rating:+1099+–x
The file you are attempting to access is available to personnel with Level 4/4001 clearance only. This clearance is not included within general Level 4 security protocol.
BY SCROLLING DOWN, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CONSENT TO EXPOSURE TO A KNOWN COGNITOHAZARDOUS IMAGE. SCROLLING DOWN WITHOUT PROPER INOCULATION WILL RESULT IN SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.
Attempting access beyond this point without clearance is grounds for termination of Foundation employment and cancellation of all educational, medical, retirement, and mortality benefits. In the event of incapacitation or worse by the cognitohazard below due to lack of inoculation, and thus an attempt at unauthorized access, this console will become inoperable, and automated viral agents will disable access to your Foundation account, bank accounts, social media, emails, and any other aspects of your online identity. In the unlikely event of survival, security personnel will be dispatched to detain you, and escort you to a secure site. You will be interrogated under truth-extracting memetic agents, then likely terminated.
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COGNITOHAZARD LOADING…
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COGNITOHAZARD ACTIVATED
CONTINUED CONSCIOUSNESS CONFIRMED
RETRIEVING FILE
Welcome. Alexandria awaits.
Item #: SCP-4001
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4001 is secured within a reinforced concrete bunker disguised as a warehouse, constructed for its concealment in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The block surrounding the warehouse has been purchased by the Foundation, and the buildings upon them are currently rented out to a number of business and private individuals to help maintain the facade. All civilians and non-cleared staff attempting to enter the warehouse are to be turned away. All civilians and non-cleared staff found within the warehouse are to be detained, interrogated, and administered Class-C Amnestics. The use of lethal force if intruders prove non-compliant is authorised.
Multiple failsafes are built into the bunker, including automated guns, gas weaponry, collapsible floors, cognitohazard presenting screens, and a 'tombstone', a 300 tonne load of impure iron laced with thermite charges set directly over the tunnel to SCP-40011. In the event of a large hostile assault against SCP-4001, all available teams are to be deployed to defend SCP-4001. Additionally, the deployment of SCP-███, SCP-███, SCP-████, and SCP-████ to defend or recapture the premises is authorised.
Entry to SCP-4001 is restricted to Level 4 and above researchers with permission from the O5-Council. Open flames are strictly forbidden within SCP-4001, as are firearms or bladed weapons of any kind. Writing utensils of any kind may only be brought inside SCP-4001 with a majority vote by the O5-Council. Breach of these conditions could result in a CK-class restructuring scenario, or an XK-class end-of-the-world scenario.
Description: SCP-4001 consists of a tunnel, leading down to an antechamber, connecting to a staircase which descends 15 meters below ground2. The staircase emerges from a tower into a large room stacked with bookshelves3. The room does not conform to Euclidian geometry; it is possible to walk in any one direction and eventually return to the point of origin. The room is 312 meters in width, of indeterminate height4, and many hundreds of kilometers in length. Under appropriate lighting conditions or with the use of vision aids, it is possible to see oneself in the distance by looking in the appropriate direction.
The room is filled entirely by bookshelves. Each bookshelf is 2.8 meters in height and 100 meters in length, all neatly aligned with 2 meters of walkway space between shelves. An 8 meter wide main walkway originates from the staircase and runs in both directions the full length of SCP-4001, with identical modern-styled couches situated every 20 meters along the main walkway5. Every fifth bookshelf has an electric lamp installed, which are the only light sources within SCP-4001. As such, most of the space within SCP-4001 is poorly illuminated. No power source has yet been identified for the lights. The floor is covered entirely in a sturdy carpet.
Individuals standing within the room will hear steady ruffling noises, and on occasion loud thudding noises. The source of this sound is the origination of bookshelves and new books upon them, which occurs continuously without any obvious source of material6.
SCP-4001 represents the complete archive of every human life to date, and is continuously self-updating. Every human being that has ever lived has a single corresponding book within the archive, detailing all important events in their life7. As humans are born, new books corresponding to them are added to the archive. Each book is identical in size and thickness, approximately the size of a standard paperback novel, though the number of pages varies depending upon the individual's lifespan and breadth of accomplishments8. Each book is completely accurate in its contents, and thus SCP-4001 represents an unprecedented intelligence resource. Books are stored in order of individuals' births, and the spine and front cover of each book is inscribed with the name of those it refers to. Each book is written in a language which is unlike any existing language known to the Foundation, while simultaneously being completely comprehensible to any literate individual reading it. The total number of books is estimated at approximately 120 billion9.
Books can be taken from the shelves and read freely. Books can be scanned, copied and photographed without consequence. If returned to any of the shelves, the book will vanish and reappear in its original location within the archives. Any attempt to remove a book from the archives results in the book vanishing and returning to its shelf.
The contents of the books represent the absolute truth and history of the individuals contained within. Altering the contents of the books has a corresponding retrocausal effect upon reality, with memories, locations, physical structures, physical states, and even complete existences changing accordingly to alterations applied to the books. Writing a decision, meeting, reward, change in personality, change in feeling towards individuals, change in health, method of death, or any other notable achievement or life event into a book will cause that event to transpire for the appropriate individual at the first possible opportunity.
Discovery: SCP-4001 was first encountered by Foundation staff in 18██ after it was uncovered during an archaeological dig under an old part of the city. The Foundation quickly isolated the location and administered amnestics to the archaeologists involved. The Foundation continued to operate the dig site for a few more months, occasionally pretending to find some pottery or bones, in order to avoid drawing suspicion.
Initial forays into SCP-4001 were done cautiously, since the extent of the room was not fully understood. Once researchers realised the contents of the archive and the basic nature of the books, advance teams were sent with supplies to place flags at locations of interest, since the bookshelves are not marked nor distinguishable in any way. Seventeen days after beginning their expedition, the first advance team encountered a living individual within SCP-4001, designated SCP-4001-110, who had survived within SCP-4001 for nearly two millenia (see Addendum 4001-1).
There are currently seven 'camps' within SCP-4001, each with its own generators, water filters, and beacons to aid in locating it, since it can take many days or even weeks to walk between camps11.
+SCP-4001camplocations
The oldest of books are estimated to correspond to human births dating back approximately 75,000 years14. Such books, if entitled at all, are entitled with positions within society rather than proper names, such as 'Firebringer', 'Hunter', 'Chief', 'Mother', or 'Friend-Killer'. Regardless of age, all books appear to be in the same condition as the newest of books. Analysis of the earliest of books seems to support the human population bottleneck theory15, with the vast majority of the earliest books representing individuals completely disconnected from those found in other books. As many as half of the books within the archive lack any names or titles, with many more books simply being titled 'The Baby' or 'The Infant', with the book detailing the short life of a baby who died before they could be named.
Researcher Note: Due to the exponential rate of human population growth, I am recommending we establish new camps every decade or so from this point. Otherwise, the degree of reliability in terms of delving the archives in person is liable to be compromised. Also, I'm recommending we install and maintain a small electric monorail within SCP-4001 to facilitate ease of access, or come up with some other practical method of assistance. There has to be a better way than having to ride with food and water for weeks to find one person's records.
-Dr. Lincoln Abrams, Archive Manager
Addendum 4001.1: Interview Log
+AccessInterviewLogs
Addendum 4001.2: Testing Logs
+AccessTestingLogs
Addendum 4001.3: Cataloging Assistance System
+AccessCatalogingAssistanceSystem
Addendum 4001.4: Incident 4001-F
+AccessIncidentReport
You have insufficient credentials to access further addenda.
Please enter Level 5 Security Credentials to proceed.
ENTERLEVEL5SECURITYCREDENTIALSHERE
Footnotes
1. As a last resort, detonating the charges would flood and seal the tunnel with molten iron, severely delaying access to SCP-4001 and allowing response teams time to assault and recapture the location. In extreme cases, the load of iron would also serve to protect SCP-4001 from damage if a nuclear detonation over the location becomes a tactical necessity.
2. Titanium/tungsten security doors have since been constructed within the antechamber.
3. Attempts to dig into SCP-4001 from outside have resulted in digging past its expected location, indicating that SCP-4001 exists within an extra-dimensional space. The tower itself terminates 12 metres above the ground, rather than appearing to connect to any roof.
4. While SCP-4001 lacks a roof and has plentiful space above the shelves, the non-Euclidian geometry means that it is impossible to ascend to a height greater than 25 meters above the floor, with further attempts to increase in altitude resulting in remaining at the same height.
5. The repetitive nature of the geography means it can be easy to lose one's location within SCP-4001. The only otherwise distinct structure within SCP-4001 is the tower from which the stair descends.
6. New shelves appear at an approximate rate of one every 16 hours, with several new books appearing each second.
7. This includes human-born SCP instances, though no book pertaining to a non-human being has yet been located, with the exception of SCP-4001-2.
8. The exact dimensions of every book, regardless of number of pages, is 12cm x 20cm x 2cm.
9. Each bookshelf is double sided, each side holding 8 rows of 5,000 books, for a total of 80,000 books per shelf. SCP-4001 stores three shelves in a line before returning to the same point, thus keeping some 240,000 books per walkway. At 2.5 meters from one walkway to the next, one thus passes almost one million books for every 10 meters one walks along SCP-4001, or 100 million per kilometer. At last estimate, SCP-4001 is well over 1000 kilometers in length.
10. The individual referred to himself as the 'Watcher of Alexandria Eternal'.
11. It is highly recommended that any attempts to foray within SCP-4001 are done by bicycle, with supplies of food, water, and backup sources of electricity, though the ambient temperature and lack of humidity means that heat sources are unnecessary.
12. Due to the continuous expansion of shelves into the intervening space, these values are steadily increasing
13. If walking 'forward' from Base Camp to G, the distance is approximately 200km.
14. None of the books contain reference to dates, with very few referencing named locations, making identification of specific locations or time periods difficult.
15. Around 75,000 BC, the Toba Supervolcano in Indonesia erupted, with severe impacts on global climate. The theory states that this had a catastrophic impact on the burgeoning proto-human population. Genetic analyses suggest the human population fell as low as 5000 breeding individuals in the few millennia following the eruption, with modern humanity showing unusually low genetic diversity as a consequence. No other possible cause for the bottleneck has been identified.
16. Archive Manager Abrams explicitly forbade the use of SCP-4001 to terminate life after this test. Dr. Henricks was admonished and disciplined, and required to submit all experimentation methodology to approval before continuing experimentation.
17. The Schmidt-Luhrmann effect is the tendency of retrocausally altered timelines to replicate events from the original timeline far more closely than would otherwise be expected under the Butterfly effect, presumably to avoid catastrophic chronological paradoxes.
18. As a consequence of the damages sustained at Site-85 resulting from the experiment, Dr. Henricks was demoted and removed from duty at SCP-4001.
19. As well as collating data on every book, the Cataloging Assistance AI also located three skeletons (two human, one equine) deep within SCP-4001, some 38 kilometers past Camp C. Initial teams seem to have missed the skeletons, presumably since they were located in the dark areas of shelving. Based upon clothing and analysis of their supplies, they entered SCP-4001 some time in the fourth century BCE.
« SCP-4000 | SCP-4001 | SCP-4002 »
‡Licensing/Citation
