Item #: SCP-8850
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: All SCP-8850 instances are to be kept together in a secure depot built for that purpose located in Site-██. Security has been heavily escalated following Event 8850-X (see corresponding document); relevant security protocols and bylaws can be found in the site charter.
If any SCP-8850 instance is completely emptied of liquid, the gateway it constitutes will be permanently eliminated. As such, all SCP-8850 instances are to be kept constantly filled, and monitored continuously for evidence of leakage. Pump and filter systems are to be inspected twice daily; instances are to undergo internal inspection and cleaning weekly. Personnel assigned to these tasks are advised to maintain a safe distance from their SCP-8850-2 counterpart, and to avoid interaction where possible, to prevent any diplomatic incident with SCP-8850-1’s Foundation.
Description: SCP-8850 is the designation for thirty-two separate swimming pools1 previously spread across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. SCP-8850 instances manifest when a non-anomalous swimming pool is arbitrarily converted into an SCP-8850 instance; conversion occurs rarely, but, it appears, can happen at any time. It is presumed that there are several more SCP-8850 instances of which the Foundation is unaware.
Instances of SCP-8850 act as portals to a reality nearly identical to baseline reality, hereby designated SCP-8850-1. Upon submerging oneself in SCP-8850, it will appear that SCP-8850 is approximately twice as deep as perceived from the outside, and that it has no bottom, but rather a second ‘surface’. Submerging oneself in SCP-8850 has been said to result in a vertigo-like effect such that the subject becomes confused as to what is up and what is down, and as such from which end they entered; this is likely the result of both the ‘bottom’ and ‘surface’ being identical, and the competing gravitational pulls of baseline Earth and the alternate Earth, which at the midpoint of the gateway will affect the subject with equal force. Exiting the pool via the ‘other surface’, as opposed to the surface from which they entered, will result in entry into SCP-8850-1.
SCP-8850-1 is inhabited by SCP-8850-2 entities, which are physically identical counterparts of individuals inhabiting our baseline reality. It has been confirmed that SCP-8850-2 entities are not sapient nor even sentient, and can rather be considered akin to ‘biological automatons.’ Though in every respect physically identical to their baseline ‘originals’—right down to neural networks, synaptic activity, etc.—application of the Sakurai-Langdon Test for Consciousness (adapted from the atta-diṭṭhi “vision ritual” designed and implemented by agents of the Global Occult Coalition) has determined that SCP-8850-2 entities possess no subjective experience. Though they literally ‘perceive’ in the sense that their sensory receptors are able to convert outside stimuli into electrical signals which are then neurally processed, these perceptions are not accompanied by phenomenal experience of any variety; although they undergo the complex combination of chemical interactions and electrical signals in the brain which would for a baseline human constitute ‘thoughts’, these thoughts have no qualitative aspect; although they behave identically to their conscious counterparts, i.e. in such a way as to imply they undergo internal conscious experience, this similarity is superficial, and in this sense are only as ‘alive’ as any inanimate object.
Due to the scattered nature of SCP-8850 instances, an unknown number of conscious individuals from our baseline reality are currently lost in or otherwise inhabiting SCP-8850-1. Testing carries a high risk that personnel will accidentally immigrate to SCP-8850-1 and subsequently become convinced that they are inhabiting baseline reality; this is compounded by the fact that crossing SCP-8850’s interuniversal border entails that one’s insentient counterpart will be coming through the exact same gateway at the same time, meaning that there will generally only be one ‘version’ of a single individual in each reality. Although there is an equal danger of the converse occurring—i.e., insentient humanoid ‘SCP personnel’ coming to inhabit our baseline reality and ‘believing’ that it is their own—this is considered lower-priority, as due to the nature of SCP-8850-2 entities they will always behave in accordance with how their sentient counterpart would behave under the same circumstances, meaning that they will generally uphold all standards of integrity, confidentiality, etc. associated with their role as SCP personnel and will not attempt to obstruct or otherwise interfere with the baseline Foundation’s activities.
It should be noted that SCP-8850-1’s SCP Foundation has developed a version of the Sakurai-Langdon Test in tandem with the baseline Foundation, which test appears to be similar to the baseline Test, but determines that all members of our baseline reality are insentient. Due to the highly confidential nature of this protocol at both Foundations, the baseline Foundation has been unable to determine in what respects the alternate Test differs from the baseline Test such that it would give the opposite result, as in no respect does SCP-8850-1’s reality appear to differ with regard to physical, metaphysical, or paranatural laws. Interuniversal espionage remains nonviable, at least until the baseline Foundation is able to locate an SCP-8850 instance which the alternate Foundation is unaware of, and of which the counterpart will not be discovered by the alternate Foundation at the exact same time.
Due to the elaborate and highly specialized nature of the Sakurai-Langdon Test at present, it is strongly recommended that resources be invested in finding a swifter and more convenient way of determining an individual’s sentience. —Dr. Chalmers