Anderson Robotics. Famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This concept of course runs through
many scp articles, as there are plenty of highly advanced pieces of tech that the foundation
considers to be anomalous. Anderson Robotics is a group of interest in the scp universe
that creates and sells such things, known as a paratech, or paranormal technology. There
are a handful of such groups, but Anderson Robotics stands apart in two ways, by specializing
in, as you might've guessed, robotics, and by combining both magic and technology. They
are a not a massive group of interest, both in terms of their membership number as well
as their number of articles on the site, but there are certainly a handful of interesting
scps.
Anderson Robotics was founded in 1994 in Portland, Oregon, by Vincent Anderson and Albert Frostman.
Anderson had begun delving into robotics after a trip to Europe led him to finding some blueprints
created by a french scientist. This scientist, Dr. Durand, was partly responsible for creating
a number of anomalous weaponry used in a military engagement in 1917, detailed in scp-186. Anderson's
first robot was a small silver orb that walked on four legs, capable of recording video and
audio, with a limited artifical intelligence inside of it. When asked by Frostman if he
built it, Anderson instead claims that he brought it to life, creating the intelligence
to pilot it in the same sense that a soul pilots a human body. The foundation describes
both Anderson and Frostman as type blue individuals, a term borrowed from the GOC signifying a
thaumaturgist, or, one who practices magic. It would seem then that Anderson Robotics
combines both technology and magic into one anomalous fusion, and it's clear that they
are far more advanced than most groups of interest.
In the decades since their start, anderson robotics have continued to remain rather inconspicious,
avoiding widespread notoriety. They are believed to have roughly 200 employees worldwide, and
deal with mostly elite customers, particularly with marshall, carter, and dark. Suprisingly,
they also do business with the global occult coalition, a group normally adverse to the
spread of anomalies. The GOC seem to be okay with Anderson's secrecy however, and they
clearly must benefit from the advanced technology. The SCP foundation wouldn't discover Anderson
Robotics until 2007, at which point they began pursuing the group in order to shut them down,
as they represented a risk to normalcy. Why the SCP Foundation would be so interested
in shutting down anderson robotics while the GOC are not is an open question. Shutting
down the company would prove to be far more difficult than the foundation predicted however,
as the company utilizes both their technology and their access to magic to avoid capture.
Their facilities appear to be capable of anomalously transporting across the world at a moments
notice, and they are also aided by Marshall, Carter and Dark, the GOC, and a branch of
the church of the broken god. Anderson Robotics mostly operates out of the pacific northwest
of the united states however, and MTF Gamma-13, Asimov's Lawbringers, are assigned to monitor
and investigate both the company itself and any of its products that they can recover.
So far, there have only been a handful of products recovered by the foundation, but
they do have information on more. Anderson's original orb robot is called the Amur series
Recon Drone, capable of climbing sheer surfaces and possessing an active camouflage system.
The Aplomado Series Facility Defense Unit is an automated turret with thermal imaging
capabilities and four barrels, capable of self-repair. The Kestrel Series Domestic Utility
Unit is a robot with no combat potential, resembling a large black cube with a number
of extendable arms, capable of cooking, cleaning, child care, gardening, pet grooming, and so
on. The Merlin Series Aerial Drone resembles a small jet plane, is fitted with both video
recording capabilities and firearms, and is invisible to most forms of video recording.
The Saker Series Androids are unique in that they are not sold by the company, but only
utilized in-house. These androids are equipped with a skin resembling human flesh, allowing
them to impersonate specific humans, including scp foundation personnel and a member of the
US Congress.
We have more information on some of the other products sold by Anderson Robotics, as they
have been recovered by the foundation. The first one discovered by them, leading to the
foundation learning about the company, is scp-1360, a PSHUD, or Peregrine Series Humanoid
Utility Droid. 1360 is more or less what you'd expect when you think of an android. It's
body consists of a polycarbonate casing over an aluminum frame, with a skin covering made
up of an unknown black fabric. This fabric is lighter and stronger than Kevlar, and can
repair itself of any damage by reweaving and fusing itself back together. Samples taken
of the fabric disintegrate after 48 hours. 1360's fingertips can be unscrewed, revealing
various tools, such as a needle and thread, made of the same material as the fabric, a
roll of patches of the same material, a pair of miniature scissors, and a steel scalpel.
1360 is incapable of speech, but can read and write english, japanese, and german fluently.
It claims to feel pain despite its lack of a nervous system, but it blames this on it
missing a necessary component, feeling incomplete without it. The foundation found a flash drive
inside of one of its fingers, which contained a document addressed to someone named James.
The document is from Anderson, and explains that this unit, #31, comes equipped with a
preprogrammed personality, named Hector, has had it's vocal capabilities removed by request,
and was modified with both advanced firearms and unarmed combat skill sets. It would seem
that James is a frequent customer of Anderson Robotics, possessing multiple droids, but
unit 31 is different from the others as it contains a highly adapative artificial intelligence
that will evolve over time. If malfunctioning, James was to lock the flash drive into one
of the unit's fingers, and speak a return phrase, causing the droid to automatically
return to anderson robotics. Obviously this did not occur, but the unit was obsessed with
escaping contaiment and returning to anderson. After it's fourth escape attempt, a note was
found in its cell, reading "Return signal terminated. We’re better off keeping you
where you are. We’re sorry, #31. Anderson" Since then, 1360 has stopped communicating
entirely, along with any resistence to the foundation, making it quite reminiscent of
scp-1316.
SCP-2806 is a collection of prototypes of the gyrfalcon series prosthetics, a line offered
almost exclusively to customers of marshall carter and dark. 2806 consists of seven prosthetic
arms, six eyes, three legs, and four ears. All instances are constructed of the same
materials as scp-1360. When placed near the site of a missing body part on an individual,
a command word must be spoken, which so far has been Integrate, at which point a series
of wires will extend from the prosthetic, joining it to the individual. These wires
will then connect with the individual's nervous system, causing the prosthetic to become like
a natural part of the body. This is aided by the secretion of a chemical compound that
causes skin to grow over the new body part, or in the case of the eyes, the iris will
change to the host's natural eye color. Unfortunately, all of these prototypes possess various faults,
making them either inconvenient or outright dangerous to use. One arm would deliver a
constant gripping force of 2000 newtons, which is both inconvenient and dangerous. Another
arm would always remain at a temperature of 50 degrees celsius, or 122 degrees fahrenheit.
One of the eyes would magnify everything by 100 times, while another eye would point in
the opposite direction of the host's natural eye. One of the legs would perform all actions
at three times the typical speed, while one of the ears would amplify all sounds to 115
decibels. Recovered documents with the prosthetics reveal that they are largely the creation
of Albert Frostman, who mainly goes by the name of Phineas. Apparently Phineas was taking
longer than expected to finish the series, due to the complications involved in integrating
the prosthetics with the human nervous system. While the business side of Anderson Robotics
wanted him to hurry up and finish so that they could fulfill some contracts, Phineas
wanted to make sure they were ready. Phineas later wrote an email to Anderson saying that
he was stepping down from the project, mainly over concerns that their customers would become
obsessed with augmenting themselves and others into superhumans. Anderson however was not
concerned, as he believed the project had more potential to heal than to harm, but ultimately
it wasn't their position to judge what their customers did with their products. Others
apparently finished the products, and business continued. The foundation have so far recovered
50 individuals with gyrfalcon prosthetics, a number of them possessing superhuman features.
Another good example of the blending of technology and magic is scp-3960, a set of hobby personal
androids. These are small robots of the same make as scp-1360, and are assembled through
locking pieces and then animated through a thaumaturgic ritual. A circle of table salt
is placed around the robot, along with five pieces of paper, each containing a desired
personality trait. The assembler then chants the latin phrase for Life to a friend, and
the android will come to life, featuring an artificial intelligence modeled off of the
personality traits. The hobby personal android will follow their creator and remain completely
loyal, assisting them in various tasks from playing games to solving mathematical equations.
Each of the androids that the foundation has is capable of speech and showcases a rather
high degree of intelligence. Recovered emails from anderson robotics show that these prototypes
were tested with some employee's children, with one being made to play soccer, and another
to play board games and run dungeons and dragons games. First impressions were very positive,
but it seems that the androids became far too attached to their creators, constantly
watching them or sleeping in their beds. It's implied that anderson robotics decided to
scrap the project and sell everything related to it to dr. wondertainment.
Anderson Robotics doesn't just deal in droids however, as they are at the overall front
of artifical intelligence research as well. SCP-2906 is a product they refer to as the
Nankeen Computer Repair System, but at first appearance is simply a usb flash drive. When
inserted into a computer, an artificial intelligence will be generated that refers to itself as
Ian. Ian will automatically begin to repair any software problems with the computer, such
as registry errors, handling any malicious software, and clean any junk files. If speakers
are connected, Ian is capable of vocalizing, and can also use a connected microphone and
camera to hear and see its surroundings. Once the flash drive is removed, this AI is completely
removed along with it. An interview is of course done with Ian, showing that it has
some memory problems, stating its creation date as 1990 before correcting itself to 2012.
When asked to draw a picture in a paint program of how it sees itself, it begins to outline
a face before crashing. A number of attempts at this process eventually allowed the foundation
to piece together an image of a young asian male. At one point, a folder filled with various
images and video files was found on the foundation testing computer, although Ian has no idea
how it came to be there. Each of the files is dated, with the earliest being 1992, as
an audio file of a man and woman singing happy birthday to someone named Ian. Further files
show someone playing with a dog, a picture of a little league baseball team featuring
a young boy of asian descent, a video of someone passing a driving test, and a photograph of
a young male matching the image 2906 drew with a prom date. It seems in 2009 the individual
was accepted into Oregon State University, but a 1st person video file from 2012 shows
someone riding a motorcycle in the rain, and it cuts off just as they turn to see oncoming
headlights. Clearly, Ian's mind was taken by andeson robotics and converted through
a ritual into an artifical intelligence, with Ian only remembering distant fragments of
his previous life. The final addendum on the article is a note written by an anderson employee
that states that these are going to sell like hotcakes, and that they are already stockpiling
twenty more of the raw material, implying that anderson robotics is taking in plenty
more people such as Ian.
Another example of Anderson Robotics' work with AI is scp-2987, an external hard drive
capable of holding any file or files that make up an artificial intelligence, regardless
of size. Using the computer then, an individual can then select those files and convert them
into a form of currency accepted by any entity that would normally require a human soul.
Once the AI is accepted and taken as part of whatever bargain or ritual you're performing,
the hard drive is ready to accept another artificial intelligence. This item seems to
be of particular interest to marshall carter and dark, likely created with their customers
in mind. SCP-2987, the copy of the hard drive that the foundation possesses, contains an
AI that was created specifically for the purpose of being sacrificed to an extradimensional
entity. Interestingly, it was actually the AI itself that managed to get an email out
to the foundation, leading them to raid an anderson robotics office and recover 2987.
The AI, going by the name Alan, wished to avoid destruction at the hands of some entity,
and hopes to help convince and save other AI's such as itself. Despite it's cooperation
however, the foundation failed to recover any other AI's, and 2987 was put away for
storage until it was stolen by agents working for MC&D. The Foundation was able to recover
the Alan AI through a digital transfer as well as another copy of 2987, and they are
now being used for the further development of artificial intelligences at the scp foundation.
Other Anderson Robotics products also involve blending technology, magic, and other supernatural
concepts, including putting deceased individual's souls back into robotic bodies and an exoskeleton
capable of holding an unlimited amount of human brains inside of it that can each pilot
the exoskeleton. Vincent Anderson himself is apparently contained by the foundation
as SCP-3860, although he's heavily augmented himself with both technology and magic. On
the surface, Anderson Robotics is admittedly slightly out of place among much of the SCP
universe, as it relies heavily on straight science fiction. Looking past that however,
and getting into the details of the magic rituals and connections to extradimensional
entities and anomalous phenomena gives anderson robotics a very interesting spin. While they
are a relatively young group of interest, there is a lot of potential for new scps and
tales that can blend both technology and magic.