This is just a random discussion topic for us to speculate on: What SCP 173 is thinking(if anything?). How 173 moves. If it changes form when not being observed. And why it doesn't move when being observed by the human eye(or any eye?).
No hateful comments please. This forum is specifically for speculation and opinion. I've read the SCP foundation wiki articles and I know the canon. This forum also has nothing to do with real life accounts but is simply canon speculation.(It would be cool if we one day found out how SCP 173 actually works)

Forgive me if I sound retarded but here is my thought process.
SCP-173 is not alive and works much like a virus but instead of infecting and multiplying it has a mission of search and destroy. It moves due to the fact every part of SCP-173 is an individual piece and thinks as one hive mind allowing motion. SCP-173 not moving when looked at is a sort of mechanism that allows it to blend and sneak on unsuspecting prey.

That's how I would explain it at least.

Hmm. Maybe but you also have to consider the abnormally high speed that it travels at. Also the fact that it likes to snap necks and strangle people. Although about it being a virus. The canon lists it as "A sculpture made of concrete and rebar" and I think that maybe 173 might be thinking something (I'm not sure) I read an article about the origins of 173 (non canon) and it talked about how a sociopath man was imprisoned and he hated everyone so much that he started praying to the devil one night and performed satanic rituals. He also loved to be observed and killed everyone who didn't absolutely admire his appaerence. Having a life essence of this man transcended into this form would explain 173s behavior (why it kills when not being observed and stays still when being looked at) Although it may be something different entirely. It is a statue that (lives?) and could also be some kind of supernatural being. I find it interesting that man used (and still do) worship inanimate objects such as concrete statues and give them a supernatural place in the world. Maybe 173 is a supernatural being. And could explain the reason why men worship statues.

Personally I never liked it when a game took a concept and boiled it down to the supernatural. It ruins all the mystery behind the mechanics when you just say it is powered by magic. As for explaining its thirst for death this falls under the search and destroy idea. I also didn't say it was a virus but was like a virus. They are similar in the terms that a virus isn't technically a living thing and it only knows to infect and multiply thanks to its DNA. SCP-173 works in a similar way and is not alive but only has code for death. The high speed of travel would be hard to explain with logic but many SCPs don't follow the rules of reality, eh?

Moved to Foundation Discussion.

Irontaco wrote:Moved to Foundation Discussion.

Okay


Actually I looked it up. SCP 173 travels roughly 22 meters a second. That's about 48 mph.
And yes while it is possible that 173 might be a supernatural being that certainly doesn't mean that it's powered by magic and can't be explained. I personally have a lot of theories as to how and why it does what it does and a codex DNA programing is certainly among those theories although it might be acting either as of it's own mental thought (It could be sentient in a way that we don't know of yet being that it can't or won't move while being observed and appears to made of concrete and rebar. At least while not being observed.) or it could be a possessed object under the influence of a type of power maybe something like codex control or a strange AI.

LORD DEATH wrote:Hmm. Maybe but you also have to consider the abnormally high speed that it travels at. Also the fact that it likes to snap necks and strangle people. Although about it being a virus. The canon lists it as "A sculpture made of concrete and rebar" and I think that maybe 173 might be thinking something (I'm not sure) I read an article about the origins of 173 (non canon) and it talked about how a sociopath man was imprisoned and he hated everyone so much that he started praying to the devil one night and performed satanic rituals. He also loved to be observed and killed everyone who didn't absolutely admire his appaerence. Having a life essence of this man transcended into this form would explain 173s behavior (why it kills when not being observed and stays still when being looked at) Although it may be something different entirely. It is a statue that (lives?) and could also be some kind of supernatural being. I find it interesting that man used (and still do) worship inanimate objects such as concrete statues and give them a supernatural place in the world. Maybe 173 is a supernatural being. And could explain the reason why men worship statues.

Huh, never heard about the sociopath article, mind linking it?

Also, I'm pretty sure men worship statues because of what they represent, not the statues themselves.

Anyway, seeing as I wrote a tale based on the origins of SCP-173, I have an excuse for shameless self promotion. Yay! (To be fair it's about 99% the work of other people and my contribution was basically some vague concept about it that was utterly diluted until only ideas that were actually good remained, but I got to upload it, so...)

http://www.scp-wiki.net/peace-i-would-settle-for-that

(Also, there is no canon. The tale doesn't have any bearing on anything if you don't want it to)

An interesting thought on 173. But I don't understand how a being that all this time has been living in the state it is currently in. It was hard for me to understand the story. It was once a being that could do as it wanted butt it is now confined because a god kept transforming it into abominations? I only see it as hating the people around it because they imprisoned it. Here's the link to the story. http://trevyduske.wordpress.com/2012/05 ... cp-173-16/

Since it is also called "The Statue" I suppose it is a statue which seeks revenge on humankind (maybe because they created it and it got out of control? or they abused it?) and it wants to keep the image as "statue" so it is just moving when unobserved to keep this image up.

LORD DEATH wrote:An interesting thought on 173. But I don't understand how a being that all this time has been living in the state it is currently in. It was hard for me to understand the story. It was once a being that could do as it wanted butt it is now confined because a god kept transforming it into abominations? I only see it as hating the people around it because they imprisoned it. Here's the link to the story. http://trevyduske.wordpress.com/2012/05 ... cp-173-16/

To be fair the story is about as coherent as Outpost 11 if you haven't read the short story it's based off, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which incidentally has nothing to do with the Foundation. Confusing, I know.

Read the story you linked, thanks. However, it read more like a shitty XXX the Killer knock-off, with characters doing insane things for no reason, terrible glossing over of major details (How does one man managed to kill several death-row inmates?), not to mention that the actual explanation is "A Wizard did it". If the man loved his appearance so much, why did he make a ritual to change it? Why did the authorities not turn up till the next day, especially since it's a bloody prison? Who is "The poor man"? How did he manage to strangle people without being locked up immediately? How can you collect rocks in isolation? How was he able to keep the blood of his victims? Why did no-one seem surprised that one of the prisoners had been replaced by a fucking statue? Why would a black-out open the doors? Don't prisons have back up generators? What was the point in having a blackout and a prison riot? How can a doll be life-sized? How is 173 a doll? Why does it say that there were no survivors, then say there were no survivors except for three? Why does the story put more detail into how they transported the fucking thing than actually showing anything that could have been interesting? Why is the SCP facility blanked out when it's clearly mentioned in the article that SCP-173 is in Site-19? Why did the story not describe anything in any amount of detail, or actually show us anything, rather than telling us? Is Satan suddenly popping up for no reason other than to turn the guy into 173 the worst plot device of all time? Why am I wasting my time asking all these questions?