SCP-526

Item #: SCP-526

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: At the time of initial discovery, SCP-526 was contained within the care of a Foundation front corporation. For further details, information concerning SCP-526 is available in Addendum 526-1.

Recruitment efforts have been initiated to ascertain the origin and extent of SCP-526's influence.

Description: SCP-526 is a phenomenon affecting the human lifespan, which appears to be caused by SCP-526-1. SCP-526-1's natural range is believed to be within the Indian Ocean.

SCP-526's effect is currently confined to terrestrial life - organisms that have not been affected by SCP-526 are unaffected. The effect can only be detected on planets within its natural range, but further testing has indicated that it is likely to impact any planets with the potential for life.

The effect is an anomalous acceleration in temporal length; organisms that exhibit SCP-526 will return to their earliest possible stage of life after approximately three years of age. This delay has been observed for all instances of life; for example, offspring of affected organisms will exhibit the effect, if the subject were to live long enough.

An important distinction must be made between biological life and artificial life (such as computers or robotic species or other non-organic lifeforms). Biological entities are entirely unaffected by SCP-526: they will continue to grow until they reach maturity at the normal rate. Artificial entities, however, display signs of aging at a rate significantly lower than usual: as an example, a standard computer would show signs of "aging" after roughly nine months of operation (following computer failures which may have occurred due to age checking), while artificial lifeforms under SCP-526 would show "aging" after nearly one year of operations. Any artificial entity in areas not affected by SCP-526 will continue to operate normally; however, the effect cannot be detected in such cases if the operator does not possess a stockpile of non-organic matter capable of aging.

The extent of SCP-526's anomalous influence is unknown at this point; however, artificial entities that exhibit signs similar to normal aging appear to be more susceptible than biological entities. In particular, biological entities appear excessively resistant if they possess an extremely high level of intelligence, or do not contain significant amounts of non-organic matter, such as computer hardware or any form of artificial AI creation (for example, synthetic lifeforms, software programs that simulate artificial intelligence and so on). However, no artificial entity has been found with powers comparable to those possessed by human beings at this date (although this could change in the future). Entities made entirely out of materials susceptible to aging show no signs of aging whatsoever - in contrast, analogous processes are apparent on biological entities (see Addendum 526-2).

At this time, it is unclear how much territory SCP-526 affects; however, there is evidence indicating the existence of another instance in China. The first confirmed appearance took place around 20███ CE in India; it should be noted that despite this date being several thousands years prior to recorded history, no other mentions of either SCP-526 or its effects are known prior to approximately 12000 BCE.

Addendum 526-1: Brief history of SCP-526

SCP-526 was first noticed in 20██ CE, as a result of a large number of newly-dead humans (and a few other species) being discovered on the island of Great Britain. It was initially assumed that they had been killed by a plague (although it is now known that they had been killed by the effects of aging). This soon led to the discovery of several anomalous properties of SCP-526, which are detailed below: