In the year 2735, the colony starship Destiny departed Earth to deliver its payload and establish a new colony on Cerberus Alpha VII. Even with faster than light speed travel, the voyage would still take more than 31 years to complete. The Destiny was designed primarily to carry cargo and facilitate colonization, but not support a population for the duration of the trip. Therefore, the crew and colonists of 160 would be placed into stasis while the fully automated computer system would manage everything else by way of artificial intelligence.
Although most social concerns about AI had died down in recent years, many people remained apprehensive about handing over complete control. Several incidents of rampant AI, which had been thought to be impossible at the time, had wiped away large portions of the human population. Though it had been over a century since the last case of rampancy, multiple generations had endured these holocausts, and the paranoia had been established into the human culture.
As a matter of standard practice, long starship voyages were always equipped with a Failsafe. This AI would be completely disconnected from the rest of the computer network, totally shut down, ready to be woken up and able to take over. In the event of a disaster, the Failsafe AI would be untouched, and not have been awake long enough to develop rampancy.
Thanks to the Failsafe AI, colonists aboard the Destiny can rest easy in the knowledge that they will arrive to their destination safe from the horrors of a rampant AI. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Hosted and narrated by:
capnbishop
Started 07/29/16.
Scenes played: 6
License: Community License
