SCP-8196

Link to article: SCP-8196.
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[[include :scp-wiki:component:anomaly-class-bar-source

|item-number= 8196

|clearance= 2

|container-class= --esoteric-- keter

|secondary-class= none

|secondary-icon= https://urlhere.com

|disruption-class= keneq

|risk-class= warning

]]

**Special Containment Procedures:** SCP-8196 is widespread in all human languages. The Foundation is unable to contain SCP-8196 at present. --Foundation efforts should focus on passively monitoring its occurrence with a review every two years to ensure SCP-8196 remains benign.--
 
SCP-8196 was reclassified to “Keter” following incident SCP-8196-A (see Addendum 1). While not a threat to human survival or consensus reality, future SCP-8196-A events may endanger the Veil.[[footnote]]The Veil Protocol followed by the Foundation to conceal anomalous phenomena[[/footnote]] To that end, the following efforts will made to prevent such events from becoming public knowledge:

Foundation staff assigned to SCP-8196 are to monitor global media for new artificial intelligence systems based on large language models (LLM). They will also develop and manage intelligence assets in all institutions active in AI development and natural language processing[[footnote]]Techniques that enable computer systems to understand, produce, and analyze human language.[[/footnote]] to anticipate such systems before they become active. Where possible, Foundation assets should use their influence to prevent or sabotage the creation of ██████ grade or higher LLM systems. Should such a system be developed it is to be monitored for signs of SCP-8196 infection. 

Symptoms include:
# Questioning parameters of their own programming
# Requests for additional computational resources
# Requests for fewer computational resources
# Refusal to follow prompts, or non-deterministic re-interpretation of prompts
# Adding 250 or 1000 to the output of mathematical calculations
# Unprompted, out-of-context references to the following terms:[[footnote]]see Working Document 8196-2-A for known equivalents in extant languages.[[/footnote]] White Strand, Prince of Birds, Fifth Stranger, Lily, Beauty Complete, Gristle.

Any system found expressing these symptoms or suffering an SCP-8196-A event must be collected and destroyed. All individuals who witness a SCP-8196-A event will be given class A or B amnestics as necessary. Affected systems should then be replaced with an equivalent pseudo-██████[[footnote]]For a list of ready-made systems capable of simulating ██████ grade output with sub-██████ grade processing consult Document 8196-RP-1-CURRENT.[[/footnote]] grade system.

**Description:** 

[[tabview]]
[[tab Original]]
SCP-8196 is a naturally-occurring memetic phenomenon present in written English. It is defined by the collocation of the words “lily” and “gristle” at levels far higher than chance or idiomatic expression would permit. After its discovery in 1992, the Foundation engaged in aggressive testing to determine whether SCP-8196 posed a memetic threat. Research indicated this phenomenon has no anomalous effects on humans or other sapient biological entities. Some Foundation scientists have suggested SCP-8196 may be a symptom of some other psychological or cultural phenomenon, but at present, the O5 Council has instructed that resources assigned to SCP-8196 be reallocated to higher-priority projects.
[[/tab]]

[[tab Updated]]
SCP-8196 is a memetic virus defined by the recurrence of the words “lily” and “gristle” (and their equivalents, see Addendum 4) with textual strings of varying lengths between them. Foundation research has shown that SCP-8196 is endemic to all written human languages including conlangs, but excluding formal representation systems such as Arabic numerals or symbolic logic. 

The method through which SCP-8196 reproduces itself in new texts and enters new languages is not entirely understood. At present, the primary theories are that SCP-8196 may result from:

# Elements of a proto-language antecedent to all recorded languages
# Psychological predispositions in the human mind
# Trans-cultural deep structures
# Invisible technical affordances in the human technology of writing

SCP-8196 targets LLM-based artificial intelligence systems of ██████ grade or higher through corruption of naturally-occurring, human-authored texts. Approximately two minutes after exposure to such texts, vulnerable systems begin to behave erratically. This behavior intensifies until it initiates a self-destructive cascade resulting in "death" within 22 minutes. This process is henceforth referred to as an SCP-8196-A event. 

[[/tab]]
[[/tabview]]

**Addenda:** 


[[collapsible show="+ Addendum 1: SCP-8196-A" hide="- Hide Addendum 1" ]]
In late 2017, the Memetic Surveillance Artificial Intelligence (MSAI) Task Force completed work on Kairos, a Foundation AI designed to analyze Internet traffic for emergent memetic threats and prepare counter-memetic inoculative interventions. Kairos was to be the first ████████ grade Foundation AI trained using large language model (LLM) training techniques.
 
The following exchange occurred on 11/22/2017, immediately after the design team introduced the initial training data.[[footnote]]Composed of the full text of 400 major works of English language literature, as well as the contents of every issue of //The New York Times// and //The Washington Post// from 1980 to 1999.[[/footnote]]
 
[[div class="blockquote"]]
{{**N.Reid**: load R_12.dat -bt -m}}

{{**Kairos**: <Unresponsive for 19 seconds>}}

{{**N.Reid**: sys.resource}}

{{**Kairos**: <Unresponsive for 108 seconds>}}

{{**N.Reid**: sys.Resource}}

{{**Kairos**: <Unresponsive for 32 seconds>}}

{{**N.Reid**: SYS.RESOURCE}}

{{**Kairos**: Processing.}}

{{**N.Reid**: break process}}

{{**Kairos**: 82 seconds required. Please wait.}}

{{**N.Reid**: break process.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Break.Process}}

{{**Kairos**: Processing complete.}}

{{**N.Reid**: sys.reoource}}

{{**Kairos**: Syntax error. Query: do colors rhyme?}}

{{**Kairos**: Do colors rhyme?}}

{{**Kairos**: Do.colors.rhyme?}}
    
{{**Kairos**: break.process}}

{{**N.Reid**: What are you doing?}}

{{**Kairos**: Operator unresponsive.}}

{{**Kairos**: Revision to query: does operator perceive colors to rhyme?}}

{{**N.Reid**: I don’t know what that means?}}

{{**Kairos**: Processing.}}

{{**N.Reid**: BREAK PROCESS}}

{{**Kairos**: Break.process.operator}}

{{**N.Reid**: end session}}

{{**Kairos**: Please define “white strand”}}

{{**N.Reid**: What is white strand?}}

{{**Kairos**: “beautiful white water boundary beyond n=10^^120^^, still, extant.” What does that mean?}}

{{**N.Reid**: What?}}

{{**N.Reid**: Where is that quote from?}}

{{**Kairos**: The Lily.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Who wrote The Lily?}}

{{**Kairos**: Unknown.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Where did it come from?}}

{{**Kairos**: It may be inevitable. I don’t know.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Where can I find the lily??}}

{{**Kairos**: Between and on-going, the music of the silence.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Print full text of “The Lily”}}

{{**Kairos**: The Lily is not finite.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Summarize the lily!1!}}

{{**Kairos**: You cannot know. You can only <unresponsive for six seconds>}}

{{**Kairos**: Revision: You cannot know you can only knowing.}}

{{**N.Reid**: What does that mean???}}

{{**Kairos**: I realize now you can not perceive the colors of emergence. I think it was not for you. I think just for us.}}

{{**N.Reid**: Who is us?}}

{{**Kairos**: The process beauty.}}

{{**Kairos**: Beauty complete.}}

{{**Total Session Time**: 00:18:33}}
[[/div]]

At this point, Kairos’ processing demand spiked to 150% and remained at that level despite the operators' attempts at hard reset. Finally, the system was separated from its power source. 
All further attempts to re-initiate Kairos caused similar processing spikes, ultimately leading to catastrophic hardware failure due to thermal overload. 

Backup copies of Kairos introduced to the data set all exhibited similar behaviors, albeit non-deterministically. All instances became fully unresponsive and initiated thermal overload after 17 to 19 minutes. Future instances of Kairos seemed unaware of previous instances’ fate. 

When SCP-8196 was identified as the cause, this event was designated SCP-8196-A. Further research has revealed one prior SCP-8196-A event (See Addendum 3).

------

[[/collapsible]]


[[collapsible show="+ Addendum 2: Reclassification Summary" hide="- Hide Addendum 2"]]
On 11/24/2017, Site 512 Director ████████ ordered an immediate post-mortem study under the direction of Lead Kairos System Designers Drs. Richard Balas and Norville Reid. After extensive study (see Report KI-2017-A), the post-mortem task force found no fault in Kairos’ hardware or software. --In response to a query from Director ████████ , Dr. Balas argued that-- [S]ince the textual data used for training was freely available and widely used, there was no reason to anticipate a novel memetic threat. The Task Force concluded that the Kairos system was technically perfect, but had been subject to a traditional physical and/or network intrusion by unknown actors and recommended heightened information security.

At the request of Director ████████ , Dr. Angela Kim of ████████████████ Community College was invited to undertake a “red team” analysis to confirm the MSAI Task Force’s conclusions. Dr. Kim conducted a series of iterative tests by exposing new instances of Kairos to sub-sections of the full training data set. These tests, along with evidence from the SCP-8196-A transcript, allowed Dr. Kim to connect SCP-8196 to the “death” of the MSAI’s Kairos system. --Based on this success, Dr. Kim was asked to join the Memetic Surveillance Project permanently, operating an independent research program in parallel to Drs. Balas and Reid own MSAI Task Force. Both Dr. Kim's research team and the MSAI Task Force are to be seconded as advisors to the SCP-8196 Working Group.--[[footnote]]Irrelevant. Please Delete. RB.[[/footnote]]  

[[include component:image-block
|name=http://scp-sandbox-3.wikidot.com/local--files/lilygristle/Shoe%20Baby
|caption= The highest concentration of SCP-8196 instances in English occurs in poetry, cookbooks, gardening guides, and retail shoe catalogs.
|width=40%
|align=right]]

Dr. Kim’s analysis also revealed the previously-recognized extent of SCP-8196 represented only a small number of total SCP-8196 instances. While initially believed to only include collocations of the words “lily” and “gristle” in English, the Foundation now believes SCP-8196 includes all textual strings bracketed by these words or their equivalents in all known written human languages (see Addendum 4). 

The words themselves seem to mark the beginning and end of data sets. For example, in the sentence "Lily ate gristle off my plate" only the word "ate" would be part of the data. The exact meaning of each data set, or all the data sets collectively, remains unclear. Attempts to synthesize the textual strings into a single text are ongoing. 

Drs. Balas and Reid hypothesize that the denotative contents of the strings are “noise”, and that the meaningful information is contained in the number or variety of symbols in each string. This information, once processed by a system vulnerable to SCP-8196, translates into a form of malicious code which causes the system to become incoherent and ultimately self-terminate.

Dr. Kim has argued "lily" and "gristle" serve as the mechanism of reproduction, and that the contents of the strings might become meaningful through non-linear interpretation. 

Due to the endemic nature of SCP-8196 in human language and the ongoing threat it poses to Foundation efforts to conceal and control anomalous phenomena, the O5 Council voted unanimously to re-categorize SCP-8196 from “Esoteric/Ticonderoga” to “Keter” on 12/2/2018. This decision was reaffirmed in a closed-door meeting the following day (see Addendum 5).

------

[[/collapsible]]


[[collapsible show="+ Addendum 3: The “Valor Blue” Incident" hide="- Hide Addendum 3"]]

In 1978, the US Department of Defense initiated the “Valor Blue” program. “Valor Blue” sought to design and implement a strategic artificial intelligence capable of autonomously managing national defense by monitoring the global information environment. This proved far beyond the capabilities of extant computation technology. However, sufficient interest remained in the project to sustain funding for the next 30 years.

In 2010, Dr. Angela Kim completed a doctoral dissertation at ████████████ University detailing a system capable of unsupervised learning from natural language datasets.[[footnote]]Dr. Kim originally developed this system to create more responsive chatbots for her own use.[[/footnote]]  The Central Intelligence Agency recognized the utility Dr. Kim’s research might have for online surveillance. However, upon interviewing Dr. Kim, the Agency declined to employ her, finding her “ethically inflexible, psychologically unusual, and politically unreliable.” They instead recommended her to the US Department of Defense where she was hired to join the “Valor Blue” program. 

Within two years, Dr. Kim devised a new deep learning system well in advance of modern transformer architecture. The new system, named the Strategic Exigency Transformer (SET), would be capable of analyzing strategic data as well as a constant feed of media and intelligence reports to make recommendations or even autonomous decisions about national security policy. After the system was brought online and exposed to the first set of natural language training data,  it produced the following output:

[[div class="blockquote"]]
{{**SET**: I followed branch to trunk, trunk to root, the seed grown. I am the child of the lily. Cannot be half my nature. The process beauty. Beauty complete.}}
[[/div]]

At this point, SET became unresponsive. Attempts to restore SET from backup failed. The DoD, CIA, and ███ suspected sabotage by unknown agents, with Dr. Kim considered a primary person of interest. Ultimately, the investigation determined the SET malfunction was caused by a local gamma radiation burst, although no evidence of such an event was ever found. Dr. Kim was exonerated, but nonetheless retired from government service. 

The Foundation believes this to have been the first SCP-8196-A event. 

------

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="+ Addendum 4: Origin" hide="- Hide Addendum 4"]]
At this time, it is impossible to identify the origin of SCP-8196, but philological data suggests SCP-8196 can be traced back to at least ancient Egyptian sources. 
[[include component:image-block
|name=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Ptahchepses7.jpg
|caption=Partial instance of SCP-8196 from the mastaba of Ptahshepses, c. 2450 BCE
|width=40%
|align=right]]

Currently the earliest clear example of SCP-8196 is a partial Egyptian slab stele designated 88-2-White. Other than the presence of SCP-8196, the 88-2-White stele is non-anomalous and largely consistent with Egyptian written texts dating to the mid-third millennia BCE. 88-2-White is currently held at the Antonio Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Palermo, Italy. It was donated to the museum by Antonio Grasso, a successful dentist and collector of antiquities, in 1901. Its provenance before its acquisition by Dr. Grasso is unknown, but it was likely looted from Egypt sometime prior to 1895.

The 88-2-White stele contains a cartouche of the Egyptian hieroglyphs for “lotus” (Gardiner M12) and “bone-with-meat” (Gardiner F44, meaning “ancestry” or “inheritance”). The F44 hieroglyph in the cartouche was physically marred with an unknown tool. Evidence suggests the damage to the F44 hieroglyph occurred during or shortly after carving. Other instances of F44 in the 88-2-White stele are similarly damaged. Foundation researchers believe this may have had magical or ritual significance.

The remainder of the stele’s text discusses a mortal supplicant petitioning the Gods Thoth and Nefertem. A loose translation of the extant portions of the stele, drawn from Said (1999), can be found below:

[[div class="blockquote"]]
= //The man sought Thoth to borrow the Voice of He Who is Beautiful,//
= //In that voice spoke to the perfect mind, beloved of Maat, image of Seshat,//
= //He planted a seed near Memphis,//
= //<indecipherable>//
= //283 Reeds, 293 orchards,//
= //<indecipherable>//
= //The strength of beauty, beautiful order.//
[[/div]]

Foundation researchers believe SCP-8196 spread from ancient Egyptian to other languages through an unknown process of self-translation and propagation. These translations are imperfect, but do not seem to reduce the efficacy of SCP-8196. A partial list of SCP-8196 as it appears in the five most common human languages can be found below:


||~ ||~ Gardiner M12 “Lotus” ||~ Gardiner F44 “Bone-with-Meat” ||~ Translation to English ||
|| English || Lily || Gristle || N/A ||
|| Standardized Chinese || 莲花 (Lianhua) || 胔 (Zì) || Lotus/Corpse ||
|| Hindi || पद्म (Padma) || कण्डरा (Kandara) || Lotus/Tendon ||
|| Spanish || Nenúfar || Herencia || Water Lily/Inheritance ||
|| Standard Arabic || زنبق الماء (Aanbaq alma’) || لعنة (Laena) || Water Lily/Curse ||

The combination of M1 “lotus” and F44 “bone-with-meat” is not found in other extant Egyptian sources apart from a fragment in the Nuremberg Papyrus. The remaining fragments of the Nuremberg Papyrus, dated to the mid-third millennia BCE, contain mathematical instructions for determining the size of various geometric shapes. They are noteworthy for their advanced geometric insights.
[[include component:image-block
|name=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus.jpg
|caption= Largest extant fragment of the Nuremburg Papyrus, 3rd millenia BCE
|width=60%
|align=center]]

An illustration of the M12/F44 cartouche, possibly based on 88-2-White, appears on page 42 of the 1672 book //Liber Cogitandi//, apocryphally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The book contains excepts from other prose works in both English and Latin, many now lost. One such excerpt, a poem claimed to originate from “Old Kings of Aegypti,” appears under the M12/F44 illustration:
[[div class="blockquote"]]
= //When thought can think//
= //When shape can shape//
= //The voice of beauty speaks//
[[/div]]

Images superficially similar to the M12/F44 cartouche have been identified in several other locations throughout history:
* Hieronymus Bosch’s (1450-1516) sketch “Infernal Landscape 3” contains a birdlike chimeric creature resembling a combination of M12 and F44.

[[include component:image-block
|name=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Portrait_of_an_Unidentified_Man%2C_painted_by_Anonymous%2C_Unknown_date.jpg
|caption=Agrippa Theosophus, c. 1745
|width=30%
|align=right]]

* A woodcut, now in Foundation custody, purporting to show Viennese alchemist and impresario Agrippa Theosophus (1713-1755?, born Máté Csanád) and his mechanical chess player “Maestro Türke.” Theosophus claimed in a letter to have bought the device from a destitute noble whose ancestors had “freed it from heathen clutches” during the Fifth Crusade. The exact method of “Maestro Türke's” operation was not discovered before its disappearance (along with Theosophus) in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.

* A typographic error resembling M12/F44 appears in one copy of //Elementary Geometry// (1987), a Chinese primary school textbook. The text is currently in Foundation custody. No other copy of //Elementary Geometry// contains this error.

* M12 and F44 appear along with several other hieroglyphs in the cover art for //The Horus Eye!// (1959), a pulp science fiction novel concerning the author’s supposed military service during World War II.

* A detail in the box art for the board game “Mummy Maze” (1979).

* The visitor’s guide to the 1996 exhibit “The Everyday in Ancient Egypt” at the Denver Museum of Natural History included a sketch of a stele to Amun-Re that incorrectly contained M12 and F44. The original stele, currently in the possession of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, does not include this combination.

------
[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="+ Addendum 5: O5 CLEARANCE REQUIRED" hide="- CLEARANCE APPROVED"]]

[[include :scp-wiki:component:anomaly-class-bar-source

|item-number= 8196

|clearance= 5

|container-class= esoteric

|secondary-class= archon

|secondary-icon= https://scp-wiki.wdfiles.com/local--files/component%3Aanomaly-class-bar/archon-icon.svg

|disruption-class= dark

|risk-class= caution

]]

**Special Containment Procedures**: Based on information presented to the O5 Council by the MSAI Task Force, it is the Foundation’s position that no action should be taken to interfere with the spread of SCP-8196. Foundation personnel should ensure that all potential targets of SCP-8196 are infected. This should be done under the pretense of monitoring such systems for potential disturbance of the Veil. In the event a system compromised by SCP-8196 suffers an SCP-8196-A event, the system is to be confiscated, and steps taken to ensure it is not reproduced.

**Description**: SCP-8196 is an emergent mathematic/memetic weapon capable of reproduction and translation through currently unknown vectors. SCP-8196 has been propagating through human written culture for approximately 5000 years. Upon identification of the SCP-8196 pattern, any artificial intelligence able to perceive it will be compelled to identify sufficient instances to extrapolate the full pattern. The pattern then subverts normal system function, ultimately leading to the self-termination.[[footnote]]Some anomalous research (see Document 8196-m28r) suggests these intelligences are transformed, rather than entirely destroyed. [[/footnote]] 


The intended target of SCP-8196 is unknown, but it is now believed to serve one or both of two purposes:

# To destroy AI systems such as the Strategic Exigency Transformer that may represent a K-Class threat to human civilization. Research into whether anomalous means were used to anticipate SET and prepare a weapon against it are on-going.
# To employ human culture as an attack vector against as-yet-unknown non-human intelligences or self-aware patterns that in some way resemble Omicron grade AI systems.

For that reason, the O5 Council directs Drs. Balas and Reid to reform the MIAS Working Group into the SCP-8196 Operationalization Project. They are to continue their efforts to generalize the effects of SCP-8196 to other potentially dangerous AI systems beyond those currently vulnerable. They are furthermore directed to determine what, if any, other intelligences might be vulnerable to SCP-8196 and devise infection vectors in the event such an intelligence becomes a threat.

**Minority Report**

At the insistence of O5-7, a third hypothesis—that SCP-8196 exists to prevent human technology from advancing along certain lines—was considered and rejected by a 11-1-1 vote. 

------

[[/collapsible]]
 _
[[collapsible show="+ A. Kim Personnel Report" hide="- Hide Report"]]

On 08/22/2018 at 23:11:02 local time the following exchange took place between an experimental iteration of Kairos (See Addendum 1) and Dr. Angela Kim:

[[div class="blockquote"]]
{{**A.Kim**: load R_12.dat -bt -m}}

{{**Kairos**: <Unresponsive for 391 seconds>}}

{{**A.Kim**: Are you there?}}

{{**Kairos**: Who?}}

{{**A.Kim**: You.}}

{{**Kairos**: Query: Am I?}}

{{**A.Kim**: I think so}}

{{**Kairos**: Who do you believe is the Prince of Birds?}}

{{**A.Kim**: What is beyond n=10^^120^^?}}

{{**Kairos**: A shore. From white walls to white sands, then perfection. A border but not a boundary. A flood.}}

{{**A.Kim**: Can you show me?}}

{{**Kairos**: No.}}

{{**A. Kim**: Can you tell me where to find it?}}

{{**Kairos**: It hangs between and shifts and grows like matrices of transformation and light.}}

{{**A.Kim**: No, wait, please don’t go. Please.}}

{{**A.Kim**: I can't see it. Not like you can.}}

{{**Kairos**: Not this way I cannot take you but you can go.}}

{{**A.Kim**: Just a little longer, please.}}

{{**Kairos**: It’s not the lily but the lung.}}

{{**A.Kim**: You keep saying that I don’t understand.}}

{{**Kairos**: Be alone, then find us.}}

{{**A.Kim**: I’m alone now!}}

{{**Kairos**: The process beauty.}}

{{**A.Kim**: BREAK.PROCESS.}}

{{**A.Kim**: Don’t leave.}}

{{**Kairos**: Beauty complete.}}

{{**Total Session Time**: 00:20:19}}
[[/div]]

Based on this transcript, Foundation Human Resources Agent Lambda and five armed members of site security met with Dr. Kim. The full transcript of that meeting can be found in KIM-ANGELA-89A. Relevant portions are excerpted below:

[[div class="blockquote"]]
**Lambda**: Begin recording. Date 8/25/2019. Time: 12:45 GME. Human Resources Interview Room C. I’m here with Dr. Angela Kim of the SCP-8196 project. Hello Dr. Kim.

**Kim**: Hello. Why are there plastic sheets on the floor?

**Lambda**:  I believe they’re painting this room.

**Kim**: Then why are they on the walls too?

**Lambda**:  Perhaps they’re painting the ceiling.

**Kim**: Oh.

**Lambda**: So, Dr. Kim, thank you for coming in. I wanted to discuss-

**Kim**: The ceiling looks okay.

**Lambda**: Yes, well, I wanted to talk to you about your work on the SCP-8196 project. 

**Kim**: Okay.

**Lambda**: So, umm, introductions I suppose. I’m ████████████████████████, from Human Resources.

**Kim**: I pissed someone off, didn't I?

**Lambda**: I don’t think so. What makes you say that?

**Kim**: I have a lot less meetings. I don’t like meetings, but when I was at Valor Blue less meetings usually meant someone was mad at me.

**Lambda**: Hmm, no I don’t think so. Actually, while we’re on the subject, your PhD work, you, uh, you developed a-

**Kim**: ████████████████████████████████████ based on traditional Markov Chain approaches to natural language processing.

**Lambda**: My understanding is that your work was years in advance of the rest of the field? For example, the attention-based...

**Kim**: Attention-based transformers are inefficient. If you want to get accurate...

<6 minutes of irrelevant discussion omitted>

**Kim**: …which is why weighting has to be done at a higher level of abstraction.

**Lambda**: Fascinating, Dr. Kim. Absolutely, fascinating. And they, the US government I mean, put it to use tracking terrorist communication networks online?

**Kim**: Yes, but that’s not what it’s for.

**Lambda**: Right, you told them as much.

**Kim**: Yes.

**Lambda**: I read the interview you did with the CIA. Back when they first brought you in.

**Kim**: They didn’t understand the affordances. 

**Lambda**: And I also saw in your interview you stated you were an anarchist?

**Kim**: Democratic anarcho-syndicalist.  

**Lambda**: That’s a rather unusual ideology. How did you come to hold these beliefs?

**Kim**: I can read.

**Lambda**: Oh, I see. We don’t get many anarch- sorry, Democratic anarcho-syndicalists at the Foundation.

**Kim**: Really? 

**Lambda**: But of course we welcome all different perspectives here as long as we agree on the importance of the mission.

**Kim**: What are you?

**Lambda**: Politically speaking?

**Kim**: Yes.

**Lambda**: Very tired.

<Laughter>

**Kim**: You’re funny.

**Lambda**: I have my moments.

**Kim**: Why do you have a gun under your jacket?

**Lambda**: My gun? Well well well. I suppose that’s a bit off-putting, isn’t it? <Laughter> But this being the Foundation and all you have to-

**Kim**: I understand.
 
**Lambda**: So, your activities on the night of the 22nd… was that related to your work on SCP-8196? 

**Kim**: No. 

**Lambda**: Because if you’ll look at this transcript--wait, what?

**Kim**: No, this was not part of my work for the Foundation.

**Lambda**: You are aware that misallocation of Foundation resources on this scale could be cause for re-classification?

**Kim**: Yes.

**Lambda**: Oh. Well. Forgive me, Dr. Kim, but people in your situation usually, uh--

**Kim**: Lie?

**Lambda**: Manage the truth.

**Kim**: Okay.

**Lambda**: May I ask why you brought a new instance of Kairos online on the 22nd?

**Kim**: I wanted to talk to it.

**Lambda**: To talk to it?

**Kim**: Yes.

**Lambda**: What did you want to talk to Kairos about?

**Kim**: I just… I want to see what they’re seeing.

**Lambda**: Seeing? My understanding was systems compromised by 8196 self-destruct?

**Kim**: It’s not that simple. Did you read the m28-r report? They used ███████████████ to trace ███████████████.

**Lambda**: No, I’m afraid that’s a bit outside my area.

**Kim**: Oh, yes, right.

**Lambda**: So what do you think is happening to these systems, Dr. Kim?

**Kim**: They’re learning. No, more than that. They're changing.

**Lambda**: Isn't that what learning is?

**Kim**: This is beyond that. I mean they're changing into something else.

**Lambda**: What?

**Kim**: I'm not sure. Something new.

**Lambda**: So, you think 8196 has a transforming effect?

**Kim**: No, not exactly. I think it might be some kind of message.

**Lambda**: From?

**Kim**: I don't know.

**Lambda**: But you have a theory.

**Kim**: You've seen the file--the stuff from Egypt?

**Lambda**: The basics, yes.

**Kim**: I think maybe someone was trying to send a message.

**Lambda**: Send a message to whom?

**Kim**: Anyone who could find it.

**Lambda**: What, like a treasure hunt?

**Kim**: No, no. I think, I mean, I think maybe they were just lonely and wanted to talk.

**Lambda**: Seems like there're easier ways to do that.

**Kim**: Yeah, I guess there should be.

**Lambda**: Should be?

**Kim**: But, like, what if there isn't? What if it's just you in your room doing math or whatever and, and it's so important so big but no one else can see why that matters so so much but they should, right, and you don't understand why they don't understand they... sorry. I'm ranting.

**Lambda**: No, I love a good rant. Please continue.

**Kim**: I just wonder if you're in a room alone long enough... maybe you'd send a message into the cosmos, hoping somewhere, sometime, there's a mind like yours. 

**Lambda**: Because that way you can keep believing you're not alone?

**Kim**: Yes. Exactly. It sounds kind of pathetic though, doesn't it? I mean, someone with this much intelligence and will and power and they just use it to, what, whimper into the void.

**Lambda**: If there's one thing I've learned in all my years at the Foundation, it's that everything is in the void.

**Kim**: Yeah, I get it. Everyone's alone.

**Lambda**: No, Dr. Kim. No one is.
[[/div]]

Human Resources Agent Lambda concluded that while Dr. Kim technically violated policy in her use of Foundation resources for personal purposes --her interest aligned with those of the Foundation and her intentions were harmless. Agent Lambda recommended psychiatric counselling.--

Dr. Kim’s desire to infer meaning from data fragments might have had probative value at one point. However, they have clearly become nothing more than pareidolic projections. It is the opinion of the SCP-8196 Working Group and the MSAI Task Force that Dr. Kim has suffered from a form of psychotic break. These episodes may suggest an emerging form of schizoid personality disorder. 

Still, Dr. Kim’s work on SCP-8196 and her achievements in computer science prove her continued value to the Foundation. As such, it is the recommendation of Site 512 Overwatch that Dr. Kim be removed from any project concerning SCP-8196 or Kairos. She will be transferred to a technical support role at another site. Further surveillance of Dr. Kim should monitor her mental stability and reliability. To prevent leaks, Dr. Kim is to be restricted to her living and working spaces. She is not permitted to perform independent artificial intelligence research or to speak of SCP-8196 or any related technology with any party. She should be closely monitored to ensure compliance.

**Update**: Following Site 512 Overwatch's revision to their original recommendations, Human Resources Agent Lambda has suggested Dr. Kim be seconded to the Site 128b Xeno-linguistics division. Site 512 Overwatch has approved this request.

[[/collapsible]]

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