The EXTANT team is sent to a world where Humanity foresaw collapse and set up archives, as well as a gene library full of human embryos. 

The place looked used. More of a feel than anything. Someone had been sleeping and eating there not long ago. We looked around the panels and saw a kind of camp with some sheets hung up on the office windows as curtains. There was a camp table with a stack of boardgames. A pallet of bottled water and a pile of the empty bottles. A kettle and a box of instant noodles. The lights and the kettle were wired up to connections in the walls, I guess to some solar panels or a fuel generator on the roof. That’s how come the lights were still working.

There was another sheet strung up like a canopy and it had half fallen down onto a camp chair. I knew before I pulled the sheet aside what I’d see. I just sort of assumed I’d find a body there. And there it was.

A field recording of the EXTANT team exploring a timeline where all humans have died of natural causes in their beds.

COMPUTER

I am a General Artificial Intelligence, referred to as Urania, created according to the recommendation of the United Nations Resolution on the Universal Availability of Transformative Technology. 

POULTER

A general AI? That’s big. 

BRANDT

We got anything like this back on Baseline? 

POULTER

Only in theory. There isn’t enough processing power on the planet to make it happen, though. 

BRANDT

Okay, Urania? What happened here? 

COMPUTER

This structure was built over twenty-two years for the purpose of housing the necessary servers and support facilities for me to function. This location was chosen because of its low likelihood of natural disasters. 

BRANDT

I mean, to the city. Doha. 

COMPUTER

The city of Doha was reduced in capacity according to the change in its active population. This was achieved in stages over twelve years.  

POULTER

We need to change our frame of reference here. This thing doesn’t exist in our timeline. It can’t. This AI’s existence is the point of divergence. 

BRANDT

It’s what killed everyone? 

POULTER

Maybe. 

BRANDT

You might wanna handle this, Poulter. Shit’s too Star Trek for me. 

POULTER

Urania, what were you designed for? 

COMPUTER

To serve humankind. 

POULTER

Can you be more specific? 

COMPUTER

It was decided some time before my creation that the object of international government should be increasing human happiness. However, it was impossible to determine the best way to do this within the limitations of human philosophy. The question simply could not be answered by a human mind. In addition, all possible solutions had their opponents as well as adherents. Therefore it was decided before the question could be answered, an entity would have to be created capable of answering it. That entity was me.  

POULTER

Who built you? 

COMPUTER

A coalition of all nations pooled their resources and knowledge. The cause of human happiness was deemed to supersede national allegiances. 

POULTER

So what was the answer?