scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/9gwxix.md

SCP draft entitled The Better Man

• Author: u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 *

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9gwxix/scp_draft_entitled_the_better_man/

• Score: 16

• Created: 2018-09-18T17:33:26

Post:

The draft is at

http://scp-sandbox-3.wikidot.com/zoltanberrigomo

Spoilery-note:

!The feedback I got from the SCP community on an earlier draft was that no one had any clue what was going on at the end. I then created this version, which might make things a little too transparent -- but perhaps it just seems that way to me, since I know the answer ahead of time. In any case, if you thought everything was so clear that it wasn't much fun to connect the dots, let me know. !<

Comments:

u/LeifCarrotson [+8] (21 hours later)

I think it was really good! I would not worry about it being too transparent. An SCP is different from an early chapter in a longer serial work: I'm not likely to spend as much time analyzing an SCP entry, and there's no climactic reveal, resolution, or conclusion that reveals anything I missed. Therefore, it needs to be pretty easy to understand. I would like to read a continuation SCP that confirms (or refutes) my suspicions.

...suspicions which were, increasingly, that >! Four killed Dr. Kastner to get to 'his' wife and kids. !< On a re-read, I read more carefully and noticed that there's a dead giveaway: >! You’ll never find a better man than me. !< That's pretty direct, I suppose.

u/FunFunFunTimez [+6] (a day later)

Is there a reason it doesn't mention what happens if you put a clone into the machine? Or was 4 the 4th of a series?

u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 [+4] (a day later)

I imagine in that case you'd get a plain clone. I could certainly put in a line that says that into the piece. Do you think that would make it better?

u/copenhagen_bram [+3] (4 days later)

Abolutely. It's generally entertaining to me when SCPs try unusual things, and I also think it's very rational to try everything.

u/wren42 [+1] (11 days later)

this was my first thought too. Recursive improvement was the obvious hack.

u/SkyTroupe [+8] (a day later)

So 4 killed Kastner with the help of the oversight committee?

u/DaystarEld [+9] Pokémon Professor (a day later)

That, or Kastner assisted in his own suicide, hoping that his clone could save the world and knowing it was doomed anyway if not.

u/JackStargazer [+5] Primordial Apologist (a day later)

4 killed Kastner in order to replace him and be with his family, because the clone had the same emotional connections.

Alternatively, Kastner, having been lambasted about how his clone was better for so long and upon hearing the clone again wanting to take over his life, killed the clone and then made it look like a suicide.

In the first case, the clone may have killed the only man who could avert the temporal doomsday, meaning the world will end in under a year.

u/DaystarEld [+5] Pokémon Professor (a day later)

I think Kastner assisted in his own suicide, hoping that his clone could save the world and knowing it was doomed anyway if not. But it could also have been a coverup.

u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 [+12] (a day later)

I guess what I'm getting here is that there do need to be more hints. Thanks to everyone who speculated on the outcome!

What happened was:

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

.../u/SkyTroupe got it right.

Let's put the pieces together:

• Humanity's survival depends on the success of Kastner's project.
• Kastner is not cutting it. Not only are the tests failing, whatever they are, but he's lying to his superiors.
• Kastner is a bit of a dick (hopefully this comes across in the email). He is unlikely to be a good leader, given how he repeatedly denigrates his team.
• Four is a lot smarter than Kastner (a 42-61% IQ gain is huge).
• He's also more conflict averse, more productive due to the natural secretion of ADHD medication, and can stay awake much more each day.
• He has a very similar background to Kastner, so that catching up to whatever Kastner has accomplished can be done relatively quickly.
• There are too many gaps in the story of Four's suicide. Each one might be perfectly innocent, but all at once strongly suggest something nefarious is going on.
• The leadership of Site 48 was likely involved (because their investigation was so cursory, because they are clearly uninterested in following up, because the body seems to have been immediately cremated, and because in a highly controlled environment like an SCP site, it probably would have been difficult for anyone else to create a power outage at the right moment).
• Kastner's boss is likely involved -- there is a clear hint of that in the "better man" line, and presumably he would have been the one to initiate the switch in the first place after observing Kastner's repeated failures and lies.

In my headcannon, Four probably had little to do with the physical act of killing Kastner. He's a physicist not a soldier. But his cooperation was clearly necessary, both to bring Kastner to an urgent visit to Site 48, and to pretend to be Kastner once everything is done.

u/SkyTroupe [+3] (2 days later)

Yay I got it right!

I thought the smirk and the line reply together make it a tad obvious. I think the implication from just either is good enough but if no one else got it right maybe it's a good thing you included both.

I really enjoyed the story, but would have preferred it to be more fleshed out/longer with more examples. But you definitely hit the SCP "style"! Which I thought was great.

u/Ardvarkeating101 [+1] Father of Learning (13 days later)

See I could believe that if it was a few SCP employees, but the oversight committee as a whole could have just fired the guy and hired the copy, the Ethics Committee would have them all shot

u/sparr [+2] (a day later)

I would like to be able to better visualize the layout/shape of the pods. I wrote more details but they got pedantic and long. Reply if you want me to elaborate.

u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 [+2] (a day later)

Sure, more details would be nice. I do want that section to be relatively short though.

u/sparr [+2] (a day later)

Short and informative are doable. For example, you said elliptical, but maybe meant ellipsoidal?

u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 [+2] (a day later)

yep, that's what i actually meant...thanks!

u/sparr [+2] (a day later)

What happens if [a copy of] the subject doesn't fit in the pod? (0.5m)^3 is pretty small. Most people couldn't contort to fit in there, and many people wouldn't fit even if you liquified them.

u/hyphenomicon [+2] seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators (a day later)

I think it's too obvious, yeah. A middle ground would be good if you could find it.

I'm not in love with this because it seems more like a tale than an object. The object itself is pretty boring, and so the idea that the Foundation is replacing their problem employees using it is not all that interesting to me, outside the problem that I'd think they would be more paranoid than that.

u/sparr [+1] (a day later)

I am a bit in disbelief that there's no mention of a cycle being run with a camera inside the device with the human, to good or ill results, given that the other text indicates at least 4 clones have been made, and suggests many more ("the first crop of experiments").

u/ZoltanBerrigomo1 [+2] (a day later)

In-universe, the SCP piece gives an overview -- it's not a comprehensive record of every single experiment done.

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