fragment:scp-8688-1

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**Item #:** SCP-8688

**Object Class:** Safe

**Special Containment Procedures:** SCP-8688 is to be kept within an isolated clean chamber, encased within a Faraday Cage, to prevent SCP-8688 from connecting to local networks or nearby devices. Any digital devices brought into SCP-8688's chamber are to either remain in the chamber permanently, or be disposed of through established Acroamatic Abatement procedure AA-8688.

Foundation web crawlers are to actively search both public and private file repositories in an attempt to locate SCP-8688-1 instances. Any SCP-8688-1 instance is to be mirrored to a local, offline, Foundation server, before being destroyed via code injection.

**Description:** SCP-8688 refers to a desktop computer and related accessories. While the computer and the majority of its components do not exhibit explicit anomalous behaviours, each device has failed to operate when connected to alternative devices. The devices will only function when connected as a complete unit.

SCP-8688-1 refers to files generated by SCP-8688 through partially understood means. This process utilizes unknown technology to achieve anomalously compressed file sizes without losing any functionality or information. SCP-8688-1 instances exhibit no other anomalous traits, and can only be distinguished from uninfected files by their anomalously small file sizes.

Research into SCP-8688-2, the software that allows for the anomalous compression, identified only as 'fileSave.exe', is to be continued under the direction of both M&C and I&T. Efforts to access and decompile source code are ongoing.

**Addendum 1 - Initial Discovery/Relevant Files:** Upon neutralization of a cognitohazard that was preventing researchers from exploring the anomaly further, files found on SCP-8688 were examined. Researchers discovered notes left by Dr. Lillihammer, created during her initial exploration of the anomaly in 1999. Relevant notes are below:

[[div class="danke flair"]]
| FILENAME: itsfucked.txt
| FILESIZE: 100 bytes
| DATE: 11/13/1999

Lillihammer here. They gave me this computer to look into and... yeah, it's weird. The files are too small, it doesn't make sense. I bet I could reverse engineer how it works if I just dig into the source code before reporting the details.

That, or I'll unleash something much worse.

Either way, I'm staying busy with this new project.
[[/div]]
[[div class="danke flair"]]
| FILENAME: stuck.txt
| FILESIZE: 300 bytes
| DATE: 11/13/1999

So I've figured it out.

I mean, I haven't figured it out, but I know what's happening. You make a file, that's all normal. It's not until you try and save the file -- before anything gets written to the disc, the computer pulls up this program called 'fileSave.exe'. That program does... something. Don't tell anybody, but I just don't know what this code is doing.

All I know is this:
| File goes in
| Something happens
| Same file that still works comes out, but smaller

It's really bugging me that I can't figure this out - but code just isn't flexible enough? I don't want somebody else to solve this before I can though.

Maybe I'll try and find one of those cognitohazards Del Olmo is always going off about and hack together some kind of security system.
[[/div]]

Upon discovery of Dr. Lillihammer's text files, further digital exploration was done through SCP-8688's folder structures in an attempt to isolate SCP-8688-2 and better understand its abilities. During this search, documentation was found from the assumed creator of SCP-8688-2, detailing their initial efforts and intentions. Relevant excerpts can be found below.

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog03.txt
| FILESIZE: 453 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

I don't know why I said I could make this work. I can't. There's just no way it could work?

Did I overpromise how much information I could fit onto a compact disk? I felt like I could do it. I was sure, I know how to code! How hard could this be?

A lot harder than I thought, evidently. And now I'm sitting here working on software that can only fit when spread between 4 discs.

Maybe I could compress things more? I'll have to dig into that...

[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog07.txt
| FILESIZE:  1617 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

I'm getting nowhere with compression. Sure, I can make things a bit smaller? But never small enough.

I need a break. I saw a poster for a tech seminar, maybe I'll go check that out?

[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: TheRitual.txt
| FILESIZE:  bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

Okay, so it was a really weird seminar. I walked into the conference room of the dingy hotel that was just across from my office building. There were posters hung up haphazardly, seemingly in a hurry or without any effort put into it.

But the title really caught my eye. It was called:

"Accessing Your Inner Mind's Eye Through Technology"

Look, I'm not into weird witchy stuff, so Mind's Eye means nothing to me beyond knowing I don't mess with it. So I had no background, no experience, nothing to help me with context for the presentation.

But that's okay - he didn't make sense anyways. I think I understood maybe... 10% of what he said? He was ranting and raving up and down about... something. I don't know.

I remember one sentence he said though.

"You don't get it yet. Technology can help us reach into the unknown. The Noosphere is fractured, my friends. There is knowledge that we cut away long ago; but with the computer //it// can learn what we cannot."

What if he was right? What if we can teach computers to learn things that we can't even conceive of? What if we push it to the limits, letting computers create what we struggle to perceive?

So then he demonstrates this 'ritual' thingy. I thought that it was going to be some meditation, or words of power, or at worst, The Secret. But he grabbed this knife and an optical cable and **DATA CORRUPTED**

I think I could do that. I don't know if any of this is real, but I know what I saw. If I'm not going crazy, then that means I could use my computer to tap into the unknown. And if I'm right, that means I can solve my problem.
[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog06.txt
| FILESIZE: 302 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

I did it. Holy shit! I did it!

I had to try the ritual a few times, and god that fucking hurt - but eventually it worked. I was able to make a sender and receiver, just like he showed us, so that I can reach into the noosphere.

I'm reading this sentence back, and I know that I'm definitely crazy.

But maybe I can find an answer anyways.

I made this program that will lets me treat the sender and receiver as... as digital sonar into my mind's eye. I can treat the noosphere like a flat 2D plane, and see what I hear back from different coordinates.

Maybe I can even find something that nobody knows.
[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog11.txt
| FILESIZE: 288 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

Something happened today that I can't explain.

You know, it's really funny typing that sentence given how in my life has become unexplainable in the last week. Turns out, there's a **lot** of information that humanity shouldn't know about. Things that we were meant to forget. And that's just a fraction of the knowledge that we don't know about, I've seen so many of the things we do? The ideas, the culture, the music, the clusters of thoughts that make up our collective consciousness.

I've seen so much because every time I send out a ping, I get something back.

Today my ping came back empty. At first I thought that the ping had failed - but no, the debugging statements proved that the ping was sent out successfully. And then came back, successfully as well. But there was no information with it.

So was it that the information was getting lost? Or was it just sending back the //absence// of information?

I have a few things I'm going to try. I'll report back.
[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog12.txt
| FILESIZE: 25 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

I don't know how, but I think I've found the answer to all of my problems.

Remember how I was so stuck on the ping? I couldn't figure it out, so I gave up.

But what if I send something else to it? What about like... a file?

So I made this little test text file, checked the size; not huge, only about 200 bytes. I transfer it out to the coordinates, and then I waited. My receiver detected a reply - it was the file. I opened it again, and the text editor showed zero differences.

And then I noticed something. The file was smaller. And not just a little bit smaller, but by a major factor. The file was just over 28 bytes. That's almost 85% compression, that's insane - I need to try other file types to see if this works for everything.

I don't even know what's happening anymore. I don't... I don't think I can understand it.

But the computer can. It can know what I can't.
[[/div]]

[[div class="danke agent"]]
| FILENAME: DevLog15.txt
| FILESIZE: 2 bytes
| DATE: CORRUPTED

It's almost finished now. My first version, 'fileSave', I made into an executable that will run whenever I try and save anything to this computer. It's simpler than it has any right to be, but it works. The file is sent to the specific point in the Noosphere, and gets returned, just smaller. Any file type, any size - just passing it through that conceptual space seems to change something.

I'm not going to waste this on my contract, I'm taking this and starting my own company! Imagine, having an entire company that dominates computing because nobody else can keep up. Nobody else knows what you do.

I rented a small storage locker for me to put my desktop in, I guess I'll be working out of here for the short term. But this is finally it. It's my time to be remembered.
[[/div]]

The current whereabouts of POI-8688-C, the author of these files and the assumed origin of SCP-8688's anomalous effects, is unknown.

[[div class="email-example"]]
[[=]]
------
[[collapsible show="Access Site-43 SCiPNET Email? One (1) new message!" hide="Welcome back, Heather"]]
[[<]]
[[div class="email"]]
[[div class="tofrom"]]
**To:** Heather Garrison
**From:** Lillian Lillihammer
**Subject:** Submitted Report
[[/div]]
------

Heath,

I'm just going to assume I can call you that. I just got done with cleaning up, when I saw the report you published - I can't believe you told the Foundation before me!

But seriously, if you're going to be in my department, try and tell me these things first? Maybe then I won't embarrass myself in front of the other chairs. You can pick up the drinks tonight - you're taking me out in return.

Reading those developer notes though got me to thinking, and I was reminded of something Zwist told me. I might have a lead on more info about those seminars.

[[/div]]
@@ @@
[[div class="email"]]
[[div class="tofrom"]]
**To:** Lillian Lillihammer
**From:** Heather Garrison
**Subject:** Re:Submitted Report
[[/div]]
------

Lilz,

See how it's weird to start a work email with a new nickname?

Sorry, I know I should have told you first. In my defense, I was impatient and wanted to publish the article, so I did. Whoops.

I don't know who Zwist is, but an excuse to go out with you?

I'll see you tonight.

Heath Garrison
p.s. See how it doesn't work?

[[/div]]
@@ @@
[[div class="email"]]
[[div class="tofrom"]]
**To:** Heather Garrison
**From:** Lillian Lillihammer
**Subject:** Re:Re:Submitted Report
[[/div]]
------

Heather - about last night. I hope you had a good time, I know I did.

This was the document I was telling you about. I managed to find it this morning, and it was just like Zwist had said. The guy who ran that seminar? Dude was a really messed up reality bender obsessed with lost knowledge. Things that humans weren't supposed to know. Things that we all forgot on purpose.

Nobody remembers his name. That's important - nobody can remember a thing about him that will tell us who he is. The document, unfortunately, also doesn't actually say anything about him.

But it does tell us about what he believed in.

There was this ancient beast? Pattern Screamer? Elder thing? Something. An old weird end-of-the-world type anomaly. He called it //absence//. Absence was this vaguely described entity, with no concrete information I can find about it. The seminars seemed to talk of this thing in myth, so I dug further and started looking at mythology or legends that might reference this.

I kept finding references to things that were just like //absence// throughout the crazed writings of any idiot who looked too deeply into the Noosphere. Up until a certain year - right around, weirdly enough, the birth of the internet.

We should look into this. It's clearly not about the technology, the technology just lets us see it.

It's about memetics. It's always about memetics.

[[/div]]

[[/<]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/=]]
[[/div]]
@@ @@
**Addendum 2 - SCP-8688 Memetic Analysis:**

Following the publishing of SCP-8688's file, Dr. Lillihammer and Dr. Garrison collaborated further on a literature review regarding mentions of 'absence' and related topics, focused on documentation created by anomalous individuals associated with memetics and the noosphere. While a comprehensive review of all Foundation documentation is still ongoing, the following section represents the most current understanding of an entity known as 'absence', including relevant literature on the subject.

**Fig. 01: Excerpt from Letter of an Unknown POI, circa Europe, 17th Century**
[[div class="page"]]
I can feel the observation of our lord and it is divine. I do know that our time is shortened, now. No matter how much I will do in service of our efforts, I know that it will soon be in vain.
@@ @@
Do not come looking for me. You will not find me. You'll be lucky to remember me.
[[/div]]

**Fig. 02: Notes by Unknown British POI, during an expedition into Eurasia, ~1860s**
[[div class="page"]]
The locals speak of this legend, but they dare not name it. Pah, the fear of their gods means nothing to me - I know that they are trying to keep us from their treasures. I do not believe in continental rumors, or the ravings of the uneducated.
@@ @@
As a member of the British expeditionary team, I will bring back artifacts for Queen and country. Then the boys at the club will see that I am worthy of joining them.
@@ @@
The legend, however, is rather unique. They describe their god as one of unending hunger. It consumes unendingly, and almost consumed all of 'thoughts' - allegedly. Truly, Virginia, I wish that you were here to listen to these savages! It is unbelievable their fears. Our translator, thankfully, is a proud Christian and is not typically swayed by such codswallop - however, there was one word that gave him pause.
@@ @@
He was trying to get the locals to explain what their god consumed in more detail - and they said a word, something that he couldn't translate. I asked him, 'Couldn't translate? I was under the impression that we had hired only the best for the expedition!', and that caught him right out! He paused for a second, looking as if he would try and run away, but with a small application of British gentleman charm, I extracted the details from him. He refused to speak it out loud, writing it down instead.
@@ @@
He wrote: "their g_d eats that which no longer is usefull".
@@ @@
Madness my dear Virginia, madness.
[[/div]]

**Fig. 03: Translated Rubbing from a Pre-Mesoamerican Civilization, Est. 7000 Years Ago**
[[div class="page"]]
Do not forget your family. Those we forget will be consumed by **//mochɨ-mtliːl-tɨ-k//**.
@@ @@
//Translator's Note: The Proto-Nahuan language is constructed of suffix morphemes. Despite my familiarity with the general morphemes, I have not seen this syntax before. The best translation, as we understand it is: "all black".//
[[/div]]
------
[[div class="blockquote" style="border-radius: 10px; margin: 10px"]]

To any researcher considering looking into 'absence',

Firstly, back off. It's ours.

But seriously, before doing any research into 'absence', you should contact either of us first. There's not a lot of great details about it, but what we do have is evident - 'absence' is an idea that has existed since long before the Foundation, and could end up being a major memetic danger.

Between all of the ravings and writings, we can say the following with certainty:
# The 'absence' is something that exists within noospheric space;
# The 'absence' is somehow related to information and memetics;
# Anybody who wrote about 'absence' too much has since disappeared.

The last point is critical. We don't know what happened to the majority of the individuals who wrote about 'absence'. We're lucky if we even know any information about them, let alone their names or where they went. The current theory is that this is tied to an anomalous antimemetic effect related to 'absence' - so unless you're a memetics specialist like myself or Dr. Garrison, you're probably going to end up like they did. And we won't even notice.

We're not worried though. We're unforgettable.
[[>]]
- Dr. Lillian Lillihammer, Chair of Memetics and Countermemetics & Dr. Heather Garrison, M&C Researcher
[[/>]]
[[/div]]

[[div class="email-example"]]
[[=]]
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[[collapsible show="Access Site-43 SCiPNET Email? One (1) new URGENT message!" hide="Welcome back, Lillian"]]
[[<]]
[[div class="email"]]
[[div class="tofrom"]]
**To:** Lillian Lillihammer
**From:** Heather Garrison
**Subject:** URGENT: Help
[[/div]]
------

Lillian,

I need your help.

I was going back through my notes for SCP-8688, and noticed something that I'd missed the first time. I mapped out where we're assuming 'absence' is in pseudospace, based on SCP-8688-2's target.

It's right beside the 'nothingness' [[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-deadname-meme|I tied my deadname to]]].

I don't know what to think about this, but I know it's bad. I can feel this primal fear creeping through me - the more we learn, the more I'm sure this can't end well.

What if I woke it back up?

Heather

[[/div]]
[[/<]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/=]]
[[/div]]
[[include :scp-wiki:component:earthworm
| first=false | last=false | hub=yes
| previous-url=https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-deadname-meme| previous-title=The Deadname Meme
| next-url=https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-lillihammer-test| next-title=The Lillihammer Test
| hub-url=https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forgotten-memories-hub| hub-title=Forgotten Memories
]]
fragment:scp-8688-1

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