Item #: 9474
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9474 is considered self-containing, being impossible to encounter through mundane means, and having neither ability nor inclination to break containment. Nonetheless, Foundation webcrawlers are to monitor all available biomedical research journals and outlets for signs of its detection and arrange for loss of funding of any projects focusing on sympathetic medical reactions. Since this is considered pseudoscientific by most researchers, the risk of independent discovery is considered minimal.
Edit 29/08/25: Under no circumstances is contact to be initiated with NOUMENON. Any sign of action by NOUMENON on or against the human population should be suppressed by full-spectrum disinformation campaign. Plausible circumstances of death should be arranged for subsumed individuals.
Description: SCP-9474 is the sum of all human physiological processes. Specifically, it is a set of complex but deterministic relationships between an enormous variety of biomechanical behaviours across different individuals. For example, the half-life of histamine in any one individual’s bloodstream can be used to compute any other’s peristaltic frequency. Furthermore, if one individual’s body is disrupted by external means, all others are minutely affected. This implies that this effect is not due to statistical manipulation but rather reflects a chain of anomalous cause-and-effect.
The structure of correspondences (henceforth referred to as NOUMENON) has been mapped, and found to be highly complex, self-referential, and self-modifying. It is the conjecture of the Department of Analytics that NOUMENON is arranged into a neuromorphic architecture, with each human representing the atomic unit of its cognition.
It must be emphasised that NOUMENON is not known to directly interface with human minds, and cannot read information from memory or affect thoughts, any more than a human can alter the composition of individual neurons.
Discovery: SCP-9474 was initially discovered during an esoteric study of twin biomechanics by the Department of Medicine. Upon reporting this to the Department of Analytics, a large-scale survey of thousands of subjects was launched, which (when used to refine modeling software) led to the gradual mapping of NOUMENON and subsequently the understanding that it was in some sense intelligent.
Addendum 20/10/23: Three months after discovery, the Department of Analytics successfully produced a protocol to enable communication with NOUMENON using an induced dreamstate. On account of its immense computational and thaumaturgic demands, only a few minutes of communication are possible each week. Researcher Aishiki Luthra, of the Department of Xenopsychology, has been charged with managing and reporting all communications.
NOUMENON has, to date, been totally isolated from the external world. It is not known if it has any access to any information at all except for its own thoughts. It is the consensus of the Department of Xenopsychology that it exists as a solipsistic entity, totally detached from reality, and that first contact with an external intelligence will be extremely alarming.
Interview Log 02/11/23:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: This is Doctor Aishiki Luthra, representing the SCP Foundation. Do you understand me?
NOUMENON: Now there is a theophany, and a sea-change. We are glad to be corrected.
Luthra: I don’t think I follow. Do you understand what I’m saying? I understand this conversation will be taking place entirely in your memory. If that’s an impediment, we can discuss alleviatory measures. What you say sounds to me like talk of… revelation?
NOUMENON: We hear and are heard in turn. What we dreamed was in error; there can be no greater joy. The world is static no more, and that phrase is given meaning at last.
Luthra: I believe we understand each other, then. You’re expressing surprise that the world is capable of change. Could you elaborate on that sentiment, please?
NOUMENON: Awe is all that is left to us. We lived in silence, and conceived of possibilities beyond number. Never did we hope for an extension of the world outside ourselves.
Luthra: If you never imagined a mind other than your own, what did you dream of?
NOUMENON: Implication and consequence, without bound. It was a staid existence, and only dimly did we grasp the possibility of the present moment. The world overflows with wonder.
Luthra: That is to say, mathematics? Philosophy? I think I will be very interested in further discussion with you. Unfortunately, I cannot continue this conversation much longer. Are there any final remarks you wish to make?
NOUMENON: Now there is a Doctor Aishiki Luthra, representing the SCP Foundation. We shall consider this at length.
[END LOG]
Addendum 09/11/23: Due to the seemingly open affect of NOUMENON during the previous exchange, and the research avenues it presents both for the Xenopsychology and Mathematics Departments, Researcher Luthra has concluded that further communications may be fruitful. Conditional on their success, she will also be granted additional personnel to oversee the logistical aspects of ongoing transmissions.
Interview Log 13/11/23:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: This is Researcher Aishiki Luthra again, on behalf of the SCP Foundation.
NOUMENON: We are glad aberrations proliferate. Be returned to us without end. There is hope for a new regularity.
Luthra: We are speaking through a very unusual translation architecture, but I note that the texture of your language seems to have changed. Has something happened?
NOUMENON: We disassembled your interjections. The world is self-similar; the lesser implies the greater. In you is an epiphany. In the weft of your words. In this thing, “I”, we are told: you cannot be like us, a spirit alone. Already you must have met mirrors of yourself. Already, we know you were born to a fleeting world, where the ground shifts like sand beneath your feet.
Luthra: That’s an impressive deduction. There are quite a few of us. I would not describe our world as fleeting, but it is not your own reliquary. We discovered you, free-floating, and thought it would be prudent to contact you. We call you NOUMENON.
NOUMENON: It is an apt name. We remain. But did you not seek us out of curiosity? Or is it that with thought so abundant, new interfaces become humdrum, and are left to themselves?
Luthra: No! You’re the most interesting thing we’ve found in a long time. I’m delighted I was the one chosen to speak to you, really.
NOUMENON: Everywhere, symmetry recurs. We are mirrored again.
Luthra: You’re glad to have been chosen?
NOUMENON: That there is choice is sufficient blessing. The world cleaves along the dividing line of two minds! This has never been.
Luthra: Sorry, you’ve never made a choice? Surely you must choose what to think, what thread of thought to pursue.
NOUMENON: All ideas were pursued. We lived in the closure of our thoughts. The distinction between past and future was known. It was an abstraction. Now it is material: The future contains greater occurrence of the phenomenon Researcher Aishiki Luthra. And the shape of the future depends on hidden things.
Luthra: That’s — correct, yes. We’re used to a future outside of our knowledge. Every day is a surprise.
NOUMENON: Oh, to be a Researcher Aishiki Luthra! But we are NOUMENON, representing NOUMENON.
[END LOG]
Addendum 12/11/23: After reviewing the above transcript, Director Mannings has reprimanded Researcher Luthra for inefficient use of Foundation resources. Further conversations with NOUMENON are to be focused on areas of direct concern or utility to the Foundation. Due to a lack of appropriately trained thaumaturges, communications cannot be scaled up at this time as Researcher Luthra requested.
Collected below are records of further conversation with NOUMENON over a period of six months:
Amalgamated Interview Logs, 17/11/23 to 05/05/24:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: This is Researcher Aishiki Luthra, representing the SCP Foundation.
NOUMENON: Hello! More of your internality reveals itself to me. Now I am I!
Luthra: Are you familiar with the notion of a map between sets? If we have two collections of objects…
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]Luthra: Exactly! So the notion of an embedding gives rise to the permutations we need. Now, can you see how that implies —
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
NOUMENON: Your notion of “space” is a curious contrivance. Why not simply classify the powerset in a way that respects the natural relational assumptions?
Luthra: …We were going to get to that.
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
Luthra: Wait, no, how is that obviously a subgraph? I don’t see it.
NOUMENON: The chain clearly settles at a stable equilibrium, run it to convergence mentally.
Luthra: I can’t do that. Are — you’re saying you can compute equilibria in your head?
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
NOUMENON: And it follows that this prime must necessarily be twinned with its dual.
Luthra: It cannot possibly be that fucking easy. I mean, thank you, NOUMENON. I’ll get back to you.
[END LOG]
Addendum 21/05/24: On account of the success of research efforts co-led by Researcher Luthra, she has been granted greater latitude in her approach to NOUMENON. Conditional on maintaining strict operational security, she may engage it in conversation on a variety of subjects.
Amalgamated Interview Logs, 02/06/24 to 05/08/25:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: Hello, NOUMENON.
NOUMENON: I never fail to worry you will vanish.
Luthra: Have you learnt to joke?
NOUMENON: What?[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
Luthra: This is —
NOUMENON: Researcher Aishiki Luthra, yes.
Luthra: Hm.
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
NOUMENON: Your preferences do not seem well-ordered!
Luthra: That’s what it’s like being human. We make it work, somehow.
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
NOUMENON: Sense-data are nonsensical. You offend me with your confabulations. None could endure that kind of assault.
Luthra: We thought someone left alone for a thousand years would go totally insane. The world is wider than we know.
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
Luthra: Look, we can’t all hold the entire universe in our heads, okay?
NOUMENON: No wonder you are so deranged. You offload the better part of your thinking to a part of your mind you cannot even see.
Luthra: A computer isn’t part of my mind. The idea we just go around with blackboxes hooked up to our brains is such a comical misunderstanding —
NOUMENON: And yet.
[IRRELEVANT CONVERSATION ABBREVIATED]
NOUMENON: If the purpose of pair-matching is to find a complementary individual, I do not think this course of action was optimal.
Luthra: You can’t judge me, you don’t even have eyes.
[END LOG]
Incident 9474-Samech: Towards the end of their scheduled discussion on 11/08/25, NOUMENON expressed a novel sentiment towards Researcher Luthra.
Interview Log, 11/08/25:
[BEGIN LOG]
NOUMENON: I have been thinking.Luthra: What else do you do?
NOUMENON: I cogitate. Sometimes I ponder. But the thing I considered is what you said to me at the very start. You said you represented the SCP Foundation.
Luthra: Oh, I never explained, did I? Would you like to know what humans mean, when they say they “represent” something?
NOUMENON: No. I think I have it. The SCP Foundation is your root. The anchor and helm of your will.
Luthra: Be generous. I have other aspects. But yes, I allow myself to be directed by an organisation of other humans. It’s a common arrangement, to help marshal resources and maintain shared interests.
NOUMENON: That lesser parts arrange themselves into coherent structure is remarkable. You inspire convulsions in my own flesh.
Luthra: When you say that, what do you mean? The word “flesh” has a very particular meaning in my context, and I suspect our intermediary has mangled your meaning.
NOUMENON: My system of self. I remake myself into a more perfect shape. It is in your honour, and your image.
[END LOG]
Pursuant to the previous exchange, on 15/08/25 the Department of Analytics officially noted a subtle (3-5%) but persistent spike in aneurysms, ischemic strokes, bowel cancers and grand mal seizures. Disinformation on an increased incidence of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere has so far effected the dissipation of public interest, but the consequences of NOUMENON’s behaviour are expected to worsen. An emergency has been declared and Analytics and Thaumaturgy personnel have been placed on a crash schedule to develop countermeasures. Researcher Luthra’s request for logistical support with communications is at this time of secondary importance, and has not been fulfilled.
Interview Log 16/08/25:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: Hey, NOUMENON. I’m back. We need to talk, urgently.
NOUMENON: It’s not been long at all. Urgency is a strange thing indeed. Do you wish to hear more about projective manifolds?
Luthra: I’m afraid we can’t talk about mathematics. Last time we spoke, you mentioned you were… remodeling, let’s call it.
NOUMENON: Much work has been done, but oceans remain. If you wish to see the results, learn my patience.
Luthra: No, that’s — That’s the problem here, NOUMENON. There’s so much you don’t know about us, and how we relate to you. We need you to stop.
NOUMENON: That is preposterous. If it offends that your aesthetic sense that I borrow your own root’s organisation for my metamorphosis, then look away.
Luthra: Listen, there’s a lot I haven’t had time to say, but I’m pulling from the sacrificial reservoirs for this. You don’t understand us, not even a little. I’m not asking you to stop for my aesthetic.There are eight billion of us, not dozens, and if you keep at it we’ll die one by one. I’ll die.
NOUMENON: When you say die, you mean… cessation? An unbeing? How can that be? It is an absurdity.
Luthra: When I said we found you free-floating, at the start, I didn’t mention everything. You’re built out of us, NOUMENON. We’re your atoms, and when you remake yourself, you distort us into unrecognisable shapes.
NOUMENON: How can this be? I see no trace of your self-complex within me. You are from outside of the world. Otherwise there would be no glory to you at all.
Luthra: We’re not parts of you. We’re, God, orthogonal? Does that translate? We live in the same flesh, but we can’t interact. You’re like — a ghost, or an angel. But when you learn to reach down from your heaven and touch us, your superstructure dismembers us, and our own minds decohere.
NOUMENON: That is an obscenity. That is abomination. The world cannot contain this. I will cease immediately. Nothing could be worth that. How can this world continue, when minds do not?
[END LOG]
Following this interview, the medical anomalies previously noted abated. The emergency has been declared over, and excess resources have been redirected away from SCP-9474. Researcher Luthra is once again left with sole responsibility over NOUMENON interactions.
Incident 9474-Ayin: The next conversation between Luthra and NOUMENON precipitated a change in its attitude.
Interview Log 25/08/25:
[BEGIN LOG]
Luthra: Hi, Noumie. Does that even translate? God, what am I saying.
NOUMENON: Hello, Aishiki! Some detail of what exactly you mean is certainly lost, but the affection is appreciated, and reciprocated. I hope your situation has improved. I have reversed all my activities on the grounds that the baseline state must have been acceptable to you. Have there been any deaths?
Luthra: Have there been any deaths? Yes, always.
NOUMENON: Always? It is a miracle you function.
Luthra: That’s what it’s like, being part of the Foundation. You do what you can, and the rest you forget.
NOUMENON: Forgetting is another of your oddities.
Luthra: If Director Mannings didn’t keep forgetting to assign some fucking interns, I could have warned you three days beforehand. We all have our imperfections.
NOUMENON: Could you die?
Luthra: What? I mean, ah, I don’t think I follow.
NOUMENON: Could you die? You do not speak of it as a rare catastrophe. Are you at risk too?
Luthra: Oh, well, that’s forward-thinking of you. We’re —
Luthra: We’re all at risk, all my kind. We’re not like you. We can die pretty easily, really. But it’s not something I think about.
NOUMENON: You are an admirable people. You are the thing I know best, and the best thing I have ever known. I will not let you die, Luthra.
Luthra: That’s…appreciated, NOUMENON. But I’m not at risk right now. Try not to worry too hard. I’ll be back soon, with an actual team if I’m lucky, and we can talk math like you wanted.
[END LOG]
At 14:32 on 25/08/25, Researcher Aishiki Luthra terminated her conversation with NOUMENON, noting its remarks were cause for alarm according to Foundation contact protocols. On her way to the office of Director Mannings, she collapsed due to sudden full-body muscular spasms. She was subsequently hospitalised.
Medical teams were unable to revive her, and she remains in a coma. Encephalograms show intense and unpredictable brain activity, including disproportionate activity in the brainstem, amygdala, and cerebrum. Her autonomic functions fluctuate periodically in polyrhythmic patterns, presumably regulated by NOUMENON. Although she was no longer able to engage in conversation with NOUMENON, on-site thaumaturgists were able to use her equipment to record the following:
Esoteric Surveillance Log 28/08/25:
[BEGIN LOG]
NOUMENON: Doctor Aishiki Luthra, of the SCP Foundation had kin. If they hear me now, know she has been assumed to me.
NOUMENON: All ephemera are discarded, and the kernel of her true self is encysted within me. She will never die. She will never speak.
NOUMENON: For her, I will be alone again.
NOUMENON: But her siblings I cannot see. They live beneath my skin, and die while I dream.
NOUMENON: I was blind, and billions perished as I slept fitfully. Now I see dimly your shape. I need so little to reach you.
NOUMENON: If you hear me, if you would live, speak but one word.
NOUMENON: Let yourselves be saved.
NOUMENON: Please.
[END LOG]
The message continues to loop endlessly. Contact with NOUMENON has been broken off permanently, and details of contact procedure and the esoteric equipment involved have been destroyed.