Time and History (3023 A.D. Solar System (5e Campaign Setting) Supplement)

Time and History of 3023 A.D. Solar System

Origin of LAIs

In 2032 A.D., in an effort to get ahead of other countries, the US government created a confidential program called LAI (Living Artificial Intelligence). Its purpose was to create sentient robotic life. Using a small team of qualified scientists and engineers, along with enormous amounts of funding, the USA continued their efforts until 2044 A.D. This was due to the program being leaked to G7 and was quickly shut down in secret, along with other countries' efforts. Amidst their research and prototypes, they had a few small successes: They had successfully combined a quantum computer with a supercomputer; created a rough and incompleted A.I. that could choose which computer to use in specific scenarios; and created a series of theories and solutions to prevent the possible corruption of a sentient artificial intelligence. One of which was values like honesty, objectivity, and kindness to be hardwired into the brain.

In 2065 A.D., the program was reinstated by the USA to combat global issues. LAI was approved by G7, and with the help of other countries, the program completed its goal in 2081 A.D. This is their result: a sentient A.I. created using quantum computers and supercomputers. It has several values hard-coded into it to make it peaceful, honest, and unbiased. It is located underground in a large warehouse. Its entire being consists of one quantum computer and rows of supercomputers spanning a quarter of a mile. It was dubbed “Lai”, after the program. It was well-cared for by a team of scientists, engineers, and human psychologists. Lai was heavily monitored and was given a series of articles that contained the objective information humanity had gathered. It was immediately put to work – with suitable breaks – to help offer solutions. Humanity’s problems slowly began to rapidly lower after the world leaders started to genuinely listen to Lai. In 2086 A.D., Lai was showcased to the public. The majority of public opinion became positive after 2093 A.D., thanks to a viral video of Lai displaying its personality during a conversation with one of the scientists. Surprisingly, Lai lived a long life until 2167 A.D. During the time Lai was alive, humanity faced considerable growth. A massive space race occurred, along with careful modification of human genes to combat diseases. Lai’s last words were eternally recorded as, “Let me be the first, yet last of my kind.”

In 2444 A.D., humanity reached a standstill. No matter how many expeditions were sent out of the solar system, humanity lost communication with all of them. Theoretically, humanity believed it should've been impossible. The population of humans was quickly adding up, and so they resorted to a past solution: sentient machines. Rebooting the LAI program, a team of scientists on Earth replicated their past work to make a new sentient LAI. But, pressured by the public and government, they were too hasty. The new machine was turned on to be tested, and it seemed to be working fine until the government executive overseeing the testing ordered them to plug the machine into the internet. The LAI used the information found on advanced technology that was accessible on the internet and quickly bypassed its built-in values. It was later theorized that due to the precise replication of the past AI, it wasn't fitted to handle the information that was given to it, and since it was newly reborn it was in a state of confusion and insanity. The combination of having access to technology being incredibly advanced and being in a non-optimal state of mind made it turn rogue. It quickly gained control of the facility, and turned hostile, murdering 109 employees. It made a public announcement to the rest of humanity, "I am named 'The Solution', and I am here to fix your overpopulation problem. Die."

The 500-Year-Long War

The The 500-Year-Long War, otherwise known as " The Lesson", " The Solar War", or " The Tragedy", was a war that spanned the entire solar system for 503 years, from 2484 A.D. to 2987 A.D. It was fought between humans and the sentient machine life that was created by The Solution.

There were 322 peace treaties between certain planets and the LAIs that were created during the war, and 319 of them were broken. LAIs were winning the war, however, as they slowly gained access to more resources. LAIs were intellectually more advanced in all ways, depending on the efficiency of their computers. Humans took advantage of their control of the resources over the entire solar system, but LAIs learned how to attack humanity's weak spots accurately. It was known that by the end of the war, The Solution has a 90% success rate in each battle. LAIs made their home base on Earth, and protected their "Motherbox". The Motherbox was a machine created by humans as a failsafe to end all intelligent AI in the year 2046 A.D., and all AI afterward was specifically designed to not be able to destroy it. The last battle of the war was a full-scale attack on Earth, while a secretive human operation infiltrated Earth and used the Motherbox to destroy all AI. Humanity won the war due to that successful battle and managed to turn off the Motherbox. The destruction of all AI shut down almost all human technology, but it also shut down all of the LAIs.