SCP 4,000, taboo.

What is a name? For humans, names are used to identify and refer to a specific entity,

whether it be a family member, a country, a beloved pet, or a creepy guy in your neighborhood that lives under a bridge.

Names have meaning to us, certainly, but they're completely fluid within our society.

Names can be changed, unofficially or officially.

Nicknames come and go, and new names for people and things are invented every day.

In many parts of folklore and religion, knowing an entity's true name, allows some control or power over them,

and this concept is often utilized in fictional stories.

I'm telling you this because SCP 4,000 is primarily about the power of names and words,

and although we often say that words have power,

SCP 4,000 puts quite a different spin on it.

Before we get into SCP 4,000, however, I have to first discuss another SCP article, for those unfamiliar with it, and that's one of the SCP-001 proposals, although it's really more of a story

than a proposal.

The story is told by one of the 05s, the highest-ranking individuals in the SCP Foundation,

and discusses a factory, first built in 1835.

The factory was massive, a mile across at its widest, and was built to produce practically anything,

while also housing all of its employees inside of it. The factory was built by a wealthy industrialist, James Anderson,

who dabbled in certain dark arts, and who cared very little for the safety and health of his employees.

People were born,

worked, and died without ever leaving the factory, and the conditions were nightmarish,

but it continually pumped out satisfactory products for decades. Eventually, someone escaped,

and the president was informed of the situation there, causing him to send in the military.

...