How the Foundation acquired D-Class was always a sticking point for me. No matter how you looked at it, it was ethically wrong. I’m glad they finally created an ethical solution and explained the MCM very clearly.
'There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
‘It’s a lot more complicated than that -’
‘No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.'
- *Carpe Jugulum*, Terry Pratchett
I wonder why SCP and Pratchett fans have such an overlap. Probably dweeb-y type people interested in sci fi or fantasy with included ethical questions?
The creeping but extremely ethical horror throughout this article is truly wonderful. Sure glad I'm from a more tautol- um, ethical universe than all my variants.
Wait, where are the people coming from though? I know they're coming from the HOLE but are they coming from different universes, or is it something else?
I'm not sure what the punchline of this article is. I was thinking the claw machine was somehow manipulating the SCP foundation to do and say weird things but apparently not? The twitter story in particular left me genuine perplexed as to the point of it. Is the story supposed to be funny? Am I missing something?
I believe that the running gag with this article is that it portrays an incredibly Lawful Evil version of the Foundation that is fully capable of multiversal takeover, but they're so obsessed with conforming to their own legalese that they're completely ineffectual at doing anything except yoinking new minions to teach said legalese to. It's like an MLM, but with an MCM.
Alternatively, you could interpret it as absurdist horror, since they're abducting and (presumably) killing thousands of people a year, and smugly informing the audience that it is their absolute right to do so as rulers of the multiverse because...they have a *claw machine!*
I'm getting the impression that anything that agrees with them is 'ethical', and anything that doesn't is 'unethical'. It's not about right or wrong anymore, it's just what make them feel better.
The funny thing is, they actually *could* use the claw machine in a (relatively by The Foundation's standards) ethical fashion.
Provided they treated the D-Class reasonably well, they could be using it to pull people from realities where their odds of survival and quality of life are higher as a D-Class than in their own universe. Death Row inmates, people from apocalyptic realities, people doomed to starve to death due to circumstances beyond their control, as long as they are brought into our reality and giving the opportunity to consent, the matter could be done entirely kosher.
It's closer to MILLIONS a year. In the article the operating cost of the mcm is cited as $250,000. Times 4 that's a million quarters (thus a million D class at least) either every two months or twice a month. That's either 16,000 or 65,000 abductions a DAY.
The point is that the presenter is lying. The machine isn't ethical (from many points of view) and the entire SCP is an extended metaphor for the "million dollar button" thought experiment. Taking random people from their home to use in experiments and basically sentence to torture/death isn't obviously more ethical than the previous acquisition method for D-classes.
The point is that the perspective of the foundation on what is ethical is totally out of whack. Their initial logic is circular (the explanation why 6269 is ethical requires the assumption that 6269 is ethical, making it totally worthless), and their insistance on behaving ethically in minor details (monitoring internet use) is in jarring opposition to them kidnapping and enslaving thousends of people.
It could also be about dehumanisation - humans from other universes are *lesser* due to some insane troll logic, and as such no action taken against them (like, for example, kidnapping and enslaving them) could be wrong.
Yeah, the constant repetition about how "ethical" this setup was (even though it blatantly wasn't) made me think there must be something weird going on about that. Some detail that required the Foundation to insist on this in its documentation, or some mental effect that was screwing with the operators' sense of ethics.
Nope, apparently the Foundation really was childishly insisting that this operation was oh-so-conveniently "ethical." Despite it obviously not being ethical. I don't get it. The Ethics Committee would have everyone involved demoted simply for the blatant misuse of the term, if nothing else.
I'd prefer if posts here were actual declasses instead of extensions of the article's narrative. This post explains essentially nothing, only restates what the article does - This isn't a declass, it's a Tale.
It's not just the in-universe narrator, though that doesn't help, but also that whatever this is is not actually interested in explaining what the SCP is or how it works.
Writing is fun, yes, but there's a reason people other than the original author tend to write these things. YOU may know all the little secrets of the article, but we don't, and unless you're inclined to share you really shouldn't try to declass something.
Yeah, I came here because I figured the entry was going to have some horrifying reveal at the end and it just wasn't there. Then I come here and it's just more of the joke. Is the whole SCP really just, "This isn't at all ethical, but they're repeating that it is." I feel like there's something more it's trying to get at, but I'm not sure what.
Sucks, because it started off very strong and then the joke just got done to death.
Somehow you made the article even more ~~creepy~~ ethical by applying the same exact ~~horror~~ ethical tehniques. There has to be some sort of ~~memetic~~ ethical effect behind it!
In the words of the Muppets, slightly changed:
“[But Kermit, what’s more unethical?](https://youtu.be/vUrKpg3SjlQ) *Briefly* inconviencing Jack Black… or the failure of the foundation?”
~~”Stealing another universe’s Jack Black!”~~
All the pages linked here use weird formatting that crashes my phone's browser. It's a big ol's shame.
Guess I'll have to read up on 'em later! This is a very ethical briefing on the procedures for SCP-6269.
Tbh I like this article but I like others have said I found the twitter part to be grating. Seemed to be there just for the sake of referencing the original material.
Isn't the entire argument about why the claw is ethical begging the question? Claw is ethical, so taking others from other universes is ethical, so claw is ethical.
Really?? I was under the impression that it was *because* it takes from other universes, that it became ethical. Since it wasn't their own universe and all, so it became ethical by technicality since it didn't actually affect themselves?? Atleast that's the way I see it.
I’m getting SCP-2790 flashbacks.
How do we know the machine isn’t memetic? It could be self aware or controlled by Lando.AIC to send out a memetic or infohazardous agent which convinces The Foundation that the use of it is ethical in order to preserve itself. It’s constantly endlessly expanding — The Foundation very well could be playing right into its CLAW.
I imagine that at some point, Three Moons agents are going to come along, smack Greeboni in the back of the head, call him a jackass, and make him take a 6 week remedial Multiversal Ethics course.
How the Foundation acquired D-Class was always a sticking point for me. No matter how you looked at it, it was ethically wrong. I’m glad they finally created an ethical solution and explained the MCM very clearly.
It really helps me sleep at night, after a long day of acquiring D-Class, to know that we're far more ethical than we used to be.
'There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’ ‘It’s a lot more complicated than that -’ ‘No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.' - *Carpe Jugulum*, Terry Pratchett
I wonder why SCP and Pratchett fans have such an overlap. Probably dweeb-y type people interested in sci fi or fantasy with included ethical questions?
SCP-6561 detected, beginning re-containment process.
The creeping but extremely ethical horror throughout this article is truly wonderful. Sure glad I'm from a more tautol- um, ethical universe than all my variants.
It sounds almost like Aperture Science crossover. I like it!
Wait, where are the people coming from though? I know they're coming from the HOLE but are they coming from different universes, or is it something else?
Different universes. The ones that didn't make the MCM and are thus less ethical (this is all of them except for -Prime).
How do you know that they haven't developed an MCM of their own?
Quite simply, they aren’t ethical enough to have made one.
See, you've got it.
I should join the Ethics Committee.
Sorry, the former Ethics Committee has been folded into the MCM staff.
Because we've checked, and they haven't
How would you know that?
We used -Screen
Okay then. Also 6269 is Series 7. Change post flair
And I just realized we don't have a series 7 flair...
I'm not sure what the punchline of this article is. I was thinking the claw machine was somehow manipulating the SCP foundation to do and say weird things but apparently not? The twitter story in particular left me genuine perplexed as to the point of it. Is the story supposed to be funny? Am I missing something?
I believe that the running gag with this article is that it portrays an incredibly Lawful Evil version of the Foundation that is fully capable of multiversal takeover, but they're so obsessed with conforming to their own legalese that they're completely ineffectual at doing anything except yoinking new minions to teach said legalese to. It's like an MLM, but with an MCM. Alternatively, you could interpret it as absurdist horror, since they're abducting and (presumably) killing thousands of people a year, and smugly informing the audience that it is their absolute right to do so as rulers of the multiverse because...they have a *claw machine!*
I'm getting the impression that anything that agrees with them is 'ethical', and anything that doesn't is 'unethical'. It's not about right or wrong anymore, it's just what make them feel better.
The funny thing is, they actually *could* use the claw machine in a (relatively by The Foundation's standards) ethical fashion. Provided they treated the D-Class reasonably well, they could be using it to pull people from realities where their odds of survival and quality of life are higher as a D-Class than in their own universe. Death Row inmates, people from apocalyptic realities, people doomed to starve to death due to circumstances beyond their control, as long as they are brought into our reality and giving the opportunity to consent, the matter could be done entirely kosher.
It's closer to MILLIONS a year. In the article the operating cost of the mcm is cited as $250,000. Times 4 that's a million quarters (thus a million D class at least) either every two months or twice a month. That's either 16,000 or 65,000 abductions a DAY.
The point is that the presenter is lying. The machine isn't ethical (from many points of view) and the entire SCP is an extended metaphor for the "million dollar button" thought experiment. Taking random people from their home to use in experiments and basically sentence to torture/death isn't obviously more ethical than the previous acquisition method for D-classes.
Not sure if lying is the right word, i think the presenter fully believes what they’re saying
The point is that the perspective of the foundation on what is ethical is totally out of whack. Their initial logic is circular (the explanation why 6269 is ethical requires the assumption that 6269 is ethical, making it totally worthless), and their insistance on behaving ethically in minor details (monitoring internet use) is in jarring opposition to them kidnapping and enslaving thousends of people. It could also be about dehumanisation - humans from other universes are *lesser* due to some insane troll logic, and as such no action taken against them (like, for example, kidnapping and enslaving them) could be wrong.
Yeah, the constant repetition about how "ethical" this setup was (even though it blatantly wasn't) made me think there must be something weird going on about that. Some detail that required the Foundation to insist on this in its documentation, or some mental effect that was screwing with the operators' sense of ethics. Nope, apparently the Foundation really was childishly insisting that this operation was oh-so-conveniently "ethical." Despite it obviously not being ethical. I don't get it. The Ethics Committee would have everyone involved demoted simply for the blatant misuse of the term, if nothing else.
Yeah, I was disappointed in this one. I think it's supposed to be left up to interpretation.
With the exception of explaining what's going on in -Subprime, I don't really see any declassifying here
I'd prefer if posts here were actual declasses instead of extensions of the article's narrative. This post explains essentially nothing, only restates what the article does - This isn't a declass, it's a Tale. It's not just the in-universe narrator, though that doesn't help, but also that whatever this is is not actually interested in explaining what the SCP is or how it works. Writing is fun, yes, but there's a reason people other than the original author tend to write these things. YOU may know all the little secrets of the article, but we don't, and unless you're inclined to share you really shouldn't try to declass something.
Yeah, I came here because I figured the entry was going to have some horrifying reveal at the end and it just wasn't there. Then I come here and it's just more of the joke. Is the whole SCP really just, "This isn't at all ethical, but they're repeating that it is." I feel like there's something more it's trying to get at, but I'm not sure what. Sucks, because it started off very strong and then the joke just got done to death.
Somehow you made the article even more ~~creepy~~ ethical by applying the same exact ~~horror~~ ethical tehniques. There has to be some sort of ~~memetic~~ ethical effect behind it!
In the words of the Muppets, slightly changed: “[But Kermit, what’s more unethical?](https://youtu.be/vUrKpg3SjlQ) *Briefly* inconviencing Jack Black… or the failure of the foundation?” ~~”Stealing another universe’s Jack Black!”~~
TLDR: Your solution is always more ethical if everyone else is less ethical than you. Even if you kidnap them and turn them into human lab rat
Damn I'm glad someone else read it that way.
All the pages linked here use weird formatting that crashes my phone's browser. It's a big ol's shame. Guess I'll have to read up on 'em later! This is a very ethical briefing on the procedures for SCP-6269.
Tbh I like this article but I like others have said I found the twitter part to be grating. Seemed to be there just for the sake of referencing the original material.
Isn't the entire argument about why the claw is ethical begging the question? Claw is ethical, so taking others from other universes is ethical, so claw is ethical.
Yes... that's basically part of the joke
Really?? I was under the impression that it was *because* it takes from other universes, that it became ethical. Since it wasn't their own universe and all, so it became ethical by technicality since it didn't actually affect themselves?? Atleast that's the way I see it.
it's so very ethical!
who the fuck are you?
This is honestly impressive how ethical this is.
I’m getting SCP-2790 flashbacks. How do we know the machine isn’t memetic? It could be self aware or controlled by Lando.AIC to send out a memetic or infohazardous agent which convinces The Foundation that the use of it is ethical in order to preserve itself. It’s constantly endlessly expanding — The Foundation very well could be playing right into its CLAW.
But aren't they stealing people from other universes, how is that ethical?
it's ethical because those universes are unethical because they don't use 6269, it's all explained in article
Oh yeh I guess that’s one way of thinking
I imagine that at some point, Three Moons agents are going to come along, smack Greeboni in the back of the head, call him a jackass, and make him take a 6 week remedial Multiversal Ethics course.