NOTE: Many of these ideas are really quite bad. The were probably formulated about 3 am. They are recorded here, in case I think up a decent way of doing them in the future. Otherwise, don't expect to see them as an SCP or a foundation tale any time soon.
SPOILER ALERT - MANY OF THESE IDEAS CONTAIN A TWIST OR REVEAL THAT IS THE KEY POINT OF THEM
SCP articles currently being worked on.
Item #: SCP-1057
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1057 is to be stored in a secure safe in the high value items warehouse of Site-██. SCP-1057 is to be stored only as a paper print out of the original source code, along with the documentation neccisary to run SCP-1057.
All experimentation with SCP-1057 is now forbidden by order of O5-4. Under no circumstances is an executable version of SCP-1057 to be run on any form of computer.
SCP-1057 is infrequently independently discovered by members of the civilian academic community. Foundation agents are to maintain watch over academic publications in the fields of Mathematics, Computer Science and Theoretical Physics. Academics who appear to be approaching discovery of SCP-1057 are to be placed under surveillance by foundation agents.
It has been noted that individuals discovering SCP-1057 tend to be exceptionally talented. Investigating agents have discretion with regards to inducting these individuals as Foundation researchers. Agents should contact the Site-14 human resources department, and request details on recruitment program HR-RES-08. Otherwise, the academics in question are to be administered amnesiacs and have their research destroyed.
Description: SCP-1057 is a computer program written in the FORTRAN-77 programming language, called “TSOLVE”. The source code was first written in 1982 by an academic at the ████████████ █████ of █████████ by Professor ████████ ██████. SCP-1057 has so far been compiled for all known Turing complete computer architectures, and can easily be adapted for massively-parallel modern supercomputers.
The primary unique characteristic of SCP-1057 is that it represents a demonstrable violation of the Church-Turing thesis1, which leads to a number of catastrophic secondary effects. In essence, SCP-1057 can be used to produce accurate answers to a number of mathematical problems that are currently believed to be either intractable or impossible. These include, but are not limited to:
- Determining if a given program will finish in a finite time-scale.
- Determining if P=NP for any given class of P.
- Finding and verifying the shortest route in a “Travelling Salesman” type problem.
- Finding and verifying a global minimum or maximum in any given phase-space landscape.
The exact mechanism of how SCP-1057 is understood, and relies on a series of unintuitive mathematical interpretations of the [REDACTED] theorem when coupled with conventional [REDACTED] approaches to investigating P=NP type problems. Oddly, SCP-1057 requires a number of numerical operations that are considered mathematically invalid under most conventional mathematical laws, however SCP-1057 will still produce valid results. The basic concept relies on these operations being valid when used together, as part of a higher phase space of mathematical axioms. A full description of this is available in document SCP-1057-D-4.
In order to run, SCP-1057 requires two input files. The first is a copy of FORTRAN-77 source code describing the problem that TSOLV is to examine (hereby referred to as the input program). The second is short text file referred to as a .job file. This second file contains a number of user determined parameters which alter what type of task TSOLV performs, and how it operates. An example of a .job file is shown in document 1057-1.
Once SCP-1057 is executed, it will immediately check the provided input files, and perform a brief check of the computational resources available to it. If there are any problems or incompatibilities, SCP-1057 will quickly exit with one or more error messages. Some known error messages are documented in addendum 1057-2.
Assuming there are no errors, SCP-1057 will then enter its main calculation loop. SCP-1057 will initially print out a table to the screen. This table will contain several column headings, depending upon what was specified in the input files. These columns will have a series of apparently random numbers printed in them. With each iteration of the main loop, these numbers will fluctuate up or down, before starting to converge rapidly on a numerical value. This numerical value will provide information on some of the computationally incalculable information relating to the input program. Calculation of these numbers is conventionally considered to be impossible. This process is normally remarkably quick, and seems to operate even quicker as the input program increases in complexity. For an example of the output for a typical job, please see addendum 1057-3.
SCP-1057’s secondary effects will start to manifest as the numerical outputs converge on a solution. All phenomena occur in an "area of effect" centred on the executing computer. The speed of onset of these secondary phenomena, and the rate of growth of the area of effect depend upon the complexity of the input program, and the speed of the executing computer.
The first noticeable effect is that any other information processing equipment nearby the executing computer, whether networked or not, will start to display a substantial number of errors, crashes and system malfunctions. Error correction systems may be able to mitigate this at first, however all computers will eventually succumb and be rendered inert.
As this effect proceeds, other forms of information transfer will begin to break down. Electrical power will become erratic, and may cut off completely. Any written or textual information will start to become visually blurred and impossible to read. Attempts to speak to individuals in the vicinity of a computer executing SCP-1057 will be heard as distorted and unintelligible. Any materials in the area of effect will begin distort, buckle, and eventually disintigrate. Cutriously, this does not affect the processing and memory components of the executing computer. Any other components, such as cooling systems, display equipment, casing or power supply units will disintegrate. Execution of SCP-1057 appears to continue despite loss of power. At this point, most viable means of ending the program is the use of explosives to destroy the remains of the executing hardware, which will cause the area of effect to immediately collapse. Otherwise, the area of effect will begin to grow.
Should the program continue, distortions of all electromagnetic radiation in the area will manifest, resulting in complete loss vision in the area of effect. The distortions appear random, and can be observed as a rough sphere of multi-spectral disordered static. Any and all means of transmitting information into, out of, or across the area of effect will become extremely difficult, if not impossible. Complex forms of information (such as high density digital signals) will break down more readily than simple forms (such as a low-bandwidth Morse code). It is unknown if the area of effect will continue to grow, or if it will eventually stabilise at a consistent size. At this point, the only known way of ending the execution of SCP-1057 is an extremely high powered electromagnetic pulse. It is theorised that should the area of effect grow beyond approximately ██ meters, then even this option will be ineffective. Projections indicate that the final outcome could be anywhere from a XF to an XZ class reality-expungement event.
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