doctor_serious

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: Instances of SCP-XXXX are to be kept in foam-lined steel cases with an acrylic glass window to facilitate monitoring. Any staff proposing to conduct testing on or involving an SCP-XXXX instance must submit FORM-XXXX-A, co-signed by their Site or Area Director, to the O5 Council. Directors may request an instance of SCP-XXXX to monitor the political situation around their Site for a three-month renewable term by submitting FORM-XXXX-B to the O5 Council.

Description: SCP-XXXX denotes five (5) instruments fashioned and labeled to resemble thermometers.

The fluid within SCP-XXXX instances does not expand or contract in response to changes in temperature. Instead, it expands or contracts when a human death occurs within roughly seven hundred and fifty (750) kilometers.¹ The metric which determines whether a death will cause an expansion or a contraction is not precisely known, but over time, the level of fluid in the thermometer will tightly correlate to the level of political violence in its detection range.

Discovery: SCP-XXXX-1 was purchased by Estate noir (the Foundation's predecessor in France) in 1897 from █████████ ███████, a friend and former colleague of its creator, █████ █████████, hereafter PoI-XXXX. It bears an inscription indicating PoI-XXXX as the craftsman and ███████ as the recipient. In the three years after the discovery of SCP-XXXX-1, three similar instruments were discovered and secured by Estate noir, two (SCP-XXXX-2 and SCP-XXXX-3) from original recipients or descendants of original recipients, and one (SCP-XXXX-4) from the Marseille studio of anarchist and anartist ██████ ██████, dedicated to anarchist ████ █████ and likely gifted by him to ██████ upon her return to France from exile in 1895. PoI-XXXX was reported missing in 1890, and neither French police nor Estate noir found evidence of his fate.

Addendum 1: Surviving Estate Testing Log

Note: Most of the testing data on SCP-XXXX gathered by Estate noir was destroyed in 1901, among many other documents, by a faction within the organization that opposed its subsumption into the Foundation.

Note: Testing carried out by Estate noir refers to SCP-XXXX by the designation OBJET-1.220.² Test logs have been translated from the original French.

TEST 13 OF OBJET-1.220
Supervising: D^r Mondragon and D^r Caillebotte
Experiment: OBJET-1.220-███████³ transported to the Philippines with research and reconnaissance staff. Three months of American casualty data [Translator note: from the Philippine-American War, which broke out in 1899 and lasted until 1902] were provided by assets embedded in the American military, which were compared against our own reconnaissance estimates and data from OBJET-1.220-███████.
Result: Filipino combat deaths caused OBJET-1.220-███████ to revise its measurement upward in approximately 99% of cases.
American combat deaths caused OBJET-1.220-███████ to revise its measurement upward in approximately 95% of cases.
Filipino deaths occuring in American reconcentrados caused OBJET-1.220-███████ to revise its measurement upward in approximately 99% of cases.
All other deaths in the detection range caused OBJET-1.220-███████ to revise its measurement upward in approximately 40% of cases.
Remarks: Much, much higher baseline than we expected, but D^r Mondragon and I are quite certain that the starvation and exposure deaths caused by American scorched-earth practices (which, I must remark, we did not expect from them, but in fairness this is an infernal island) are counting. Our findings regarding the reconcentrados are strong evidence against intent to kill as a prerequisite for a positive reading.
Certified: D^r A. Caillebotte

TEST 14 OF OBJET-1.220

Supervising: D^r Mondragon and D^r Caillebotte
Assisting: Agents ███████ and ██████████⁴.
Experiment: OBJET-1.220-███████ transported to ███████-██, roughly 260 kilometers NNW of ███ █████, ██████, ███ █████-████ ██████████, along with testing staff. Two people were found to be present within 800 kilometers of ███████-██ by initial surveillance, and surveillance of both was continued without incident for the duration of the test.
Agents ███████ and ██████████ were placed in an adjoining room to C-1.220-33 and C-1.220-34⁵. Agents ███████ and ██████████ were then asked to play a game of chess, with the added rule that, once per game, an acting player may enter the adjoining room and terminate one of the criminals in order to make an extra move. OBJET-1.220-███████ was monitored for the duration of the game. Agent ██████████ checkmated Agent ███████ on move 28, having availed himself of this extra rule.
Result: Death of C-1.220-33 triggers an upward revision in the reading from OBJET-1.220-███████.
Remarks: It's less and less likely that its definitions are broad and more and more likely that anything we do triggers an upward revision - that it considers us a political entity, and we're trying to swing the balance of power by learning about it.
Certified: D^r A. Caillebotte

Addendum 2: Foundation Testing Log

Test 1 - 09/22/1902

Subject: SCP-XXXX-1
Procedure: SCP-XXXX-1 placed in an airtight room. Room temperature controlled at 22°C, monitored by a standard mercury thermometer. Readings from SCP-XXXX-1 were monitored for one hour.
Results: After one hour, SCP-XXXX-1 readings indicated a temperature of -27°C.
Analysis: It is not a functional thermometer. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 2 - 09/22/1902-09/29/1902

Subject: SCP-XXXX-1
Procedure: SCP-XXXX-1 was brought to Area-█, 650 kilometers inland of ██████████, █████████. Changes in readings to SCP-XXXX-1 were recorded without pause by Area-█ staff in one-hour shifts over the course of one week. A complete log is available upon request to Dr. Brunn.
Results: Five changes in the readings were observed, all reductions. Six human deaths were confirmed in █████████ over the same span, with five roughly corresponding in time of death to a recorded change in the readings from SCP-XXXX-1.
Analysis: It responds to human deaths, with >99% confidence. Junior Researcher Zhdanov missed one. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 3 - 11/03/1902-11/10/1902

Subject: SCP-XXXX-1, SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, and SCP-XXXX-4
Procedure: SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, SCP-XXXX-4 brought to Area-█ and monitored without pause along with SCP-XXXX-1 over the course of one week.
Results: Seven changes in the readings are observed, all reductions. Nine human deaths are confirmed in █████████ over the same span, with seven roughly corresponding in time of death to a recorded change in the readings from SCP-XXXX-1, SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, and SCP-XXXX-4.
Analysis: All instances respond to human deaths. Dr. Mondragon missed one and Zhdanov missed another one. I have advised Dr. Mondragon that his recollection of Estate testing is anecdotal evidence, useful in guiding our data-gathering, but not itself data. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 4 - 11/11/1902

Subject: SCP-XXXX-1, SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, and SCP-XXXX-4; D-119, D-185, and D-189, initially scheduled for termination on 11/01/1902
Procedure: D-119 and D-185 were escorted to prepared locations at specific distances from Area-█ and administered chloroform. D-119 was placed 500 kilometers away from Area-█, accurate to within half a kilometer. D-185 was placed 1,000 kilometers away from Area-█, accurate to within half a kilometer. D-119 and D-185 were then terminated at predetermined times by their escorts. Following analysis of the effects of those terminations on SCP-XXXX instances, D-189 was then placed 750 kilometers away from Area-█, accurate to within half a kilometer. and terminated.
Results: SCP-XXXX-1, SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, and SCP-XXXX-4 readings increased in response to the expirations of D-119 and D-189.
Analysis: Establish 750km as the assumed maximum range of SCP-XXXX instances. Assume that terminations by Foundation personnel will always result in reading increases. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 5 - 02/14/1903

Subject: Charles Rocker Pace, aged 33
Procedure: Hanged for the crime of murder by the state of Texas. The specific effect of his death on SCP-XXXX-3, located at the time in Site-6 in Harris County, Texas, was isolatable due to the presence of at least fourteen minutes of no change in SCP-XXXX-3's readings on either side of the subject's reported time of death.
Results: SCP-XXXX-3 readings decreased.
Analysis: None yet. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 6 - 04/02/1903

Subject: D-309, initially scheduled for termination on 04/01/1903
Procedure: D-309 was loaned to elements of the medical community in ██████, ████ on the condition that he be subjected to live vivisection in front of a student audience and his time of death recorded. Three changes in readings from SCP-XXXX-2, currently kept at a specially constructed observation post in the desert within detection range of ██████, could plausibly have been caused by the expiration of D-309; one change was positive, and two changes were negative. Investigation of ██████ hospitals discovered two civilian deaths deemed unlikely to trigger SCP-XXXX-2.
Results: Assume SCP-XXXX-2 readings increased.
Analysis: Foundation involvement in the trial was likely perceptible. Future Foundation-precipitated testing will be prohibitively difficult - my recommendation is to send them out to collect natural data as suitable opportunities arise. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Test 7 - 04/02/1903-10/10/1909

Subject: SCP-XXXX-1, SCP-XXXX-2, SCP-XXXX-3, SCP-XXXX-4, seven-hundred-and-fifty-kilometer-radius zones around ██████, ████; Houston, Texas; St. Petersburg, Russia; Zagreb, Austria-Hungary; Ikela, Congo Free State; Pretoria, British Africa; Diyarbakir, Turkey; and ███████, China.
Procedure: SCP-XXXX instances relocated to areas of high political instability as approved by Dr. Brunn. SCP-XXXX-3 remained at Site-6 near Houston as a control.
Results: Readings from SCP-XXXX-3 do not exceed ten percent of maximum for the duration of the test. Constant near-maximum readings obtained from SCP-XXXX-1 when held at Observation Post XXXX-2 thirty (30) kilometers south of Ikela, Congo Free State between 07/08/1903 until 01/28/1905. SCP-XXXX-1 held at Site-14 in St. Petersburg, Russia, between 03/04/1905 and the conclusion of Test 7 on 10/10/1909. Readings peaked near seventy (70) percent of maximum in mid-December of 1905. SCP-XXXX-2 held at Observation Post XXXX-1 in ██████, ████ between 04/02/1903 and 05/19/1903, producing readings in the bottom quartile. SCP-XXXX-2 moved to Pretoria, British Africa and held there between 06/09/1903 and 01/03/1906, producing readings between twenty-five (25) and forty (40) percent of maximum. SCP-XXXX-2 moved to and held at Observation Post XXXX-3 near Diyarbakir, Turkey between 03/22/1906 and the conclusion of Test 7 on 10/10/1909. Readings peak near fifty-five (55) percent of maximum between in early 1908. SCP-XXXX-4 held at Site-7 in ███████, China between August 1903 and December 1907. Data on SCP-XXXX-4 readings from this period were rendered inaccessible by ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████-█ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████. SCP-XXXX-4 returned to Site-6 until 10/10/1908, at which point it was relocated to Observation Post XXXX-4 in Zagreb, Austria-Hungary, arriving on 11/01/1908 and remaining until the conclusion of Test 7 on 10/10/1909. Readings from this period do not exceed the bottom quartile.
Analysis: Comparison of SCP-XXXX readings and available necrodata indicates that SCP-XXXX readings are calibrated to a logistic curve. SCP-XXXX readings match the expected value predicted by the necrodata obtained from political conflicts with >95% confidence, once the logistic curve is corrected for. Assume that an SCP-XXXX reading corresponds to the percentage of deaths in its sensitivity range caused by political disagreement. - Dr. T. C. Brunn

Addendum 3: Special Clearance Required

Enter Credentials

Addendum 3: Document XXXX-1
Correspondence from Henri Desmarais to Théophane Mercier

Dearest Théo, greatest of men and beneficiary of my most profound affection -

I have been violently ill as of late. Each morning brings a fresh devil to shit out. I would have called a doctor had I not been so busy, and I cannot wait a single instant longer to discuss my project with you -

Consider that man, from the perspective of Darwin, science, and all rational people, is a machine. He is a machine for two purposes, communicated to him through urges: principally he must propagate, as must all life which exists, and to propagate he must survive. One of these goals is achieved positively, as a single, triumphant act taking only hours (for men like us, I say this, I say nothing), and the other can be achieved only in the negative, a constant, furious resetting of various death-clocks he will never escape long though he may live. In pursuit of these twin goals he may take various actions permitted him by his physiology; he may move his body, sense, and experience thoughts at the most granular level, and by stringing those actions together create more complex actions with broader goals, which can themselves be sequenced into still more complex actions, a process without end -

A concrete example: a man may look around his environment, in order to find and then grasp a sharp rock, in order to cut a sliver from a branch, and by many cuts carve the branch to a planned shape, which he may then combine with more materials and actions to make a bow, which he may then combine with still more materials and actions to kill a deer, which through further work may be made fit to feed himself and his family, and this entire process can then be maintained, improved and executed until it becomes efficient habit; all of it merely one thread in the tapestry of grand strategy necessary if he hopes to achieve his twin goals.

(In case you are out ahead of me, Théo - I am aware the twin goals are not incontrovertible goals, simply the goals towards which man is most aggressively urged, and the goals without which there would eventually be no men and no goals. A man may decide to become a monk, for example, and suppress his urge to propagate, or he may decide to lay down his life for a cause by suppressing his urge to survive. If he so chooses, he may even decide to pursue impossible or incoherent goals; he may attempt, through constructing chains that he believes may be effective, to turn lead into gold, or into opera.)

This is natural to us, and each event in the chain is said to have a hand in causing the next event - that is, they are entangled in some way such that later events in the chain transpire if and only if the previous events in the chain transpire. But from where does this phenomenon of causality arise? One may imagine taking a snapshot of the entire state of the universe (I mean specifically the position, speed of motion, and direction of motion of every unit of matter in the universe) and performing the immense set of mathematical calculations prescribed by the laws of physics necessary to determine the entire state of the universe at some arbitrary future time. Would it be proper to claim that the first state "caused" the second state? The second state cannot exist without the first state having existed, but its existence, and indeed the existence of every state afterwards predicted by those same mathematical laws, become inevitable given that the first state exists at any point. If one performs the same mathematical operations in the reverse time direction upon the second state, he will attain the first state just as inevitably as the first state's existence implies the second's.

And yet the deer is not inevitable. Men starve. Mothers burn their babies from the womb. A man who could not fail would be inevitable, but there is no such man, and has never been any such man or form of life whatsoever. Small errors, even at the scale of a single thought, have rendered unfathomably large chains of human actions useless or even detrimental to those acting to further them, and men and villages and nations are only saved from doom by worse imperfection in their adversaries. Perfection - that deer which would evade every possible arrow, that grandest possible chain satisfying every possible urge and preventing every possible pain - is an impossible standard that every living thing is nonetheless judged on its ability to match. The discrepancy between it and ourselves - our ability to fail in the attempted construction of chains to satiate ourselves - is what we call free will.

Return to the imperfect man. With proper appreciation of himself, he can be sure that he possesses a fully general capability, composed only of a few dozen elementary actions and guided by the miracle of his human brain, to constrict the state of the world around him. His constant construction of chains is as if he is pulling levers on another machine, hidden from view, which carves away swaths of future. But he is only permitted the coarsest control over it. He is not permitted to see the futures he is strangling in the womb, only to guess at their properties. He is not permitted to practice its use without consequence. He is not even permitted to be alone in his muddling - instead he is forced to share this machine with countless others, all working blindly to attain mastery of it, all pushing the threshold of its mastery upwards.

Direct access to the machine would be quite advantageous, would it not, Théo? To see, really see, what you're doing, to practice your craft, to break off part of it for yourself, without needing to rely on the imprecise language of actions -

So, I thought about how I might have designed the machine if I were God, and then about why I might have designed it, what could I possibly be trying to generate -

I will say the machine speaks another language its operators can learn. A language within languages. The language of the twin goals, Théo. Little deaths, and big ones. I plan to do extraordinary things with it.

Please visit when you find yourself at leisure. I am, as ever, in need of your level head.

Henri

_

Author Notes (mega spoilers!)

He's not as concerned about political killings per se but about people who are also aware of the anomalous making moves - he needs to know what kind of game he's in and what the stakes are.
So, with access to a stream of a bunch of metadata-tagged deaths, he'd want to filter them…by intent to gain power? to concentrate power?
—> I've decided - there's enough metadata on a death that he can filter for deaths that are intended to affect everyone on Earth. In Henri's mind, there are unknown numbers of actors already playing the power game with anomalies, and he doesn't know how good their intel is on each other or on everyone. It's in his best interest to remain part of "the field" as long as possible, given the stakes, so creating the thermometers lets him not only gather intel himself, but also start testing the limits of what intel others might have access to. However, he's not going to be able to track everyone on Earth, he's going to be limited by the tech, so to speak, so that's why political deaths appear to be what's being tracked.

The fluid in the thermometer is linked to the Big Chain of events. Vibrations travel through it forwards and backwards constantly along stable "loops" (really meaning periods of homeostasis for any arbitrarily fractal set of particles), and it has been programmed to pick up the update messages (sent to Yang) generated by human deaths. If the updated interest-matrix passes a certain threshold of deviation for any top-level entity since the last one was picked up, it will cause the vibrations sent along with the death message to reinforce one another, which expresses itself physically in the fluid as an increase in particle speed/temperature. The thermometers pick up primarily political killings, as these cause the greatest change to relative power among most top-level entities, but any death can trigger them positively provided that it is unusually positive or negative for at least one point in the system that has attracted enough probabilistic power to itself (such as the Foundation).

do SCP-010-INT as a case study - Lumiere is death fluid and Tenebre is sex fluid?

we need to talk about how causality might be defined from outside as the crux of this whole simulation plot but also cause that's how he's gonna track the deaths

He's asking Theophane for help strategizing but we don't see Theophane's reply

sex and death, zero and one, do we wanna go for the very-wide-angle universe-is-a-simulation plot here?

constricting probability as a route to the amonolaous?

later on Dr. Brunn is Theo Mercier???? and doctor serious is his Opposite by way of Yang, the God-Coder, whose existence is not parameterized by dimensions, which express ways a thing can move, but instead by ways a thing can be?

Soft Deleted Text

I fell into it from thinking on Bayes' principal theorem⁶ and how it relates to the predicament of existence:

Footnotes

1. The rate of expansion and contraction follows a logistic curve, expanding significantly and contracting minutely when the fluid is near the base of the thermometer, and contracting significantly while expanding minutely when the fluid is near the top.

2. In the Estate noir cataloguing system, the first digit of the identification number encoded the anomalous object's Catégorie de Menace, and the remaining digits were assigned based on availability within that Catégorie.

3. SCP-XXXX-1.

4. Redaction applied to surviving physical copy of test record by Estate noir.

5. Estate noir requisitioned suitable prisoners from state complexes on an as-needed basis for testing purposes, denoted with C (criminel) followed by the number of the object they were assigned to and a personal identification number.

6. Bayes' Theorem is an equation that is used to update existing probabilities based on new evidence. It states that, for two suppositions A and B, the probability that A is true if B is true is equal to the probability that B is true if A is true multiplied by the probability that A is true in a vacuum divided by the probability that B is true in a vacuum.