Lou_Zer

Neutrino detector located at Foundation site ██

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Unknown

Special Containment Procedures:
All neutrino detectors outside direct Foundation control shall be be infiltrated and monitored on-site by Level 4 Foundation personnel in accordance with protocol Sudbury-103A. If a neutrino detector outside direct Foundation control detects an instance of SCP-XXXX-1, on-site Foundation personnel shall immediately contact their designated Foundation installation, which will then enact protocol Sudbury-103B.

Description:
SCP-XXXX is the source of an annual neutrino signal. The annual signals are designated as instances of SCP-XXXX-1. The location of SCP-XXXX has been triangulated and determined to be 5100 km below the Geographic South Pole, which places SCP-XXXX at the boundary between the outer molten core and solid inner core of the Earth.

Given the extreme temperatures and pressures characteristic of the core of the Earth, SCP-XXXX has been deemed anonymous. Seismic analysis has determined that SCP-XXXX has a volume less than 10⁶ km³. Gravitational analysis has determined that SCP-XXXX has a mass less than 10²⁰ kg. The inaccessibility of the core of the Earth has thus far hindered Foundation attempts to learn more about SCP-XXXX.

An instance of SCP-XXXX-1 is emitted once every year at the exact moment Earth passes through the perihelion of its orbit around the sun, which occurs in early January¹. Each "broadcast" of SCP-XXXX-1 is completed in approximately 6.93 seconds, however every recorded instance of SCP-XXXX-1 has been approximately 231 nanoseconds longer than the previous instance.

Discovery of SCP-XXXX and SCP-XXXX-1

The first instance of SCP-XXXX-1 was detected and automatically recorded at the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Japan on January 4, 2001, at approximately 0900 Universal Time. This detection was enabled by an upgrade to the photomultiplier tube electronics that inadvertently increased the temporal resolution of the detector by several orders of magnitude. Although researchers at the Super-Kamiokande detector initially regarded the instance of SCP-XXXX-1 as a naturally occurring neutrino burst, further examination of the data identified a clear signal containing binary data.

At this point the Foundation was alerted via Foundation spyware which flagged terms such as "signal" and "extraterrestrial." Foundation agents were dispatched and collected the data regarding the SCP-XXXX-1 instance, administered amnestics to the Super-Kamiokande researchers, and removed all records of the detection of the SCP-XXXX-1 instance. The detector was also sabotaged to delay any further neutrino signal detection until appropriate protocols could be developed and enacted.

Foundation researchers quickly confirmed that the recovered data was indeed a neutrino signal containing binary data. In order to detect and record any further instances of the signal, the Foundation built four neutrino detectors at existing Foundation sites across the globe. This allowed the Foundation to determine that the signal was transmitted once per year, and also enabled triangulation of the source of the signal.

Decoding SCP-XXXX-1

SCP-XXXX-1 is a string of "high" and "low" intensity neutrinos pulses, where the neutrino flux in the "high" pulse is seven times larger than in the "low" pulse. When interpreted as binary data, each instance of SCP-XXXX-1 forms a list containing roughly 30 million numbers, with each number represented by 53-bits. Every instance of SCP-XXXX-1 includes a new number at the end of the list relative to the previous instance of SCP-XXXX-1.

The numbers in the list exhibit a general pattern of starting at a value of 131,072. This is followed by a roughly exponential increase until the value exceeds 8,589,934,592: this is referred to as the "Growth" phase. Once a value of 8,589,934,592 has been exceeded, the values are reduced by roughly half until a value of 131,072 or less has been reached: this is referred to as the "Rapid Decline" phase. SCP-XXXX-1 contains 105 pairs of Growth and Rapid Decline phases.

SUBMIT CREDENTIALS TO ACCESS SCP-XXXX-1 INTERPRETATION

Foundation researchers have concluded that the SCP-XXXX-1 is an annual report on the human population. This conclusion was reached by correlating the last numbers in the SCP-XXXX-1 to global population trends and events². This conclusion was reinforced when ██ instances of SCP-2000 utilization were found in the SCP-XXXX-1 data, of which █ instances were independently confirmed.

Based on this conclusion, it has been determined that humanity has existed on Earth for almost 30 million years, not the conventionally understood 300,000 years. During these millions of years, the human population has grown to a size larger than our current population 105 times, only to be drastically reduced again and again once the population exceeds 8,589,934,592.

Ongoing Foundation archeological expeditions have thus far failed to discover any artifacts, roads, or buildings predating the last Rapid Decline. This may imply that humanity has never built anything that can survive for hundreds of thousands of years. Alternatively, this may imply that whatever causes the Rapid Decline also causes the destruction of humanity's creations: given this possibility, the availability and potential use of SCP-2000 after the next Rapid Decline cannot be assumed.

The population record from SCP-XXXX-1 shows that 23 population cycles before our current cycle (roughly 6.7 million years ago), the human population grew to 4,294,967,296 and subsequently stayed within 10% of that value for 2,518 years. After 2,518 years the population began to grow again until it exceeded 8,589,934,592 and again underwent Rapid Decline. One interpretation of this data is that someone discovered earlier instances of SCP-XXXX-1, interpreted it, and limited the population to prevent or delay their Rapid Decline.

It is not known how SCP-XXXX measures the human population. It is not known why SCP-XXXX measures, records, and transmits the human population history. It is not known if SCP-XXXX is responsible for Rapid Declines in the population, or if it is simply recording it.

Our global population is expected to exceed 8,589,934,592 in the year 2030. Plans for global population control by the Foundation are under consideration.

SUBMIT CREDENTIALS TO ACCESS SCP-XXXX-1 RAW DATA

Footnotes

1. See protocol Sudbury-103A for a complete list of exact dates and times based on the current year and local timezone

2. These events include the Plague of Justinian, the Black Plague, the Taíno genocide, World War I, World War II, and the Third Agricultural Revolution.