SCP-XX-A is an infohazard. Any observer who becomes aware of certain properties of the anomaly become subject to alterations in their ability to interact with the physical world.
For instance, attempting to precisely measure SCP-XX-A produces an anomalous effect. Consider the following hypothetical:
Researcher Stafford is asked to measure SCP-XX-A. He initially determines that its exterior dimensions were 112 cm × 112 cm. Following this, he measures its interior dimensions as 139 cm × 139 cm.
After measuring the exterior again, in an attempt to reconcile this seeming impossibility, he reports it as being 167 cm × 167 cm. A remeasure of the interior was reported as 210 cm × 210 cm.
After a third remeasure, the exterior and interior dimensions were reported as 254 cm × 254 cm and 299 cm × 299 cm, respectively.
Contrary to conventional measurements of physical objects, such a process would diverge rather than converge, bizarrely suggesting that the anomaly is larger than any finite volume (including the observable universe). This is clearly false, as it fits comfortably within its containment chamber.
Similarly, attempting to survey the interior of SCP-XX-A also causes contradictions. To provide a fictional illustration:
Dr. Sugiyama enters SCP-XX-A to understand what exists inside it. Due to the expectation that the anomaly is not empty, attempting to determine its contents produces results which are inconsistent and nonsensical. Perhaps she reports that it contains thousands of burnt truck tires, or a large but abandoned upside-down city, or is full of immortal mammals.
She says that the space is both immeasurably large yet tight and constricting. Many objects and concepts seem to intersect with each other, yielding no coherent description. Without an observer entering to see for themselves, even the presence or absence of Dr. Sugiyama within the anomaly cannot be ascertained.
The only self-consistent observation about the interior of SCP-XX-A is that it has always been empty, which must therefore be the truth.
Similar anomalous effects occur when attempting to measure other aspects of SCP-XX-A, such as what material it is made of, what its temperature is, and how it was created.
Limited or inaccurate knowledge of its properties is only weakly infohazardous and can be removed with conventional amnestics.
Containment Use: At the present time, SCP-XX-A is unused, having been deemed unsuitable for the containment of other anomalous objects.
SCP-XX-A was created as a prototype during the course of Project Utopia. The goal was for the object to keep within it a potential Keter-class anomaly which, if it existed, would otherwise be uncontainable. Consider the following properties:
- Is an omnipresent existential cognitohazard, meaning that the object is physically present in all locations where it is capable of existing.
- Is capable of modifying its own properties such that local reality is able to accomodate its existence.
- Can, through the above process, become arbitrarily large.
Any anomaly fitting such a description would be impossible to be contain or neutralize, as the mere possibility of its existence anywhere within baseline reality would immediately subsume all physical space and cause an MK-class scenario.
Ultimately, Project Utopia was a failure. The known properties of SCP-XX-A (e.g. being empty, being finite) logically preclude its use in holding such an anomaly.
aismallard (Author Page)
smlt,
DrEverettMann, and
Croquembouche for critique.