A temperature–entropy diagram for steam under the effect of SCP-4039.

Item #: SCP-4039

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: In accordance with Operation Gaslight, containment efforts primarily consist of maintaining public perception of SCP-4039 as non-anomalous.

Public knowledge of SCP-4039-1, Event 4039-1, Carnot Convection, or SCP-4039's anomalous nature shall be considered a containment breach, against which MTF Gamma-5 ("Red Herrings") shall increase disinformation campaigns and utilize targeted Class B amnestics at their discretion.1 Research likely to uncover the existence of SCP-4039-1 or the occurrence of Event 4039-1 shall be monitored and suppressed.

Development of termination procedures for SCP-4039 should be considered a Level Chi priority, however termination of SCP-4039 requires prior approval by a majority of the O5 Council.2

Description: SCP-4039 is a continuing phenomenon, affecting all regions of space, which causes all closed systems to increase in entropy over time. No means of blocking or limiting SCP-4039 have yet been developed.

It is hypothesized that SCP-4039 inhibits Carnot Convection,3 as no Carnot Convection has been observed since Event 4039-1. Research whether additional entropy is being actively inserted into our dimension is continuing. The practical effect of this increased entropy is increased randomization and uniformity of states of matter. This additional entropy itself is non-anomalous. It is hypothesized that SCP-4039 will result in a ZK-Class Reality Failure Scenario in approximately 10100 years.

SCP-4039 began at 2:42 PM, April 19, 1911, designated Event 4039-1. This is the approximate time and date when [REDACTED] completed their design for non-anomalous infinite energy and matter generation.4 The relevance of this concurrence is under investigation.

All naturally occurring entropy (e.g. static interference) contains a coded message, designated SCP-4039-1. This message translates into the word "Enough."5 Initially thought to be a message in English, SCP-4039-1 was found to translate similarly into every language tested.6 SCP-4039-1 does not appear in entropic recordings made prior to Event 4039-1.

Event 4039-1 went largely unnoticed by the general population; the myriad of small effects were generally ignored, and fallout from larger effects were contained by Foundation efforts. Examples of such effects include the uniform failure of some automobile models, shifts in ocean currents, decreased efficiency of oven mitts, and an increase in culinary cooking times. Immediately following Event 4039-1, MTF Gamma-5 efforts succeeded in quelling suspicions, attributing these effects to solar flares, industrial sabotage between home appliance vendors, and other mundane causes.

+ Selected Event and Testing Addenda:

- Selected Event and Testing Addenda:

Addendum SCP-4039m. Note the absence of Carnot Convection.

Addendum [SCP-4039a]:

Subject: Containment Unit for SCP-████

Immediately following Event 4039-1, the perpetual motion device and four redundant backups used in containing SCP-████ simultaneously failed. Upon cessation of all movement in the SCP-████ containment chamber, SCP-████ breached containment and caused 19 Foundation casualties before containment could be reestablished. SCP-████ upgraded to Euclid.

Addendum [SCP-4039l]:

Subject: Spinning Top

A toy spinning top was spun via robotic device in a vacuum sealed chamber. The friction of the top against the floor of the chamber converted the rotational inertia of the top into negligible ambient heat. Carnot Convection failed to convert ambient heat back into rotational inertia, and the top fell over after fifteen (15) seconds, ceasing all further motion.

Addendum [SCP-4039m]:

Subject: Helium Gas

An airtight chamber filled with Helium gas was expanded, causing the helium molecules to spread throughout the space, as expected. However, the spread of the molecules did not at any time reverse. Carnot Convection did not occur, and the molecules seemed to be permanently spread into their lowest energy configuration, equally filling the chamber. This excess entropy was not absorbed and appears to be indestructible.

Addendum [SCP-4039r]:

Subject: Pocket Universes

SCP-4039 is shown to affect some, but not all, known pocket universes.7 Research into siphoning excess entropy into k4039 pocket universes is ongoing.

Addendum [SCP-4039aa]:

Subject: Main Sequence Stars

Observations of interstellar bodies have returned inconclusive results. Observation of Sol indicate that it is no longer attracting or absorbing interstellar radiation and is no longer forming new hydrogen atoms to fuel itself. The energy output of Sol remains unaffected by SCP-4039, but at the present rate of fuel consumption, Sol will consume its entire fuel supply in approximately five (5) billion years. It has not yet been determined whether the fuel creation of interstellar stars or interactions of interstellar bodies are affected by SCP-4039.

Addendum [4039-OG]: By unanimous vote of the O5 Council, Operation Gaslight was initiated, and the public consensus reality was changed on ███████, 1911, to incorporate SCP-4039 as non-anomalous and as having always existed. Notably, forged research purportedly from Lazare Carnot was disseminated, and all references to the Second Law of Thermodynamics8 were replaced or modified to read in their entirety: "The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of any isolated system always increases." Scientists, textbook publishers, and other influential individuals have been inducted as E-class Agents of the Foundation or anesthetized. Self perpetuation of the updated public consensus reality was declared successful on December 3, 1916, and all compound ENUI-5 facilities were ordered to stand down at that time.

Footnotes

1. Increases in depression, nihilism and suicide attributable to knowledge of SCP-4039 is deemed unavoidable and not a containment breach.

2. In accordance with Sub-Operation Crowdsource, public research into termination of SCP-4039 shall be monitored and encouraged, and periodic seeding of the public discourse with suggestions that SCP-4039 is a non-anomalous threat may be approved by any level 4/4039 researcher. See, e.g., the Foundation-developed story The Last Question, publicly attributed to Isaac Asimov.

3. The natural re-uptake of entropy by the space time continuum.

4. Review of this design shows it would have worked but for the effect of SCP-4039.

5. For further analysis, see Ten Million Monkeys: Impossibility of Random Chance in SCP-4039-1, by Dr. Perez.

6. Including constructed and fictional languages such as Lojban.

7. All designations for such immune pocket universes shall henceforth include a suffix of -k4039.

8. The Law of Conservation of Entropy states that entropy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system.