SCP-4219
rating: +58+x

Item #: SCP-4219

Object Class: Thaumiel

Containment Procedures: All SCP-4219 strains are to be stored under medium security at Site 56's memetic stockpile.

Any testing with SCP-4219 requires the approval of at least one researcher with Level 4/4219 clearance. (See Addendum 4219.1 below.)

Description: SCP-4219 is a catch-all designation for a series of artificial anomalous informational entities, code-named LUDROA. LUDROA was specifically engineered by the Foundation to detect sapience.

Rather than utilizing unreliable indicia such as language or neurochemical markers, LUDROA detects sapience by working directly with cognition. A LUDROA strain is activated by deploying a rudimentary, benign memetic agent. As with other memetic agents, observers that cannot understand the ideas which compose a LUDROA meme do not trigger it. However, if an observer comprehends the LUDROA meme's concepts, the memetic agent will activate, alerting the Foundation. This alert function is SCP-4219's primary anomalous property.

The conceptual framework of any given SCP-4219/LUDROA meme is composed of a series of basic philosophical ideas that all sapient beings should be capable of understanding. By alerting the Foundation when an observer successfully comprehends these basic ideas, SCP-4219 thus acts as a test for sapience.

After an entity comprehends a LUDROA meme and activates its alert function, the entity's memory of that LUDROA meme will begin to deteriorate. Within a span of seconds, the entity will be unable to recall the LUDROA meme or communicate the LUDROA meme to others.

LUDROA strains can be conveyed through a number of different cognitohazardous vectors, including sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. In addition, written LUDROA strains have been translated into 167 different languages for Foundation use.

Proof-of-concept testing with SCP-4219 has been extremely promising. Of note, researchers using LUDROA strains were able to accurately distinguish D-class personnel from non-sentient predictive-language AI in 99.98% of cases (compared to a 58.71% success rate for the Turing Test.)

Addendum 4219.1NOTE TO RESEARCHERS: Exposure to SCP-4219 is completely safe; LUDROA strains possess no physiological or psychological side effects. However, as SCP-4219 is conveyed through cognitohazardous vectors, extreme care must still be used in the design and execution of tests using LUDROA. Negligent or careless testing using SCP-4219 will almost certainly expose LUDROA to third parties external to the test; any such exposure will be processed by LUDROA as if it were a result from an actual test subject, tainting experimental data with false positives.

In order to ensure that studies using SCP-4219 meet the high standards necessary to guarantee accuracy and precision, researchers intending to conduct a test with LUDROA are required to formulate and compile a detailed written accounting of their proposed methodology. This methodology must be reviewed and approved by at least one Level 4/4219 staff member before the test can proceed.









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