SCP-2637 in transit to its current containment area. Top: visible spectrum. Bottom: 0.41YHz EM waves.

Item #: SCP-2637

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2637 is stored in sector 34 of site-19. The outer casing of sector 34 has been repurposed as the primary containment structure of SCP-2637 and all access to sector 34 is suspended. Additionally, as of 1931-08-11 any structural change or activity outside the routine procedures of site-19 in the 8 surrounding sectors requires prior approval of the site director. If any doubt concerning the effect of an activity on SCP-2637 is held, please refer to Dr C. Zhu. For details about the alterations performed on the storage unit and monitoring station 34-1 (formerly sector 36), see document 2637-1 (standard site-19 requirements apply unless directly contradicted). Thorough maintenance of the multipurpose deflection tiling must be completed every month, excluding Mélusine cells and the H-stabilizing layer which may be ignored1.

The adjoining tanks must be kept filled up to 2000 m3 at all times. All uncontrolled energy transfer2,3 to or from SCP-2637 must be prevented. Should a variation in pressure and temperature occur despite the measures taken, no attempt should be made to bring them back to their former values4.

SCP-2637 has no mind-altering effect. All reported cases of interpersonal quarrels and verbal escalation during research5,6,7 can be attributed to controversies surrounding the item’s containment and research policies and their enforcement8.

Please note that SCP-2637 now has a budget separate from site-19, and all maintenance, monitoring and human resources related to SCP-2637 should therefore not make use of common site-19 assets. For any concern about funding, please start by reading document 2637-294, and only then contact Dr Malbreil.

Description:

Excerpt from 2637-ψ including pictorial information. Top: raw footage, bottom: reconstitution, white=1, black=0, grey=not significant one way or the other. The central band has been postulated to depict a topological diagram for the apparatus suggested by some interpretations of segment 759 10.

Nature of the item

SCP-2637 is a chunk of granite extracted on 1928-07-14 near Kosh-Agach, Russia. It contains the source of a constant electromagnetic (EM) signal (hereafter referred to as 2637-ψ) with a strength estimated to be less than 10-12 V/m at the time of writing. The area it was excavated from has shown no anomalous properties. The strength of 2637-ψ dropped considerably following recovery (from 0.7 V/m on 1928-07-14 down to less than 10-9 V/m on 1928-07-16), leading to immediate measures to suppress all activity near the item except for a constant isotropic energy transfer, which proved successful in reducing its rate of decay. The signal strength has since dropped below the weakest value detectable through any current equipment (a potentially more powerful method of detection is under development).

Origin of the anomalous properties of the item

2637-ψ is hypothesized to originate from a quartz phenocryst housing between 1021 and 1022 two-dimensional yoctometer-scale structures analogous to our universe11(collectively known as SCP-2637-1). Every instance of SCP-2637-1 is bound to an up quark, though it is unknown from which baryon and which atom nucleus. While the Foundation's current model of physics suggests that similar entities can form on every up quark12, their weak isospin charge being far below 1⁄2 should not allow for interaction with other particles, and SCP-2637-1's ability to generate EM waves is highly anomalous.

The simultaneous emergence in the same spot of more than 1021 individual instances may be explained by the common origin and very similar environment experienced by every SiO2 molecule in the quartz since their initial crystallization. A probabilistic estimate suggests that around 100 000 similar entities should, within the first kilometer of the Earth's crust, eventually develop a type IV civilization13. The emergence of conscious entities within SCP-2637 is therefore very likely explained by the mere possibility of stable self-replicating patterns and local change over long periods of time, much like the mainstream theory of abiogenesis and evolution14.

Activity of the item

The content of 2637-ψ is a repeating sequence of periods of intense activity (EM waves in the YHz range) and periods of low activity, that encode an ordered sequence of binary digits (hereafter referred to as "the message"). Each of these bits lasts 2.113 minutes, with occasional seemingly incidental shifts. The total length of the message is 5887410 bits, or 23 years and 7 months, plus one additional final segment of varying length, unique in every instance recorded so far. The message repeats after a 9 months period of inactivity. Three complete instances of the message have been recorded since the discovery of 2637-ψ on 1927-12-0315.

A recurring segmentation is 148 bits, acting as a “separator” between independent sections of the message and encoding various informations. The message notably contains 3 instances of pictorial representations revealed when displaying the bits as pixels arranged in rows of 148. Amongst the non-pictorial sections, roughly a tenth has been partially decrypted thanks to a key relating various physical values (including the mass and volume of a silicon atom, an oxygen atom, the Earth, and the solar system) to Planck's constant, the speed of light in a vacuum, and the mass of an up quark. Semantic units such as "forwards/backwards in time" and "larger/smaller" are implied through use of these values. The largest contiguous part (roughly a fifth of the message) begins with a representation of the order of the algebraic Monster Group, and includes repeated use of said semantic units. There has been no consensus as to the precise meaning of the section.

The nature of the entities which elaborated the message within SCP-2637-1 as well as the purpose of the message are not revealed within the elucidated parts of message16. Numerous segments suggest the entities are aware of the two-dimensional nature of their reality, and are trying to eventually contact 196,884-dimensional beings. The existence of such beings is unsupported by the Foundation's current understanding of cosmology.

Although the interpretation of the segments as "instructions" is not disputed anymore, all means of transmitting the message in the suggested way are far beyond the capabilities of mankind17 and the resulting state of the universe would not allow for the existence of matter, let alone life (like the process of emitting such strong electromagnetic waves has undoubtedly destroyed the quark-bound structures housing the entities). It's understandable that the swan song of an extinct civilization with a collective aspiration to leave their mark on higher realms can make some people emotional, but according any sort of value to the instructions would be, effectively, the birth of a death cult. Please don't. Keep in mind that the item is entirely harmless and we might never be able to retrieve any more data from it. Some of you are free to set their own priorities amongst "Safe" items, but with more research effort comes more expectation of tangible results (or at the very least a reasonable prospect of future results), and time spent on documentation will be accounted for.

- Dr Malbreil

It should be emphasized that gathering all possible information from what is widely recognized as equivalent to a class IV civilization unfathomably more advanced than ours is a valuable scientific pursuit in itself and does not entail any intent to immediately act based on the data.

- Dr C Zhu

Addendum 2637-01: Transcript of Meeting EAM-19-92AF

Attendees:

Ms. Megan Grime

Director Maria Jones

Dr. Ella Lason

Dr. Dominique Malbreil

Mr. Antonio Presley

Mr. Allan Purcell

Dr. Marie Purcell

Ms. Yael Sjoberg

Ms. Jennifer Stevens

Dr. Carl Zhu

[begin transcript]

Dr. C. Zhu: OK we're doing the next one, please quiet down. This is 2637-

[aggravated interjections]

Dr. C. Zhu: This one is 2637, so please let's stay focused. Now Dr. Malbreil, I was told you prepared an opening statement, is that right? I'll let you-

Dr. M. Purcell: Actually there's something I ought to point out - the whole transcript is going to be an addendum for this one as well.

Dr C. Zhu: [to Dr. Lason] Oh, was that on the- really? [to all attendees] I have not been informed-

Dr. Lason: [unintelligible] you were going-

Ms. Sjoberg: Read the whole notice next time, Carl.

Dr. C. Zhu: No but that's fine, actually this is perfect, I am, no complaints, no complaints-

Dr. Malbreil: Alright, well, since we are all on the same page, I'll start with a few facts that are not all on record yet I believe. Ψ has been indistinguishable from random noise for more than one year now-

Dr. Lason: No, we got part of segment 72 again last June.

Dr. Malbreil: Alright, slightly less than a year. This is not a "prepared" opening statement by the way, Dr. Zhu. Did Sanderson tell you that?

[aggravated interjections]

Dr. Malbreil: I'm sorry but what was the point of such a weird little fabricated-

Dr. M. Purcell: Dominique, this is all going on the technical-

[interjections persist through Dr. Malbreil's statement]

Dr. Malbreil: Alright well for those reading this transcript, I want to say, think about - for one second, just imagine something like that being archived as documentation for any other item! This speaks- this just speaks for itself. That mere notion of a meeting transcript-

Director Jones: Stop.

Dr. Malbreil: [unintelligible]

Dr. M. Purcell: Come on, we should be able to make this quick, OK? So to clear that thing up for the record… If I may? OK, the RAISA has allocated this afternoon to review the status of 68 problematic Safe items, and given the history of controversy around 2637, it has been decided to spare everyone the inevitable round of revisions by using the transcript itself as an addendum, rather than a report.

Director Jones: And everything that doesn't require redaction is going to be left verbatim, so please start taking this seriously.

Dr. Malbreil: I, the. Alright. 2637 in its current state is nothing more than a chunk of rock. We dump 1 cubic meter of osmium a week into the insulation system. A whole sector of site-19 has been condemned while alarming infrastructure concerns are arising about sectors 20 to 50. We are long overdue for a drastic scaling down of the maintenance set-up, and the documentation is absolutely outdated. People should not have to dig through the addenda to get the whole picture.

Ms. Sjoberg: We might do more than an addendum. We will unfreeze the Special Containment Procedures section if a new consensus is reached.

Dr. C. Zhu: This is nothing new. It has been agreed per our July meeting-

Dr. Lason: June 29th actually.

[crosstalk]

Dr. C. Zhu: -agreed that, assuming no shift in the rate of decay, up to a trillion instances of 2637-1 should still be active, which entails whatever means of preservation are within our capabilities.

Dr. Malbreil: Zhu. It has also been agreed that 10 to the 12 is below the margin of error and that our advances in sensor technology are not catching up. By the time we manage to detect such faint signals, it's far more likely we'll find another yoctostructure as advanced as 2637.

Ms. Stevens: I'm afraid there's nothing new on that front.

Dr. C. Zhu: I- Come on! Are we, are we seriously going to use that sloppy Moore's Law analog to direct research priorities?

Dr. Malbreil: You've never suggested any sound alternative. We have to plan-

Ms. Stevens: It's already 60% of the 2637 budget.

Dr. Malbreil: My proposal for a separate budget could settle this whole debate by the way.

Mr. A. Purcell: Let's set that aside for the RAC meeting, OK? Focus on the one we actually have retrieved.

Dr. C. Zhu: There's no telling just how advanced they are, a yoctostructure with such profound knowledge of reality might be unique in all matter in the galaxy, let alone Earth!

Dr. Malbreil: No, no, I- No, I can't let empty speculations supersede informed decisions when it's such a money sink, we have actual threats to deal with. Zhu, when was the last time you worked on anything Keter?

[crosstalk]

Director Jones: We need to move on. Is there anything new anybody has to say?

Dr. C. Zhu: In fact yes, we have recently decrypted the second part of segment 76. Just like in segment 62, there is a signature consistent with the last harmonic analyses of SCP-2998. And we think it suggests an analogy between the segment 75 apparatus and the Rosetta cluster.

Mr. Presley: It's more definitive than that, the MRD guys have actually managed to simplify their model of the cluster based on our findings.

Dr. Malbreil: I know that, but we've had that complete section for the last three decades.

Dr. Lason: It was updated last June!

Dr. Malbreil: Are we supposed to discuss containment or not? All parts related to cross-dimensional communication are within the repeated section. We have an overwhelming consensus that the non-cyclic sections are meant as a message for those 196884-D entities. [(The existence of such beings is unsupported by the Foundation's current understanding of cosmology.)]. This does not warrant further study, the only parts that are of interest to us are within the main section, which we have recorded entirely. It's time for an update of-

Dr. C. Zhu: There's nothing that indicates the non-cyclic sections contain no useful information. The next one should come within three years! We're not even close to understanding this particular content, and as 2998 demonstrates the 4th dimension can affect ours non-destructively. There's no telling how useful that data might be.

Dr. M. Purcell: I think it's pretty clear we will not reach a consensus, so I suggest each of you put forward a motion and we take a vote.

Director Jones: Let's do that.

Dr. C. Zhu: OK then, I renew my proposal to keep all containment procedures as they are currently for the time being.

Dr. Malbreil: I propose that we draft a plan to decrease maintenance expenses for the next RAC meeting.

Dr. M. Purcell: All in favor of Dr. Zhu's motion?

[Dr. Lason and Mr. Presley raise their hands.]

Dr. M. Purcell: All in favor of Dr. Malbreil's motion?

[Ms. Stevens and Ms. Sjoberg raise their hands.]

Dr. M. Purcell: Alan, Megan, are you abstaining?

Ms. Grime: I'm sorry but I've never worked on 2637, I just have to reserve my judgement.

Mr. A. Purcell: You know how I feel about this.

Dr. M. Purcell: Alright, well I tend to favour Dr. Malbreil's opinion on this matter. I think this is definitely a debate for the RAC meeting rather than a purely technical matter.

Dr. C. Zhu: Director Jones, please! Surely you can take a stand on this matter! We're dealing with critical information.

Director Jones: I don't think this is appropriate Carl. If this can bring you some solace, I know the Overseer Council are aware of your concerns about the potential implications of Ψ and I will check if they're up to date on your latest findings. I think we can move on to the next item now.

[end of transcript]

1. However, dismounting those components from the tiling requires prior approval of the Site Director, which should be exceedingly clear from all available instructional documentation and site-19 training courses.

2. Or perturbation of any kind

3. Although it is clear that class 1 and class 2 occult phenomena have no effect on the item (as evidenced by the outcome of incident 2637-I4) and are therefore not a concern.

4. I want to emphasize this: if you mess something up do NOT try to fix it. By doing that you'd inflict a new change in conditions on the item and disrupt its fragile equilibrium some more. The more you try to sweep your mess under the rug, the more we will notice.

-Dr C. Zhu

5. And obsessive behavior (c.f. document 2637-313) displayed by some researchers specialized in narrow and/or greatly theoretical fields of study

6. As well as ill-considered dismissal of the intrinsic value (c.f document 2637-334) of the item that would normally not be expected from educated, experienced members of the Foundation

7. Often demonstrably irrational as established in document 2637-36 relating meeting EAM-19-53B

8. c.f. document 2637-335

9. which has been agreed upon as "likely" among the majority of meeting EAM-19-78F attendees, since "all other elucidated parts of the message are devoid of any cultural or aesthetic consideration" and "the message is obviously not meant as an exchange of trivialities and trying (rather anthropocentrically) to understand it as blurbs from a babbling civilization akin to [the 'Voyager' golden record] is laughable."

It should be noted that those views are primarily Dr C. Zhu's, and were not explicitly backed by a majority of meeting EAM-19-78F attendees.

-Dr Malbreil

10. For an analysis of the pictorial elements of 2637-ψ, see document 2637-107 or document 2637-121

11. By consensus amongst several research teams backed with large amounts of experimental data and a model summarized in document 2637-74. (See document 2637-73 for a review of the flaws in this interpretation.)

12. recent advances in microscopy have hinted at complex patterns of local isospin differentials within quarks from ordinary matter

13. However, most of them are likely to lack a neighbourhood of very similar twins like SCP-2637 does, and any message they may send would therefore be completely undetectable on a macroscopic scale with conventional equipment. The only reason the signal can be detected at all is that trillions of instances of SCP-2637-1 behave independently in almost exactly the same way. Methods to detect such signals from less multitudinous groups (or from SCP-2637 in its current state of decay) are under development.

14. See documents 2637-73 and 2637-229 for reviews of the flaws in this interpretation, and document 021-D7N for a refutation of the mainstream theory of abiogenesis and evolution

15. Although the first two lack clarity due to insufficient technological means of isolation from interferences, and the last one has been partially undetectable due to the gradual decline of the strength of the signal

16. Although segments 71 to 74 include (repeatedly) the fine-structure constant and as a value close to it, and what has been interpreted (c.f. document 2637-144) as a request to change the former into the latter or the implication that the change is going to take place in the future through unspecified means.

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