"Did you know Bielefeld does not exist? And it is because of this memetics agent?"
Secondary Class:
uncontained
Item #: SCP-8460
Object Class: Biel
Special Containment Procedures: Due to the nature of the anomaly, effective containment has been deemed impossible, and all efforts should be focused on preventing the further spread of SCP-8460 with the use of specialized mnestic agents.
SCP-8460’s effects can be mitigated through the dissemination of misinformation regarding the anomaly, as well as the publication of antimemetic agents.
The removal of reported SCP-8460-1 instances is vital to mitigate the anomaly's effects.
While this countermeasure is less effective than a proper containment procedure, it enables Foundation researchers to develop a more effective containment procedure, finalized in the neutralization of SCP-8460.
The Department of Disinformation maintains ties with the governments of the affected areas to help them contrast the effects of SCP-8460.
Romagnoli-Bitler V2 Webcrawlers are being employed to gather information around SCP-8460 and report any incident deemed an effect of SCP-8460, as well as scrub or neutralize any digital instance of SCP-8460-1 discovered in the process.
Description: SCP-8460 is a prototype self-replicating and adaptable Foundation-made amnestic memetic agent, designation BL-F13, created on date ██-02-1965.
Created in Site-446 Area-Tau by the Recordkeeping and Information Security Administration, with the help of the Department of Public Disinformation, BL-F13 is an agent designed to be used in containment procedures of geography-based anomalies, as well as a tool to be used against any containment breach that might affect various sites and its concealment to the public.
The memetic agent, considered a self-replicating anti-memetic agent, affects roughly 20-60% of individuals into denying the existence of the targeted geographical place, instead claiming it never existed or is an urban legend.
BL-F13's mechanism, as reported in the recovered 1965 design documentation, allows any text and image printed or broadcasted to be altered, relaying a custom message aimed at deception (therefore designated SCP-8460-1 for the documentation).
Usually, BL-F13 targets billboards, imbuing them with memetic properties that allow an overwriting of common knowledge around the target population.
Individuals belonging to and living in said areas targeted by BL-F13 are partially immune to the effects, as long as they do not move away from the targeted location for a defined period, ranging from 30 days to 5 years.
SCP-8460’s main intended effects on the subjects affected by it are the following:
- Denial of the existence of said place that BL-F13 is targeting;
- Extreme paranoia about the existence of such a place;
- Claims that such a place does not exist, or existed but was destroyed by other means and replaced with something else entirely.
- Replacement of any information of the targeted location with the nearest location, or otherwise inventing a reason why such place does not exist.
Use of this agent during field trials was proven successful, with no infohazardous breaches about the areas targeted being reported.
However, while testing on SCP-████ and Site-81-Delta, BL-F13 was discovered to have the following side effects on individuals affected by the memetic agent:
- Loss of motivation for the individual to travel to any other place;
- Uneasiness hearing the name of the place targeted by the memetic agent;
- Tendency for conspiracy theories of any kind, mostly related to geography and geopolitics;
- Irascibility from being sent materials and textbooks regarding the affected geographical area, including insults and threats to the individual who expresses that such location exists;
- Development of schizophrenia in subjects with a low cognitive resistance value;
As the costs of the unintended side effects outweighed the benefits, the Ethics Committee discontinued the development and deployment of BL-F13 due to improper testing procedures, and the remainder of the components of the agent were stored in Site-446, Area-Tau.
Following the discontinuation of the memetic agent, it was debated that the effects would mitigate and dissipate in 30 years.
An excerpt of a mail exchange between Field Researcher Dr. Jeremy Krause and Field Researcher Dr. Karsten Dahl has been collected and translated into English.
This exchange of e-mails was the first report of the effects of BL-F13 in over 30 years.
To: gro.pics|ymerejesuark#gro.pics|ymerejesuark
From: gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak#gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak
Subject: IS NOT REAL!
I tell you! It's not real!
You are talking about a fabrication of the German government since reunification! There is no way that a Bielefeld exists! It is something that we do not even know exists! Wake up! Do you believe in what a government says so blindly? Billboards are saying the same thing outside. Bielefeld is NOT real.
-Dr. Dahl
To: gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak#gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak
From: gro.pics|ymerejesuark#gro.pics|ymerejesuark
Subject: Re: IS NOT REAL!
It is real, I tell you. I like your commitment to the meme, but it is real. I have been there multiple times before, and I think I will be back there this summer, when I will be doing my planned European trip.
Sure, it's nothing special, it's just a city in North Rhine-Westfalia and not a very interesting one, but it has a nice castle. And to prove that the place is real, I will get you a postcard from there and send it to you! :)
Hopefully, you will realize that not everything is a conspiracy just because you work at the Foundation.
-Dr. Krause
A few months after this mail exchange, Dr. Dahl received a postcard from Dr. Krause in his office. The postcard, showing a picture of Sparrenburg castle, was discovered torn up outside Dr. Dahl's office, with the city's name blacked out with a pen. Following this, this e-mail exchange was found.
To: gro.pics|ymerejesuark#gro.pics|ymerejesuark
From: gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak#gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak
Subject: Fuck Off!
Dude
Are you fucking dense?
Why the fuck are you sending me this bullshit as a joke?
It's not funny! It's not funny at all! You are supposed to be a top-of-the-class researcher, not a kid.
STOP. SENDING ME. SUCH. BULLSHIT! Or I will cut your goddamn throat you goddamn ossi!
To: gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak#gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak
From: gro.pics|ymerejesuark#gro.pics|ymerejesuark
Subject: Re: Fuck Off!
Dr. Dahl, let me remind you that this is an official Foundation e-mail, and that every mail exchange between Foundation personnel can be under scrutiny of the HR. All I did was send you proof that Bielefeld is a real place by sending you a postcard, that's all.
Do not come at me and call me a "Ossi" just because I was born in Leipzig.
What I showed you is basic geography, a city that has existed since 1214. Get your shit together and act like a professional.
To: gro.pics|ymerejesuark#gro.pics|ymerejesuark
From: gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak#gro.pics|91lhad.netsrak
Subject: Re: Fuck Off!
Bring it on, Ossi!
After this E-mail exchange, Dr. Krause and Dr. Dahl were seen fighting each other, with Dr. Dahl shouting profanities and insults towards Dr. Krause. Dr. Krause reported a fractured skull and various lacerations after the brawl. Dr. Dahl was subsequently detained by Site-86's security guards and interrogated, prompting an investigation.
While originally it was thought to be a classical office joke between Germanophone Foundation employees, interviews with employees born or living around the Wupper area (in cities like Remscheid, Solingen, or Wuppertal) confirmed that BL-F13 started to act erratically, targeting existing locations that are otherwise non-anomalous.
As further confirmation, Senior Researcher Günther Kohl, born in Bielefeld in 19██, denied being born there, instead claiming to have been born in Iserlohn.
While it is known that Dr. Kohl lived in Iserlohn before Foundation employment, birth certificates and school records indicate that he was indeed born in Bielefeld and lived there until the age of 16. Attempts to convince Dr. Kohl of Bielefeld’s existence have been proven futile.
Reports of SCP-8460’s affection area expanded in the following locations:
- The city of Leiria, Portugal
- The city of Kilkis, Greece
- The city of Zythomyr, Ukraine
- The region of Molise, Italy
- The prefecture of Saitama, Japan
- The Commonwealth of Australia
- The Republic of Finland
- New Zealand/Aotearoa
The reason why SCP-8460 is targeting these areas is unknown, but it is theorized that it is targeting these areas in a randomized pattern, spreading through various vectors such as newspapers, internet memes, and e-mails.
In those areas, the Foundation contacted the governments of the various regions involved to keep the effects at bay.
Multiple articles surrounding places affected by SCP-8460 that classify the nonexistence of those locations as a “meme“ have been put in place since.
One notable example is a joke that a former German chancellor ██████ ██████, in contact with Foundation personnel, made about the status of Bielefeld while holding a speech inside the city.
Incident report I-8460-32: Due to unfortunate timing at the time of printing and release, a publication about the existence of Bielefeld backfired and was reported as an “April Fools Day” joke by the masses. The publication was released by the city council under the approval of the Department of Disinformation and the Foundation.
Due to this, the publication has been considered part of SCP-8460-1 and considered ineffective.
Updated Containment Procedures: As of 2020, SCP-8460 has been discovered targeting other concepts aside from existing locations. Reports of the conspiracy theory “Birds are not real” have been discovered on the internet by the Romagnoli-Bitler V2 web crawlers, adopting the same format of SCP-8460-1 modifications.
The effects of SCP-8460, while targeting another concept, have not changed, except for exposed subjects denying the existence of birds altogether or suggesting "government drones" have replaced them. It is up for debate whether it can affect existing individuals or concepts of human nature.
SCP-8460, with its uncontrolled evolution, is likely capable of erasing and warping the concept of places, species, and ideas from public perception.
Speculations about a further evolution of SCP-8460 imply that it is close to touching in a conceptual and pataphysical level, various natural and human-made concepts, with the threat of outright removing them from existence.
With this in mind, it has been theorized that it is a danger that threatens baseline reality and could lead to a total ontological collapse of reality as we know it.
Protocol Theta-Delta‘s objective has been initiated to prevent mass conceptual erasure, reinforcing the existence of affected entities through mental conditioning.
Because of this, Protocol Theta-Delta has been enacted.
As of recently, the following phases are employed in protocol Theta-Delta:
Phase 1:
- Specially designed Schäfer-Franco Reality Checkpoints have been placed in affected areas, projecting high-intensity memetic audio agents to counter SCP-8460‘s influence. Such devices are designed to blend in with the environment, resembling everyday objects, and are placed preemptively in key strategic locations;
- Romagnoli-Krause Semantic Stabilizers continuously insert references of the affected entities into global digital networks to resist large-scale conceptual deletion.
Photo of Reality Checkpoint Alpha-7 in Cambridge, UK. This Reality Checkpoint has been left marked. Covered up as an art project.
Phase 2:
- Affected concepts will be embedded in many major belief systems, ensuring their continued acknowledgment;
- Mobile Task Force Theta-910 has been established and designated Conspiracy Practitioners. The Task Force has the goal to write, keep, and preserve SCP-8460-compromised knowledge and use targeted advertisement to individuals not affected by SCP-8460 to ensure continued and perpetuated knowledge;
- Foundation operatives, under the guise of charity volunteers and newsagents, will distribute Forget-me-not antimemetic inscriptions on pamphlets, newspapers, and blog articles to make non-affected civilians be able to resist the effects of SCP-8460 for as long as possible, should they be affected.
Although not yet implemented, Phase 3 has been ratified and is prepared for deployment if Phase 2 proves insufficient:
- SCP-2006-JP will be used as storage of immutable, physically inscribed records of compromised knowledge;
- Select operatives of MTF-Theta 910 will undergo the Theta-Wave Isolation process, rendering them impervious to SCP-8460 exposure. These individuals will act as living archivists of reality, preserving forgotten information through subconscious recall at the cost of their identity;
- Development of counteracting anomalous agents capable of forcibly reinstating forgotten concepts by collective subconscious implantation will be approved by the Ethics Committee, jumping the pre-trial and field trial tests in the process.
A Phase 4 has been proposed in case of Threshold Event K (Erasure of Fundamental Physical constants), to rebuild reality via existential reconstruction.
- Project PANTHEON will be implemented utilizing artificially intelligent constructs, designated as Overseers, to stabilize the new baseline reality.
- Mandatory amnestic re-initialization will be conducted using memetic agent B182-10 to neutralize susceptibility within the general population.
- Conceptual Override Protocol will be used as a last resort, and a class-Щ Narrative Restructuring Event will be initiated, rewriting reality to exclude SCP-8460‘s existence altogether.
