the message (see Addendum 4000.4) received from the detectors, Dr. Medina and his team developed an instrument (classified as SCP-4000-2) to trace the occurrence of SCP-4000 in history.
Addendum 4000.2: The following is an excerpt of a talk given by Dr. Medina in an internal seminar for researchers with level 3 security clearances or higher. The excerpt was revised by Dr. Medina, with the key points highlighted in bold.
Let me give you a brief review on the second law of thermodynamics: The total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time. All spontaneous processes would cause an increase in entropy, and they are irreversible.
Our universe can be considered as an isolated system. Over time, our universe tends to become disordered. Those who are not familiar with thermodynamics can think about your headphone cable: No matter how much time you took to straighten it before you put it in your pocket, it becomes entangled after you take it out. That is the natural law of thermodynamics, and that tendency of disordering is what I meant by "spontaneous increase in entropy".
Now we have an interesting question here: Where did we come from? Our universe is highly ordered. Instead of a homogeneous soup of high-entropy matters, we have galaxy filaments consist of superclusters of galaxies. Within those galaxies, we have star systems, light-years away from each other. All these things kept the universe in an low-entropy state.
Among those stars and planets, we have our planet earth with all kinds of organisms on it. Increasing entropy can be fatal to organisms, since the maximum entropy state is simply death. In order to stay alive, organisms need to reduce their entropy. According to Dr. Erwin Schrödinger, "the essential thing in metabolism is that the organism succeeds in freeing itself from all the entropy it cannot help producing while alive."
Us, human beings, have been successful in reducing our entropy. We have those micro-machines functioning in every cell that builds up our whole body, including our brain, where the cooperation of tens of thousands of neurons established consciousness. Using that consciousness, we invented, we built, we made all those delicate machines and infrastructures.
But the law of thermodynamics prefers disordering than ordering. So why would we even exist? How did our universe come into place from that high entropy soup?
One theory to explain this paradox is quantum fluctuation. Though quantum fluctuation, particle-antiparticle pairs may be created out of nothing. According to the Uncertainty Principle, these pairs can only last for very small amount of time before they go through annihilation and turn back into energy. However, there is a chance for one of them to maintain its existence. For example. when a particle-antiparticle pair is generated near the event horizon of a black hole, if the particle falls into the event horizon, the antiparticle can escape and continue existing, and vice versa.
It is believed that our universe is created from such quantum fluctuation processes. Our universe was homogeneous in its early stage, while quantum fluctuations induced heterogeneity. After cosmic inflation, these tiny seeds of heterogeneity grew up to galaxy filaments. The aforementioned quantum fluctuations must have left more particles than antiparticles, since the observable universe has way more matter than antimatter.
SCP-4000 is very similar to the quantum fluctuation processes we just discussed. Every SCP-4000 event creates either particles or antiparticles. For example, the SCP-4000 discovered in Site-63 only created positrons.
Using SCP-4000-2, we are able to trace the occurrence of SCP-4000 events. More importantly, SCP-4000-2 grants us with the ability to correlate an SCP-4000 event with its effect on our history. All the data we collected so far indicate that different than typical quantum fluctuations, SCP-4000 did NOT occur randomly. Though SCP-4000 only creates several particles or antiparticles, the flap of a butterfly’s wings is enough to set off a tornado. From promoting the creation of the earliest RNA to guiding a lightning to a withered tree before Homo Sapiens, every time it appears, the development of lifeforms has a great leap. Until now, we have identified thousands of SCP-4000 events that affected our history.
Our records suggest that the power of SCP-4000 is diminishing. Over time, the occurrence of SCP-4000 became less and less frequent. The penultimate SCP-4000 event emerged in 1162 A.D. in Khentii, Mongolia. In the next 800 plus years, no SCP-4000 was detected. Until this year, when SCP-4000 popped up in Site-63 and brought us knowledge about SCP-4000-2.
So here comes our final question: Does SCP-4000 have a consciousness or is otherwise directed by a sentient being?
Addendum 4000.3: List of SCP-4000 events with major impact on the development of organisms.
| Time |
Effect |
| ~4.0 billion years ago |
Formation of the first RNA molecule |
| ~3.5 billion years ago |
Earliest microorganisms occurrence |
| ~541 million years ago |
Cambrian explosion |
| ~1.8 million years ago |
Evolution of SCP-1000 |
| ~2000 years ago |
[DATA EXPUNGED] |
Addendum 4000.4: The following is a note written by Dr. Medina after the second SCP-4000 event in Site 63.
Initially, I proposed to install a spherical array of detectors to make sure we can capture the gamma rays generated by SCP-4000 in all directions. It turns out that we are now benefiting from this setup. During this second SCP-4000 event, positrons were created with different kinetic energies, which resulted in photons that arrived at our detectors at different time. From that, we were able to obtain a matrix of 0s and 1s that evolves over time.
This time-dependent binary matrix can be translated into a message. A message that describes a method to probe SCP-4000 events in our history. It will take us some time to design an instrument that realizes this method, but it is definitely something worth trying.
Addendum 4000.5: Dr. Medina's report to the O5 Council.
Our team applied Class-C Amnesics to Level 2 personnel that experienced SCP-4000, but they were not very effective. We believe that the SCP-4000 event happened on 201█/██/██ affected our brain to make certain memory permanent or at least reversible upon application of amnesics. We are not sure if this is the effect of all SCP-4000 events. For now, I propose to introduce some "red herrings" to distract these personnel from SCP-4000.
-Dr. █████ Medina
Agreed. Dr. Medina is now in charge of research on SCP-4000 and is granted Level 4/4000 Clearance.
-O5-6
Per 
