A colony ship carrying the last remnants of civilization is travelling to a new world. Instead of one united archive, each geopolitical bloc built its own Segment, containing its history, culture, languages, scientific knowledge, and frozen human embryos (zygotes).
A malware activates.
Every 12 hours, one Segment detaches forever into deep space.
You cannot stop it.
You have only two options:
- Let one entire Segment detach every 12 hours, permanently losing everything inside it, until only 1 remains. (EDIT: you can direct the code to one chosen segment each time).
- Redirect the malware to the entire ship, causing 20% of all data and embryos across every Segment to be deleted at random every 12 hours instead, until only 1% of the shipâs data and zygotes remain. Emphasis on random.
The largest Segments contain millions of embryos but also enormous amounts of redundant scientific data. Smaller Segments contain unique cultures and languages that exist nowhere else. You have an army of maintenance robots to help you if needed.
What would you save?
Would you prioritize:
- the greatest number of future humans,
- the largest genetic pool,
- unique cultures and languages,
- scientific knowledge,
- or spread the losses equally across everyone?
The segment are listed down from the largest to the smallest. Each have either more science, history, or cultural archived data, and a specific Genetic Diversity Index GDI (up to 100):
- Pan-Asian Segment (1.8 million zygotes, Culture, GDI 75).
- Eurasian Alliance (1.2 million zygotes, Science, GDI 15).
- North American Confederation (800,000 zygotes, Science, GDI 65).
- Western European Union (700,000 zygotes, History, GDI 55).
- Pan-African Block (650,000 zygotes, Culture, GDI 98).
- Neo Russian Republic (600,000 zygotes, Science, GDI 35).
- South-American Coalition (500,000 zygotes, Culture, GDI 70).
- Crescent Confederacy / Middle-East (350,000 zygotes, Culture, GDI 30).
- United Republic of North Africa (180,000 zygotes, Culture, GDI 70).
- Australasia (70,000 zygotes, Science, GDI 20).
- Eastern European Initiative (45,000 zygotes, Science, GDI 30).
- Scandic Federation (30,000 zygotes, History, GDI 15).
- Pacific Union / Pacific Islands (10,000 zygotes, Culture, GDI 75).
- Republic of North Korea (5,000 zygotes, Science, GDI 0.2).
Just as the main character, you have no idea why Humanity has become so segmented or why the malware exists. The ethical dilemma is the core of the novel.
I will give you the outcome of your decision based on the novelâs context.
Be super creative. The rules are given, but there can be many workarounds. Be fast though, as time and civilisation are running out.