SCP-2637

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 ignored .

The adjoining tanks must be kept filled up to 2000 m3 at all times. All uncontrolled energy transfer, 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 values .

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

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 75 .

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 universe (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 quark , 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 civilization . 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 evolution .

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 1927-12-03 .

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 message . 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 mankind 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