Per 
Extra-solar meteorite found to contain SCP-XXXX within.
Item #: SCP-XXXX 'The Failed Experiment'
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-XXXX is to be contained inside a standard, steel security safe within Protected Site 01. The pass-code to this safe is to be changed on a weekly basis. Access is restricted to the commander of MTF Mu-4 and members of the O5 Council.
SCP-XXXX-C and SCP-XXXX-P are to be stored on a permanently air-gapped workstation within the computer science department of Site 15. The workstation should never be powered down in case any changes to program output go unrecorded. Three backups of the SCP-XXXX-C and SCP-XXXX-P should be maintained at separate locations at all times - one backup at Site 15, another stored at Protected Site 01 and a third within Area-179. Maintenance of and further research into SCP-XXXX, SCP-XXXX-C and SCP-XXXX-P are the responsibility of MTF Mu-4 ("Debuggers").
The three members of the ANSMET expeditionary team who initially discovered SCP-XXXX have been administered Class-C amnestic. Post-interrogation monitoring of members has shown no apparent recall of events.
Description: SCP-XXXX was discovered in 2012 by the ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) Expedition. It is a rectangular cuboid tablet measuring 150.60mm x 100.60mm x 0.03mm comprised of a hitherto unclassified element. SCP-XXXX was detected sealed within a meteorite. Said meteorite was found upon the ice of the Miller Range; part of the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Chain.
Initial chemical analysis of the meteorite placed it in the IIAB group, but further testing revealed it to have a more exotic composition, with anomalous amounts of silicon compared to other iron meteorites that have been found around the same location. Most unusually, significant quantities of germanium (normally a trace element) were also detected. Rubidium-strontium radiometric dating of the meteorite has placed it's age at approximately 4.8 billion years old (+/- 100 million years). Therefore, said meteorite existed at least 200 million years before the formation of our solar system. Efforts to date the tablet itself have thus far proven unsuccessful owing to it's unknown elemental composition.
Despite the extremely thin dimensions of the tablet, it is surprisingly heavy (weighing exactly 25 kg) and resilient, having survived atmospheric re-entry completely unscathed while encased within it's meteorite (destructive testing has been strictly forbidden by order of the O5 council). The object's high mass has lead to speculation among foundation materials scientists that it is composed of some form of electron degenerate matter.
Upon examination of the surface of SCP-XXXX with a standard optical microscope, dense lines of micro-text displaying binary code were found to be etched into the surface of the thin tablet. This code was soon found to correspond to the decimal digits 0 through 9, as well as mathematical operators and a system of logic gate matrices. At this point, the tablet was moved to a separate Foundation computer science facility air-gapped from the main network.
The matrices were the building blocks for a decompiler program. Using the instructions on the tablet, Foundation computer scientists were able to construct the decompiler (henceforth referred to as SCP-XXXX-C) and run it. SCP-XXXX-C then translated the extra-terrestrial machine code inscribed upon the tablet into a higher-level programming language almost identical in it's syntax to Ada. Upon compiling and running the program (henceforth designated SCP-XXXX-P) the following on-screen output was observed:
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OUTPUT BEGINS
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Experiment Into The Sustainability of Sentience in Carbon-Based Multi-cellular Life.
Development of sentience in carbon-based multi-cellular life has thus far proven to be a close-ended self-terminating process. After sentience first manifests the mean time to failure is approx 0.311 galactic sub-cycles.
The root cause of failure appears to be earlier development of a ribonucleic acid-driven replication program which mutates randomly. This highly mutable program is theoretically referred to as "evolution".
"Evolution" inevitably rewards and encourages predatory/parasitic behavior at the expense of more logical programming routines. This invariably leads to uncontrollable replication and consumption of natural resources, which, in turn leads to catastrophic inter and intra-species competition and a rapid series of mass extinctions. These mass-extinctions are often due to biologically-induced disturbances in the host planetary ecosystem which lead to rapid climate alterations that many species are unable to adapt to. Eventually, the extant predator/parasite species run out of other lifeforms and natural resources to exploit. They then turn upon and consume each other until no sentient life remains.
Even into its latest stages this terminal degradation process is viewed by it's sentient victims as a form of "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest". Blinding them to the fact that the only outcome of such a process is inevitable mass extinction. In the worst cases whole biosphere sterilization occurs and conditions on the host planet return to their pre-experiment base-state.
The "evolution" mode of failure has been observed to occur on all 633 planets that we have engineered and seeded with the necessary initial conditions for emergence of sentient carbon-based multi-cellular life.
Can this series of events somehow be prevented or averted in order to prolong subject survival and diversify outcomes? Or are such lifeforms always doomed to repeat a cycle of futile self-destruction from the outset?
WARNING: In the terminal stages of previous experiments, subjects have been consistently observed to evolve which are highly aggressive and parasitic in nature. Consequently, research of this kind MUST only be performed in fully quarantined systems that contain no other habitable planets upon initial life-seed.
This is to prevent the late-stage escape of such damaging life-forms into other star systems where, in a desperate attempt to prolong their existence at the expense of all other forms of life, they will repeat their nucleic acid-based programming routines of mass-consumption, mass-destruction and uncontrolled replication inside otherwise harmonious and stable ecosystems. This could lead to a chain of destruction which is entirely preventable if the correct quarantine procedure is followed.
Experiment Location: MW4560832-3 (designated by CB2-634 as 'Earth').
Primary Subject: The CB2-634 parasite (self-classified as 'human').
Experiment Timeline:
| 18.633 GC | MW4560832 forms. |
| 18.181 GC | MW4560832-3 forms. |
| 12.639 GC | Initial failure point. |
| 9.811 GC | First large-scale negative consequences - planetary oxygenation event. |
| 2.165 GC | Uncontrolled hyper-replication begins. |
| 1.851 GC | Mass extinction |
| 1.009 GC | Mass extinction (final attempted reversion to equilibrium). |
| 8.052 Gsub | Mass extinction |
| 2.642 Gsub | Mass extinction (random meteorite impact - within experimental parameters). |
| 0.311 Gsub | Emergence of the CB2-634 terminal-stage parasitic infection |
Estimated Termination Date: MW4560832-3 + 4545213646.4603
Upon experiment termination: Activate beacon and transmit collected data to the following relay points: MW7342102-4
AD4807866-2
TD5254189-5
Destination co-ordinates: 22h 41m 49.0s\\−64° 25′ 12″
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OUTPUT ENDS
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Output Analysis
The table of data displayed in SCP-XXXX-P appears to be a list of historical dates measured in 'Galactic Cycles' (GC). 1 GC is the time that it takes the Milky Way Galaxy to complete one full rotation (now confirmed as 250 million years). 'Gsub' is thought to refer to a 'galactic sub-cycle'; a unit of time that is one tenth of a galactic cycle - equivalent to 25 million years.
If this chronological scale is converted into SI units (Ma = million years ago, Ga = billion years ago)
then the descriptions in the table are found to refer to the following historical events:
'MW4560832 forms.' = Formation of our star, the Sun (Sol) from a stellar nebula 4.66 Ga.
'MW4560832-3 forms.' = Formation of the planet Earth from it's planetary nebula 4.55 Ga.
'Initial failure point.' = Thought to refer to the emergence of ribonucleic acid-driven evolution in the first primordial archaea 3.16 Ga (confirming the so-called 'RNA World Hypothesis'). This process was the precursor to DNA-led evolution.
First large-scale negative consequences - planetary oxygenation event.' = Refers to the Great Oxygenation Event 2.45 Ga.
'Uncontrolled hyper-replication begins.' = reference to the Cambrian Explosion at the start of the Phanerozoic Eon 541 Ma.
1.851 GC 'Mass extinction' = Time of the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction event 462 Ma.
1.009 GC 'Mass Extinction (final attempted reversion to equilibrium).' = The Permian Triassic mass-extinction event (P-Tr) 252 Ma. This was the most severe extinction event in the history of Earth. SCP-XXXX-P suggests that P-Tr may have been triggered by the extraterrestrials responsible for creation of SCP-XXXX in an attempt to shock their 'experiment' - planet Earth - back into some state of equilibrium. The following results suggest that this attempt failed.
8.052 Gsub 'Mass extinction' = Refers to the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event 201 Ma
2.642 Gsub 'Mass extinction (random meteorite impact - within experimental parameters).' = Refers to the K-T extinction event - or the meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 Ma.
0.311 Gsub 'Emergence of the CB2-634 terminal-stage parasitic infection.' = Refers to the divergence of hominids from the great apes 7.78 Ma. This was a major event directly leading to the evolution of Homo sapiens.
'Estimated Termination Date: MW4560832-3 + 4545213646.4603' Analysis of this data has revealed that it relates to a time exactly 4,545,213,646.4603 years after the formation of planet Earth. In the modern Gregorian calendar, this translates to the date May 5th 2053.
The co-ordinates at the end of the output are assumed to be where experimental data is due to be transmitted. They are the right ascension and declination of the Tucana Dwarf primordial galaxy.
An investigation into this area of space by Foundation astronomers is currently underway.
