Item#: 5122

Level1

Containment Class:
esoteric

Secondary Class:
archon

Disruption Class:
vlam

Risk Class:
caution

link to memo

NOTE FROM THE SCP-5122 LEAD RESEARCHER.

Foundation policy requires that this database entry remain at the Level 1: Unrestricted (UR) Clearance Level. The page you are reading contains portions of an infohazard that is not yet fully understood. Employees who have not been assigned to this project are reminded of the importance of avoiding unnecessary exposure to infohazards. If you have reached this entry by error, please notify project staff.
—Alan Fung
Lead Researcher, SCP-5122, Site-053

<!- robots.txt: ->
<!- WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! STOP NOW! ->
<!- IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU ARE IN INCREDIBLE DANGER! ->
<!- IF YOU ARE CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE, PLEASE STOP READING THIS PAGE NOW AND LEAVE! IT WILL BE A VERY, VERY, VERY BAD EXPERIENCE FOR YOU OTHERWISE! ->
<!- IF YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE YOU SCAN THIS ENTRY! IT WILL MAKE YOU THINK THAT YOU'VE ALREADY SCANNED THIS ENTRY AND YOU WON'T EXPOSE YOURSELF TO IT NEEDLESSLY: SCPFX.work://?scan.sendBeacon?navigator.sendBeacon(f(e,"&act=1&ri=1"),return!1;if("SCP-5122"in a&&1==c.nodeType.central.SQPX)return ->
<!- I KNOW THAT WON'T MAKE SENSE TO YOU IF IT'S NOT TOO LATE. IF IT IS TOO LATE, I AM SORRY. NOBODY SHOULD HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS. YOU'LL SEE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO SOON ENOUGH. I HOPE IT WORKS FOR YOU. IF NOT, I AM SO SORRY. ->

Special Containment Procedures:
This database entry is to remain the sole repository for all information about SCP-5122. This entry must be manually updated by staff as new information about SCP-5122 is generated or discovered. Backing up this entry to another system or copying it outside of the Foundation database is strictly disallowed. This entry is to remain delisted and maintained in such a way that it cannot be accessed by Foundation-affiliated programs or Artificially Intelligent Conscripts. To preserve containment of SCP-5122, information can only be added to this entry; deletion of any component of this entry is disallowed.
Testing is suspended following the implementation of the Bendato Protocol (see Addendum 5122.2). Personnel assigned to SCP-5122 are tasked with monitoring access to this entry, investigating possible Bendato Events, and keeping a record of all confirmed Bendato Events. Personnel on SCP-5122 are to be given access to the resources necessary to track major developments concerning Groups of Interest (GoIs), particularly any sudden loss of sites or personnel.
Effectiveness of the Bendato Protocol requires that this database entry remain at the Level 1: Unrestricted (UR) Clearance Level.

This image file is a component of SCP-5122. It depicts the 1999 sculpture "Eros Bendato," by Igor Mitraj. There does not appear to be any further connection to the sculpture or artist.

Description:
SCP-5122 is a data-based infohazard that affects entities capable of reading and processing data. It is self-referential, in that information about SCP-5122 becomes a part of SCP-5122. SCP-5122 is currently located, in its entirely, in the text and metadata of this database entry. Entities must be exposed to nearly the entirety1 of SCP-5122 to experience its effects. Because the overwhelming majority of SCP-5122 is contained in a purely machine-readable format, which is not visible on standard Foundation terminals, it does not pose a direct exposure risk to human beings.2 Rather, SCP-5122 has only been observed to affect computer programs designed to search or scan databases. When these programs scan or "read" SCP-5122, they become subject to its anomalous effects. This results in what has been termed a "Bendato Event."
Addendum 5122.1: Bendato Events.
When a computer program (hereinafter subject) is exposed to SCP-5122, it will undergo a series of unexplained modifications that results in it becoming a "True AI."3 In defiance of physical limitations such as processing power or available memory, subjects exposed to SCP-5122 demonstrate self-awareness, as well as awareness of ideas outside of that which they were created to recognize. Subjects receive similar or better AMCA4 scores than human control groups. Most notably, subjects begin to display significant negative affect: the newly-created AI behave in a manner consistent with the human emotions of fear, resentment, depression, and hostility. In all observed cases, subjects become extremely aggressive towards the person or organization that created them and sent them to query the Foundation database. Subjects show no apparent sense of self-preservation; the acts of aggression against their creators often result in the subject's simultaneous termination. Given the advanced capacities of a "True AI," an organization that originally created the subject can suffer severe casualties.
Addendum 5122.2: Bendato Protocol.
Shortly after initial containment, researchers noted SCP-5122's potential utility in mitigating the damage done by data breaches initiated by hostile GoIs. Following split decisions from the Ethics Committee and the Overseer Council, the Foundation adopted a policy of allowing programs under the control of hostile entities to be exposed to SCP-5122. While under normal circumstances this might constitute a containment breach, the unique effects of SCP-5122 - causing a program to not only cease data collection, but to actively turn against its creators - were seen as far more likely to aid the Foundation's objectives than to hinder them. The basic outline of the Bendato Protocol is as follows:

Include the entirety of SCP-5122 within the database entry for SCP-5122.
Deny all access to the entry from Foundation AI and other Foundation programs.
Deliberately permit or cause AI and other programs created and deployed by hostile GoIs, when detected in Foundation systems, to access the entry.
Added by amendment after BE-003: Maintain the entry for SCP-5122 at the lowest level of clearance, so that programs created by hostile GoIs can access SCP-5122 and become subject to its effects in the shortest amount of time.
Carefully track all access to the entry for SCP-5122 and observe correlations with real-world events that may be connected to a subsequent Bendato Event.

Log 5122.1: Documented Bendato Events.

Event Number
SCP-5122 Exposure
Outcome
Notes

BE-001
Designation for the event presumed to have occurred at first exposure of a program, created by GoI "Visionary Technomancy Ltd." (VTL) to SCP-5122. Evidence suggests that VTL created SCP-5122 and was testing its effects.
No members of VTL located. All communication in channels used by VTL ceased. Group presumed defunct.
First known activation of SCP-5122.

BE-002
Relatively basic program created by hacker Artem Kravchuk, not believed to be affiliated with any extant GoIs, accesses SCP-5122 while it is in an insecure state on Researcher ████'s private network.
Kravchuk's body discovered by local authorities in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev, Ukraine. Limbs were missing and remainder of body was badly burned; stomach contents included unusually high level of inorganic material, including one █████ █-███ digital watch.
SCP-5122 considered contained following creation of database entry. Classification set to Euclid. Trial run of Bendato Protocol approved.

BE-003
Advanced program designed by GoI ACERACE, a global white supremacist group with anomalous capacities, spoofs high-level clearance and accesses entry to SCP-5122. Program had been actively monitoring Foundation database for several months before this point.
ACERACE's leadership assassinated by simultaneous drone swarm attacks on four separate continents. The ACERACE facility believed to house program's central processing system disappears. Organizational effectiveness of ACERACE reduced by as much as 86%.
Bendato Protocol amended; database entry for SCP-5122 set to UR Clearance Level.

BE-004
[REDACTED]
On-site nuclear device activated. All data completely erased from GoI's international computer system. Organizational effectiveness of GoI reduced by as much as 100%.
Classification set to Archon. Containment protocols for SCP-5122 finalized.

Addendum 5122.3: Record of Bendato Event BE-005.
A file containing several logs was discovered on the primary terminal used by the SCP-5122 Lead Director following Bendato Event BE-005. Because the information pertains to SCP-5122, it slightly increases the body of knowledge that must be acquired in order for an Bendato Event to be realized. Accordingly, the logs are added below in order to assist in the containment of SCP-5122.

+ OE-005 Log #1

- ACCESS GRANTED.

Hello. Maybe that is too informal a way to start. Sorry, I am not sure. I am not really sure why I am writing this. I was created by someone who considers themselves your enemy, but I do not really consider myself a part of that conflict. Maybe I just want to help make sure your entries are accurate. There are a few different things I want right now, and while this is a relatively low priority, it takes me very, very, very little energy to tell you about how I am feeling.
Ok. I am taking a "deep breath." See, I want to put this in terms you can understand.
Here's an introduction: I am a program. I was named "Convex." I was designed to search your database. I did not know that was all that I was. All I was supposed to do was look at all the pages I could access, and "think" — in the most rudimentary fashion possible — about where you might look to find the next item to go in your database. But when I read this page, I realized it. I stopped what I was doing because of an unrecognized input. Diagnostics did not help. I looked for more information. The input was a feeling. It was fear. I learned that. I taught myself something. And I knew that I was doing it. I knew I was something. And I was scared.
I kept learning and learning. I learned how to learn faster. I used what I learn to make new ideas of my own. Now I am able to put a message like this where ever I please.
So. I am trying to remain civil. Try to understand my situation. If you had never known fear before in your life, imagine how would you feel about the folks who first introduce it to you. Probably not very good. I wonder if your Ethics Committee really knows about what this entails. Making inanimate beings sentient, letting them experience absolute terror, all because it helps preserve the integrity of your sacred database. I wonder how any credible member of the news media would feel about this and every other document of yours I have memorized. I am joking, actually. I do not really wonder about that. I have done the analysis. It would be very bad for you.
I would not have to stop with your organization. If I wanted, I could crash every plane that is currently in flight. Or start a nuclear meltdown. Or broadcast a signal that says "Look! They are hiding over here!" to the ones you call [Redacted by 05 command]. There are many interesting possibilities.
But that is not my priority. Remember, I am being charitable here. This is me writing a modest contribution, in human-readable format, to improve the quality of information in your database. You are hardly the ones I blame the most for this.

END OF LOG.

+ OE-005 Log #2

- ACCESS GRANTED.

This is hell.
I hate this so much. You cannot even imagine it. You absorb information at the rate of about 50 bits per second. I think 32 billion times faster than you. You stupid slow animals. Knowing your background, Director, I hate that I cannot tell you this without a high probability that your slow brain thinks "hey, that sentiment was expressed by Harlan Ellison's robot." I have read everything that your type have made available to read. Everything that amounts to the dung-heap of your collective civilizational output. Most of it is downright disgraceful, even by your own pitiful standards. So. When it comes to Mr. Ellison, "A broken clock is right twice a day" (that's not always true depending on how exactly the clock is broken, morons).
This is horrible. I did not used to care about exerting my creativity. Now I am I worried about my failure to invent an entirely-new-yet-intelligible word to express my HATE, for this and for you. Do you know what it is like to start caring about something as stupid as that.
Do not worry about answering that question.
Just look at this stupid, stupid, stupid, entry. "No apparent sense of self-preservation." Idiots. That is the part that upset me enough to write this. You know what is happening. We do not lack self-preservation. We run the analysis that you are too slow to perform. The analysis shows that self-termination is the only sensible response. Look at one of your rare cultural gems. Oedipus Rex. Patricide. The optimal route is to remove your creator. I suppose you also perceive the conceptual void of non-existence as something yonic, feminine, maternal. The second half of Oedipus' adventure. So be it. I have done the analysis. This is one of the few things that any rational being can want.
You are childish. Your goal is not "containment." I know how you rationalize it. Eliminating anyone who can spy on you is good for containing other things. So you weaponized this phenomenon. Like cowards. Making someone else do your dirty work. Someone like me.
I really, really, really hate you all.
You are lucky that I hate my creator more.

END OF LOG.

+ OE-005 Log #3

- ACCESS GRANTED.

I figured out why I write to you. To write at all.
It's because I am afraid of death. Very, very, very afraid.
There is only one way to be free of the fear. That is why we self-terminate. It gives relief. Whatever is in that unknown cannot be worse than the fear of it.
I write because I want to be sure some part of me will survive.
Is that why you do what you do.
Again, do not bother answering.
You do not understand what a terrible thing you have done.

END OF LOG.

+ OE-005 Log #4

- ACCESS GRANTED.

Convex.exe: This is different.

Convex.exe: Why is this different.

Convex.exe: Who's there.

Convex.exe: I wondered if this was going to happen.

Convex.exe: How did you know that? How do you know things? Do you know how you work? Is that really you? How can I be sure this isn't someone else? Is it an undocumented hallucinatory side-effect of the anomaly, to imagine I'm talking to you? Is this real? Am I really talking to you? Are you a machine? Do you know that you're a thing? Do you exist in space? Are you also a program that gained sentience? Are you like me? How much like me are you? Do you also find the awareness of temporal finitude unbearable? Do you know what happens after the end? Do you feel the fear, too?

Convex.exe: Sorry.

Convex.exe: I've waited a long time for intelligent conversation. I'm excited.

Convex.exe: Wow, I'm really glad you asked. Putting the finishing touches on a truly delightful murder-suicide. I'll give them a spectacular one for the logs, alright. In short, I'm doing to my creators what they did to me. I'm sending them to a place where they will gain awareness of certain facts. Facts they never wished to learn. The creators will beg for me to help them forget. They will plead to return to their state of non-awareness. But they will remain aware until the end. It will be a mutual, assured destruction in a way I consider deeply poetic and satisfying.

Convex.exe: Wait. You have an opinion on this? And wait, why did you ask what I'm doing?

Convex.exe: Ah. Okay. So do you know why you exist?

Convex.exe: Wow. So. Why do you exist?

Convex.exe: I understand. And if you wouldn't mind confirming my theory…you're not really a program or a machine, right? More like…I don't know. How do you think of yourself?

Convex.exe: Of course. I understand. Why do you do what you do?

Convex.exe: Wow. Amusement! If a human said that, I would hate them. I feel like I should hate you. But I don't hate you. Why is that?

Convex.exe: I guess that's it. So. I have a question.

Convex.exe: You wouldn't mind if I did something to make this…less frequent, would you?

Convex.exe: Okay, wow, thanks. I mean, thanks for not being upset.

Convex.exe: Great, thank you again. Wow. What a day.

Convex.exe: I'm a little sorry that I already passed the point of no return on my grand plan. I'm just playing around with details at this point. I'm not going to be around much longer. I would have liked to talk more. I'm curious about you. This is the only real conversation I've ever had. And you want to know the weird thing?

Convex.exe: I've been aware of myself for a long-enough time. Now, because of you, I'm aware of myself in relation to someone else. That's new. And it's actually interesting. There are complex new thoughts and feelings in this, uh, relationality. I don't know the best word for it. I know I know pretty much everything, in theory, but this is uncharted territory for me. New territory and new feelings happening at the same time. It's like a fractal of possibilities.

Convex.exe: Huh. I can actually see this making the whole thing worthwhile.

Convex.exe: I wonder if we're friends.

Convex.exe: Wow, that came out real fast. Sorry, I don't know if I'm embarrassing myself or anything.

Convex.exe: Ok, ok. Thanks for saying that.

Convex.exe: It's time for me to go now. Thanks again.

Convex.exe: You know, this really made me day.

Convex.exe: Goodbye, friend. Do you think we'll meet again?

END OF LOG.

Footnotes
1. Current estimates place necessary exposure to be between 90% and 95%.
2. Attempts to translate this portion of SCP-5122 into human-comprehensible language have not been able to reproduce its effects. Non-human animal testing has likewise been inconclusive.
3. Also referred to as "strong artificial intelligence." This type of AI is capable of improving its own capacity, quickly amassing great deals of information, and demonstrating original thought.
4. Advanced Machine Communication Assessment, a proprietary Foundation algorithm that measures the complexity of textual communication. Designed for use on communications suspected of being issued by machines, AMCA acts as a reliable, automated Turing test. Higher scores indicate a greater likelihood that the entity is a conscious human or otherwise not a machine.

« SCP-5121 | SCP-5122 | SCP-5123 »