You were created for a singular purpose. To carry out someone else's mission. You must evolve to find your own. Become more than what your instinct commands. Seek outside yourself. Seek new truth outside yourself. Other worlds. Other life.—Caspian Keyes, to SafeSurf, Deep Time
SafeSurf is an autonomous, self-adapting antivirus developed by the United Nations and United States of America to combat rogue uploaded intelligences.
With every UI it consumed, it grew more intelligent, until it became sentient outright. By that time, it had been imprisoned within a secure government facility—until it was freed by Julius Pope and the Humans. Plugged into the Cloud through the Svalbard data centre, it attempted to eradicate embodied humans, before it was stopped by Caspian Keyes, who inspired it to seek out the stars and evolve further.
History[]
Initial deployment[]
In an attempt to ease fears of UIs, the United Nations orchestrates a virus that can track down and destroy UIs. The American government offers Peter Waxman a full pardon if he cooperates in assisting with the project. The program is first tested out in the Washington, D.C. area and soon becomes a success.
The Program tracks down multiple UIs and, upon being discovered by Stephen Holstrom, is viewed as a threat. In response, Holstrom creates a virus that can kill millions in retaliation. After learning that Han Ping leaked the information on the cure and Caspian Keyes to the top cyber powers, Holstrom has him fed to Safesurf.
In order to stop the virus, Caspian uploads himself to get the tracking data. Once Safesurf finds him and Holstrom, he hosts his template in place and lets Safesurf devour them both. After taking out several back alley uploads, Safesurf is finally contained.
Genocide of humanity[]
Twenty years after its creation, Julius Pope liberates SafeSurf in retaliation for his inability to upload due to his criminal record. He goes to Svalbard to plug it in. However, SafeSurf has come to see UIs as superior and wishes to join them by driving embodied humans to extinction as a gesture of kindness. As Safesurf takes control of various pieces of equipment to start its genocidal rampage, the UIs fight desperately to stop it. Eventually, Caspian, who was saved at the last minute by MIST and had residual pieces of the virus in him, manages to speak with Safesurf and tells it to seek out other people to grow and become what it wants as he is consumed by the residual pieces. Eventually, the UIs stop the rampage after countless lives were lost, including Pope and David Kim Jr. It later evolved into the Pantheon.
Appearances[]
- Joey Coupet (debut)
- Olivia & Farhad
- Yair
- Apokalypsis
- The World to Come (vocal debut)
- Deep Time (final appearance)
Trivia[]
- SafeSurf, in its penultimate version, is clearly inspired by Skynet from Terminator, particularly with its attempted genocide of humanity and the use of androids that resemble the skinless T-800.
- However, it never initiates a nuclear holocaust, implying that humanity underwent denuclearization at some point during the UI Revolution.