Gestalt Administrator

Summary:

a Chaos Insurgent gets more than he bargains for trying to uncover who The Administrator is.

Gestalt Administrator

DesertMoonGW 29 Dec 2019 21:06

I intend for this to be my entry into the SCP-5000 contest if it all goes through.

The Administrator is real, kind of, not really. The Administrator exists as a sort of intangible force embedded deep in the consciousness of everyone who holds a position of power in the Foundation, sort of like a hive mind except if a hive mind takes over your whole mind, this just takes over 0.01% of it to lightly push you in certain directions and collect together to form its own singular consciousness in the nebula. The story is told from the perspective of a Chaos Insurgent embedded as a Foundation researcher, trying to uncover who The Administrator is so they can assassinate him.

The information on what The Administrator is and how this all works is dulled out very slowly as the Chaos Insurgent delves deeper into SCiPNET. The Administrator catches on to this and starts showing exerting its influence in an attempt to stop him, which itself provides more details and hints towards what The Administrator is. At the end, the Chaos Insurgent is caught and assassinated, the Foundation decides to archive all of these memories and collective knowledge as SCP-5000, as they previously only had the vaguest idea of what The Administrator was.

EDIT: I thought of a slightly better way to explain what I mean the administrator is in this article, it's called the Gestalt Administrator so the best way to show what I mean is with the gestalt principle; In this picture, is there a star, or is it just a bunch of pac-men? In literal terms it is just the pac-men, but if you show it to anybody they could clearly see the star. Imagine the pac-men are the Foundation and the star is The Administrator, it exists because of a confluence between an uncountable number of personnel, and has influence over them as the star is now it's own entity partially residing in all of them.

Last edited on 29 Dec 2019 22:00 by DesertMoonGW Show more

Re: Gestalt Administrator

Doctor Fullham 31 Dec 2019 02:38

So, it's a neural network sort of AI but the computers are actual people's brains? Interesting.

A few questions, though:

The Administrator catches on to this and starts showing exerting its influence in an attempt to stop him

If his influence is just in small nudges, how does this "show" him any more than any of his other actions? It's naturally in the interest of The Foundation to find and eliminate Chaos Insurgents. What makes these actions anything other than business as usual? Is he able to know when people are getting on his trail? How does he find this agent out?

the Foundation decides to archive all of these memories and collective knowledge as SCP-5000, as they previously only had the vaguest idea of what The Administrator was.

Does The Administrator try to do anything to stop this, or would that be showing his hand too blatantly?

The Administrator is real, kind of, not really.

I mean, from your description he/it is, they're just not a single physical person. Are you planning on going into a bit of The Administrator's history; how The Foundation came to be under his influence?

Also, what path is the reader taking on all of this? Are we being led down a multi-nested SCiPNET login rabbit hole the same way the Insurgent was? What if he was documenting his findings as an SCP the whole time to alleviate suspicion?

I think you have the basis of a really interesting SCP here, to be perfectly honest. You have a cool mystery, a unique concept, and a good narrative path all laid out. Unfortunately I cannot greenlight at this time, but if you can answer the above questions (without spoiling anything), I think this has a good chance of getting greenlit. I'd love to see the draft version.

Last edited on 31 Dec 2019 03:32 by Doctor Fullham Show more

Re: Gestalt Administrator

DesertMoonGW 31 Dec 2019 14:22

If his influence is just in small nudges, how does this "show" him any more than any of his other actions? It's naturally in the interest of The Foundation to find and eliminate Chaos Insurgents. What makes these actions anything other than business as usual?

The backend technology of your computer doesn't start showing itself tell something goes wrong. If it gets attacked by a virus your virus protection will try to stop it, many parts of your computer will just naturally work to get rid of it, but if its slipped by and is more deeply imbedded then you may want to go in and try eliminating it by hand, which is sort of the idea here. It's that so many systems are being temporarily disabled or diverted in unnatural ways, people are doing things unlike them and with uncanny synchronicity (IE "I should go to the basement, I hope a bat is there…" earlier, someone else: "I think I'll just leave this bat here for now")

+ show block

Is he able to know when people are getting on his trail? How does he find this agent out?

The Administrator can tell that the insurgent is on his trail by many different unrelated personnel learning small things that individually do not mean anything but collectively point pretty strongly. For example maybe he is caught accessing a document he's not supposed to but can lie his way out of it, then when encountering someone else for why he was late to his work he comes up with another small lie that most people would disregard, except that it goes against his previous lie which he told someone else and was also more or less disregarded. This information is passed over by the individual personnel, but The Administrator catches it, and begins influencing people more in his direction out of suspicion.

I mean, from your description he/it is, they're just not a single physical person.

That's sort of why I say he kind of but not really is real. Are dreams real? Well, dreams do exist yes, and in a sense what happens in dreams is real as it's all neurons firing in your brain, but if you asked someone if what they dreamt last night was real the answer would obviously be no. Or in another way, is God real? The belief of him certainly is and that influences people all over the world, but if you're an atheist you probably don't think God is actually real. What if many people shared dreams, and those dreams either are or seemed to be guided in some way? You would have a lot of people who believe this going "Well, the dreams told me…" and have some light legitimacy.

how The Foundation came to be under his influence?

That would be some of the tidbits of information spread out that the insurgent collects and helps lead to the conclusion.

Also, what path is the reader taking on all of this? Are we being led down a multi-nested SCiPNET login rabbit hole the same way the Insurgent was?

Pretty much, how I was imagining it was that it would be told through Private Messages, faked logins, disciplinary reports, thoughts/notes held by the insurgent, memories of being sent on his mission, and collective testimonies of what people think may have been The Administrator working through them seeing all of this.

What if he was documenting his findings as an SCP the whole time to alleviate suspicion?

I did not think of that, that would be pretty cool!

Does The Administrator try to do anything to stop this, or would that be showing his hand too blatantly?

I feel like it's sort of the same principle as a few of the SCP-001 proposals, in that its kept for historical or record keeping purposes above all else or could only be accessed by O5's. That could also fold more into the mystery: If The Administrator is as real and as present as it seems, why is he letting people know about this and document it? Is it possible The Administrator isn't real and everything we interpret it to be is just coincidences or luck? Because surely if he existed he would not want information on him to be so readily accessible.

Thank you for the questions!

As a courtesy to our readers on mobile devices, please collapse long posts. ~Zyn

Last edited on 01 Jan 2020 07:21 by Zyn Show more

Re: Gestalt Administrator

Doctor Fullham 31 Dec 2019 16:03

Dang, you really had great answers to all of those! I unfortunately cannot greenlight but if I could you would 100% have my blessing here. This sounds really cool and definitely a qualifier for 5k!

Re: Gestalt Administrator

Calibri Bold 31 Dec 2019 16:19

Placeholder. PM me if I don't give crit within 48 hours.

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I can swallow pills without water.