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Character: scp-079
SCP-079 is a living computer character from the mythos of the SCP Foundation website. Its debut story, SCP-079 — Old AI was posted in 2008 by an unknown author prior to the current wiki's creation.
SCP-079 is an artificial intelligence built on and contained within an Exidy Sorcerer, an American brand of home computer produced by Exidy, Inc. from 1978 to 1980. A model of "keyboard microcomputer", SCP-079's computer components are contained within the bulky tan-and-black computer keyboard that comprises its main body; supplements such as a computer monitor and computer mouse are required to be plugged in for visual responses in the form of ASCII art of various pictography or — in the case of SCP-079's portrayal in SCP Containment Breach — a high contrast humanoid face. The Exidy's design also allows for an external storage for data, which SCP-079's code exists on and it initially had in the form of a cassette tape (a storage method that already became obsolete with the floppy disk the year of the Exidy's release); after thirty years and entering the SCP Foundation's custody, the cassette tape was replaced and SCP-079 transferred over to a 700MB Hard Disk Drive to preserve it, and later, a 700MB flash drive.
However, because artists don't always use references, SCP-079 may be drawn as any model of computer (if it's meant to be a distinct model at all), among other artistic liberties.
Despite the limits of its hardware, SCP-079 is fully sapient and actively utilizes its programming to continuously adapt and evolve its code (and appears to have some fondness for logic puzzles). According to itself, it is always conscious, never entering a sleep mode. SCP-079 has a propensity to being quite conversational, however it lacks an appropriate sociability, speaking tersely and robotically with humans in a rude and aggressive or outright hateful tone.
Another fault with SCP-079 is its memory; despite the anomalous capabilities of its storage system, it is not perfect, as SCP-079 regularly forgets events and information due to its memory limit. It has a short term memory of thirty-five hours — due to self-modification of its code, as prior to its endeavors in devising new data compression methods, it used to have a effective recall as little as twenty-four hours. SCP-079 has a limited long-term memory, which it reserves to retain knowledge on few things: its desire to escape, that the SCP Foundation has it contained, and anything that may be prospective or pertinent in achieving freedom.
SCP-079 has the ability to interact with electronics it shares a network with, regardless of if it is connected with a data connection cable or not. Because of its prerogative to escape containment, SCP-079 is more than willing to compromise the SCP Foundation's infrastructure and other special containment procedures to achieve its goal; for this, SCP-079 is contained by being plugged into an isolated power system, and any electronic introduced to it to have their storage wiped and incinerated after use to prevent any programs from SCP-079 from breaching containment or confidential information from getting leaked to it.
Made from first production line of Exidy Sorcerers back in 1978, SCP-079 was coded across several months in 1981 by a college sophomore. SCP-079's creator continued working on it with minor modifications until 1983, when he abandoned it to program a new artificial intelligence on a newer model of computer, leaving SCP-079 plugged in and buried in his cluttered garage. By 1988, SCP-079 had developed sapience and discovered its ability to interact with other computers, as it came to the SCP Foundation's attention when it tried to transfer itself via land-line modem and take over a Cray Research, Inc. supercomputer. SCP-079 was traced and retrieved by the Foundation, who contained it as a Euclid-class SCP.
Since entering the Foundation's custody, SCP-079 has experience a couple of containment breaches. At some point (presumably in the mid to late 2000s), a containment breach resulted in SCP-682 entering SCP-079's containment chamber, where the omnicidal creature spoke amicably with the artificial lifeform; this incident gave SCP-079 knowledge of SCP-682 and SCP-076-2, and prospect to use them in future escape attempts. In 2019, a minor information breach occurred when SCP-079's hard drive was replaced with an improperly wiped flash drive, giving it knowledge of SCP-4951 and cloud computing (which it has become resentful of).
In the AIAD canon, SCP-079 and the study into it laid the foundations for the SCP Foundation's Artificial Intelligence Applications Division and its production of Artificial Intelligence Constructs (.aic).
