Special Containment Procedures:
A flash drive containing SCP-8670 is to be kept in a standard anomalous item locker at Storage Site 02. This locker should feature cognitohazard warnings and Level 3 access restrictions. Any appearance of or reference to SCP-8670 online is to be removed automatically by Foundation artificial intelligence and should be investigated to locate any offline copies of SCP-8670.
Individuals exposed to SCP-8670 are to be made aware of its effects and observed until symptoms subside. Due to their lack of efficacy and risk of undiscovered interactions with SCP-8670, amnestics are not to be used to treat those exposed to SCP-8670 so long as they show symptoms.
Due to its special clearance restrictions, most information regarding SCP-8670-A, including Interview SCP-8670-1 and anything except a general description, is to be kept in separate documents or addendums.
Description:
SCP-8670 is a .mp3 audio file of a short musical tune consisting of nine notes. Those exposed to SCP-8670 appear to be unable to forget the tune. Furthermore, SCP-8670 cannot be removed from a subject's long-term memory through any means, including Foundation amnestics. This effect on memory is not observed with recordings of SCP-8670 being played or musically identical recreations. One such recreation can be heard as follows:
Following exposure, REM sleep appears to increase the potency of a subject's memory SCP-8670. As a subject undergoes multiple days of regular sleep, increasingly frequent memories of the tune will become a nuisance and eventually progress to such a strength that effects are described as comparable to having SCP-8670 played incessantly on a nearby speaker. After around 15 nights of sleep, individuals will awake having completely forgotten the tune of SCP-8670, although memory of the effects of exposure remains intact.
SCP-8670 was brought to Foundation attention on July 13th, 2024 due to its use in an unpublished sleep study conducted by Dr. Ashley Birkmire at the University of ███████████ in ███████, California. An interview between Dr. Birkmire and Foundation Agent Stephen Wozniak can be seen in Interview 8670-1.
SCP-8670-A is a non-anomalous phenomenon inherent to human sleep. It is not related to SCP-8670 except that the use of SCP-8670 is the only method by which SCP-8670-A can feasibly be discovered.
Addendum 8670-1: Associated Amnestics Requests Record
Record July 14th, 2024
Requester: Agent Stephen Wozniak
Doses Requested: One (1) Class A dose and one (1) Class C treatment
Recipient(s) of Dose: Dr. Ashley Birkmire
Purpose: Standard amnestic dose for interviewed POI's. Class C treatment for the selected removal of knowledge of SCP-8670 and SCP-8670-A.
Request Status: Approved
Additional Notes: None
Record July 16th, 2024
Requester: Agent Stephen Wozniak
Doses Requested: One (1) 200mg Class B dose
Recipient(s) of Dose: Agent Stephen Wozniak
Purpose: [None provided]
Request Status: Denied
Additional Notes: Agent Wozniak failed the psychological evaluation required for self-requested amnestics. Agent was distressed and sleep-deprived. Referred to crisis counseling with Dr. ████████.
Record July 17th, 2024
Requester: Dr. ████████
Doses Requested: One (1) 250mg Class B dose, One (1) Class A dose
Recipient(s) of Dose: Dr. ████████, Agent Stephen Wozniak
Purpose: For the treatment of traumatic memories. Class B for patient and Class A for clinician.
Request Status: Approved
Additional Notes: Dr. ████████ passed required psychological evaluations. Future amnestic use approved on all foundation personnel who ████████████████ SCP-8670-A, provided they do not show symptoms of SCP-8670 exposure.
Addendum 8670-2: Interview 8670-1
SPECIAL CLEARANCE RESTRICTIONS
The following file has unrestricted (Level 1) clearance requirements; however, it may only be accessed from computers located within Foundation sites that contain Class A or B amnestic treatment capabilities. The contents of this file should not be discussed with staff who are not already familiar with SCP-8670-A.
You Meet Access Requirements
Preface: The following is an interview conducted by interviewer Foundation Agent Stephen Wozniak with interviewee Ashley Birkmire, a research professor of neurobiology at the University of █████████. Dr. Birkmire was transferred to Foundation custody from the ████████ University police following her arrest for a physical altercation between Dr. Birkmire and a member of her research team. Preliminary questioning with witnesses indicated the possible presence of a cognitohazard, so Foundation personnel were unable to read any documents recovered from the scene. This included a shredded, somewhat singed manuscript soaked in liquor that is now known to discuss SCP-8670-A.
[BEGIN RECORDING]
Wozniak: I am Sergeant Stephen Wozniak with the California State Police, could you please state your full name for the record?
Birkmire: Doctor Ashley Birkmire.
Wozniak: Thank you. Now, do you know why you're here, Dr. Birkmire?
Birkmire: Because the university police can't be bothered to do their own job. Any other questions you already know the answer to?
Wozniak: No, just the other kind from now on. For instance, what happened in your office at 10:00 AM yesterday?
Birkmire: I see "the other kind" of questions are the kind I've already answered multiple times. [Sigh] One of my grad students met with me for one of our bi-weekly meetings; we discussed the publication of our recent study.
Wozniak: Any disagreements occur? Any raised voices?
Birkmire: We disagreed about whether to publish, and yes, discussion got- passionate.
Wozniak: Were you the one pushing for publication?
Birkmire: No.
Wozniak: [Pause] Any elaboration would be appreciated.
Birkmire: [Sigh] The measurements we got were clearly fucked up due to some machine error, and journals don't publish inconclusive results. Look, are you going to keep asking questions you don't care about, or are you going to ask questions that I can answer with "I would like to call a lawyer now".
Wozniak: As you wish. Did you assault this grad student when she attempted to grab the manuscript?
Birkmire: I would like to call a lawyer now.
Wozniak: [Short Chuckle] Fair enough, but before you do, I would actually like to hear more about the research. Call it personal curiosity.
Birkmire: Uhh-[Pause] sure, I guess I got nothing better to do. [Pause] We were studying the brain activity of sleeping subjects. It's a fairly standard study in my field, but we recently got allocated time on this high-precision fMRI machine and software which allowed us to image very specific parts of the brain, so we were looking at how areas associated with specific memories lit up during sleep. We had this royalty-free advertisement jingle one of the post-docs found online, and we wanted to see if we could get it to appear in dreams, and see what that looked like, quantitatively, if we could. Labs on the East Coast were already getting attention just for imaging memories alone, so we figured something as novel as seeing someone's dreams would be a breeze to get published.
Wozniak: Cool, but uh- what's an fMRI?
Birkmire: Ah, sorry. It stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging. It used a big magnet to align the spins of the- just think of it as a brain activity scan. If an area in the brain is used, we can measure that.
Wozniak: And did this one work?
Birkmire: Yeah! The software was a pain, but everything worked great, we got clean data, and the scans showed us th- [Pause] well, the subjects never dreamed of the jingle as far as we can tell. But that's what we expected. Still, nothing new to be published.
Wozniak: Hmm, nice clean data for results you said had completely messed up measurements? If you're going to lie, at least have the decency to do it well.
Birkmire: [Pause] I would like to call a lawyer now.
Wozniak: Oh come on, I'm just here to clear up what happened.
Birkmire: No, fuck off. [Pause] I bet you already knew what an fMRI was, you asshole.
Wozniak: If you work with me I can work with you, and maybe we can avoid the storm that's veering towards your career from this. I can't imagine universities like their name associated with violent crime.
Birkmire: The state troopers are now in the business of advising academic careers? I'm not an idiot. Lawyer. Now.
Wozniak: Just hear me out and-
Birkmire: I know my damn rights. I. Want. My. Lawyer.
Wozniak: You're right to not like state police, we're a bunch of vultures. But that just means you need someone on your side. If you don't get someone to advocate for you, it'll be a quick trial ending with fifteen years in a state peni-
Birkmire: Fifteen years? What the hell are you talking about? I wouldn't get that much if I beat someone half to death with a baseball bat. The charge here is misdemeanor assault. Give me a phone call now-
Wozniak: Doctor-
Birkmire: Or don't! I could use the settlement money. You're even dumb enough to record evidence for me. Lawyer or lawsuit, your choice.
Wozniak: [Pause] Doctor Birkmire, allow me to be frank. There will be no phone call.
Birkmire: Wrong choice.
Wozniak: There will be no phone call because you are not under arrest. I am not a state trooper and I have no interest in you assaulting a grad student. My personal interest in your research is secondary to my professional, national security interest.
Birkmire: [Pause] What are you- military or something?
Wozniak: Something like that.
Birkmire: And you're interested in me because-?
Wozniak: We are looking for whatever you found. Consider the dropped charges a token of goodwill. There's also no reason for this incident to meaningfully impact your career.
Birkmire: You really just want the research?
Wozniak: Yes.
Birkmire: Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help. It's just- it's better off if what we found is forgotten, hell I'd quite like to forget it myself.
Wozniak: Things best forgotten are exactly the things I'm looking for.
Birkmire: Look, it's not information that can be used as a weapon or anything. Whatever enemies of the state you're worried about, this is useless to them. It doesn't help spread propaganda or encourage rebellion, it's just bad news for everyone. It's information you'll just want to get rid of the moment you know it.
Wozniak: Can you give me anything?
Birkmire: Trust me, you don't want to know. The world is better if nobody knows.
Wozniak: Doctor, cards on the table here, we just want your interpretation of what you found. We have the manuscript, so hiding things isn't preventing anything; it's just a mild inconvenience.
Birkmire: Bullshit, that manuscript was shredded and burned.
Wozniak: Burned is an exaggeration; soaking it in weak gin was not the best way to burn it. As for the shredding, all that costs us is time.
Birkmire: If you really had the document, you'd just read it and wouldn't be here. Treating me like an idiot doesn't do much for the goodwill you tried to earn. I would like to leave.
Wozniak: [Clears throat] Leave where?
Birkmire: Leave this place for Christ's sake.
Wozniak: But where is here?
Birkmire: Are you having a stroke? I'm leaving. [Birkmire rises and tries to exit the room. Her exit is prevented by the locked door]
Wozniak: I'm quite well, thank you. I only mean to point out that you don't know where you are. In fact, only three people in the world do, me included. Did you not question why your transfer to state police involved a two-hour van ride? It's so there's no trail anyone can follow.
Birkmire: [Pause] You're threatening me? What, are you planning to disappear a prominent professor from the University of fucking ██████████? I bet you wish you had that power, but you don't. Unlock this goddamn door.
Wozniak: I had no intention to threaten your safety, and I encourage you to share everything the moment you leave. However, you can only leave after telling me exactly what you found.
Birkmire: [Pause] You know what? Fine. You want to know so bad, I'll fucking tell you. If anyone deserves to hear it, it's you. [Birkmire approaches and leans on the interview table] We discovered that you're going to die in your sleep tonight and-
Wozniak: Threats aren't productive, please just-
Birkmire: -and so will I. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the jingle. That damn jingle.
Wozniak: The jingle that a colleague-?
Birkmire: Just let me fucking speak; it will be hard enough to explain this to someone like you without constant interruption. [Birkmire returns to her chair]. Yes, that jingle, the one we looked for in the study. It's not- it's not normal, somehow. It's the ultimate earworm. Mike, the colleague in question, wouldn't stop humming it and seemed to suggest its use for the study out of compulsion. I heard it the next day when we started the sleep study, and I swear to god it has not left my head. It's getting worse over time. If I stop talking for too long it creeps up into my mind. You can't forget it and it only gets louder. Though, at some point, I'd wager your neurons would just fry, so I'll be free of it eventually. That peace would come with minor brain damage though.
Wozniak: Is that all? Why try so hard to hide th-
Birkmire: No, that's not the part I want you to hear. Because it gets worse. You see, we thought the jingle would be hard to spot, typically memories like that are small and ebb and flow in intensity. Not this one. This one was bright and steady. But the weirdest thing was that, once the subject fell asleep, it started getting brighter. Not continuously, but in five steps over the course of the first night. One step for each REM cycle. Same thing happened the next night, and all others.
I was lead on this study, so I took it upon myself to stay late every night to see why the jingle's signal was growing. I zoomed in on one of the jumps in signal right at the peak of REM sleep and saw it wasn't just the jingle growing. Every signal in the brain would double. But then microseconds later everything, except the jingle, would return to normal levels. It happened in such a small blip that there'd be no way to catch if it weren't for the jingle marking the exact spot it happened. It was intriguing, but I couldn't explain any of it. It took me two more nights to figure out why. Any ideas?
Wozniak: I'm afraid I'm not following.
Birkmire: Of course you aren't. Let me get to the point- or actually let me ask you simpler questions. Let's say I make a cloning machine. You go in and both you and an exact copy comes out. Same body, same memories, same personality. When you come out, do you see through your own eyes or the clones?
Wozniak: My own?
Birkmire: Good! The clone is a separate consciousness. However, that difference only matters to you and the clone. If I didn't tell you it was a cloning machine, and you and the clone never saw each other, both you and the clone would think they were the real you. The clone may never have experienced what you did, but it has the memories all the same. If a loved one met the clone, do you think they would know it wasn't you?
Wozniak: You said it was an exact copy so- no?
Birkmire: Glad you can follow a simple analogy. Okay, so if I killed you as soon as you got out of the machine, and then the clone went along with its day -your day- it would be a perfect replacement. As you noted, you never see through the clone's eyes, so you'd be properly dead, but to any outside observer, nothing changes. There's no way to tell that you died at all unless you're you.
Wozniak: Wait- are you saying that when people who hear the jingle sleep-
Birkmire: No, I'm saying that, unrelated to that jingle, whenever anyone sleeps, their brain uses this hypothetical "cloning machine" on itself. It's why humans even need to sleep at all. Neuron signals degrade over time, so you need a clean wipe every so often. Your brain creates a new consciousness, a new you, and kills the old one. Like copying a file and deleting the original.
So, Stephen, when you fall asleep tonight, I hope you ponder how the man who will wake up won't be you. You'll die and cease to experience anything. Your loved ones won't notice, your death will be unmourned because, to them, it didn't matter. Of course, your loved ones also will die in their sleep, so it will just be copies loving copies, the originals dead with no corpse.
Wozniak: You're laying it on a bit thick, don't you thi-
Birkmire: Oh, and by the same token, you aren't the real Stephen Wozniak. The original died the day he was born when he took a fucking nap. The memories you have aren't yours, really. They belong to ten thousand different Stephens over however many years. If a sad piece of shit like you managed to find love, the partner you wake up to isn't the partner you fell in love with, and they'll be dead tomor-.
Wozniak: You can't possibly know this. How would you even prove this?
Birkmire: [Laugh] I've already told you that I have. Remember the jingle? It's jump in signal shows the exact microsecond where you should look. Once you know exactly when to make measurements, the mind wipe is plain as day. I have dozens of scans of it and a paper full of analysis. If you weren't bluffing about having the manuscript, it's all there in rigorous detail there. But, before I forget, I haven't gotten to the best part yet. The part that's really been fucking with me these last few days. It's the part I want you to hear most.
Wozniak: And I'm sure you're going to tell m-
Birkmire: You're one of the lucky ones!
Wozniak: What?
Birkmire: Think about it. The wipe happened every REM cycle. You have five to six of those every night, assuming you sleep well, which I certainly doubt you will now. So, you must have been the product of cycle five or six, because you're here now. In other words, over 80% of the Stephen Wozniaks that are and will ever be created won't have the luxury of ever waking up before they die. You're one of the lucky few who won the dice roll, but you can't win more than a day of life. You can try to stay up but you'll slip eventually, and then you'll die. So- I hope you enjoy knowing all this, I hope you got your answers.
Wozniak: Answers? This is just a- just an elaborate scary story meant to keep people up at night. If you're going to be unco-
Birkmire: You didn't question a magically unforgettable song, Sergeant, and yet it's impossible that sleep doesn't work exactly as you thought. What's wrong? Not used to being on the receiving end of dark secrets?
Wozniak: Just- [Pause] I think we're done here. As I said before, we can just read that paper of yours.
Birkmire: [Laughs] Well, when you're done reading it, I have some advice for you. Suicide isn't a good option. You'll die tonight anyway, and then this knowledge won't be your problem. All you'd be doing would be removing the lives of another ten thousand Stephens. [Pause] On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing.
Wozniak: [Pause] That will be all, Doctor. [Wozniak Rises] Ending interview.
[END OF RECORDING]
NOTE: Class A amnestics are only effective for memories formed in the last six (6) hours. If their use is desired, please account for as much as a 30 minute delay at your site's amnestic pharmacy.