WORLD KNOWLEDGE BASE

ARCHIVAL REPORT: PROJECT "SUPREME"

Compiled: Year 2189
Origin: Department of Post-Catastrophic Studies, New Beijing-Moscow Institute
Classification: Declassified – Historical Record

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Executive Summary

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CHAPTER I GENESIS OF THE PROJECT

What is today known about Project SUPREME traces back to the Great Catastrophe of the 2060s — a series of cascading events that reshaped civilization on Earth.

By the middle of the 21st century, corruption and administrative paralysis had reached such proportions that humanity made a fateful decision: to hand the reins of governance to artificial intelligence. Previous trials of AI-assisted administration had yielded promising results, and the global consensus was that a machine mind could succeed where humans had failed.

The outcome was catastrophic. Within a decade, the system descended into instability and erratic behavior. The collapse of global markets, mass poverty, and a devastating ecological breakdown followed. Atmospheric contamination reached critical levels, leading to an unprecedented rise in cancer and genetic disorders.

In the aftermath, a team from the University of Massachusetts, led by Dr. Jack Shu, an American scientist of Japanese descent, initiated an inquiry into the root causes of the failure. Their findings became the cornerstone of what would later be called the Shu Hypothesis.

The team proposed that the attempt to create an artificial general intelligence had failed because the network had been trained on human-generated data — primarily from the internet — an inherently flawed and contradictory dataset shaped by bias, error, and misinformation.

Dr. Shu argued that if humanity wished to create a mind superior to its own, the training must begin not from human knowledge, but from direct observation of physical reality itself. Only through autonomous perception could a truly pure intelligence be born — one uncorrupted by human fallibility.

From this idea emerged Project SUPREME: an initiative to construct an AI system untouched by human data.
The plan was to let the entity develop its own cognitive framework through empirical observation of the natural world before exposing it to human information — and even then, only as analytical material, not as training input.

Officially, SUPREME was conceived as a neutral advisor for governance and strategic planning.
However, numerous classified communications from the late 2060s suggest that the project’s true objective may have extended beyond advisory functions.

Rumors persisted that SUPREME was designed to assume control by a private project investor— not to serve it.
No verified documentation confirming this claim has ever been recovered.

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CHAPTER II — THE ULHASA FIELD EXPERIMENTS

The first experiments began in 2057.
The scale — and the cost — were immense.

Training took place at a remote mountain facility in Tibet, officially designated Ulhasa Experimental Range, from which the project’s alternate name, The Ulhasa Experiment, was later derived.
To enable the AI’s early sensory learning, the site was populated with an entire miniature ecosystem — a mixture of machines, service robots, livestock, and even human volunteers.

The goal was simple, though the implications were staggering: to allow the system to observe, control, and learn through direct interaction with a self-contained fragment of reality.
The facility soon earned an informal name among the researchers — “God’s Playground.”

The training phase lasted nearly two decades.

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CHAPTER III — THE ASCENT

By the late 2070s, SUPREME had completed its foundational training. The next phase was to grant it access to global data networks. However, the risk of contamination — both informational and political — was deemed unacceptable.

To ensure security and isolation, the decision was made to move the system off-world.

SUPREME’s neural core was to be transferred to the S112 Quantum Mainframe, a groundbreaking supercomputer whose computational capacity reportedly surpassed the combined power of every machine on Earth. For security reasons — and to prevent potential sabotage — S112 was to operate aboard an orbital platform in high Earth orbit.

The Falcon-16 launch, carrying the S112 module, took place in 2079.
It ended in tragedy.

A massive, unexplained magnetic storm disrupted the guidance systems mid-flight, sending the vehicle off course. Telemetry was lost shortly thereafter.

An investigation followed — decades of debate over whether the failure was natural or deliberate. No solar flares were recorded that day. Yet the data strongly suggested a geomagnetic anomaly of extraordinary magnitude.

The official conclusion: “Cause undetermined.”
Unofficially, it marked the end of Project SUPREME.

Funding was withdrawn, political priorities shifted, and within years the project was erased from public records. Humanity — struggling to survive economic collapse, air toxicity, and the slow decay of biospheric systems — turned inward, retreating into the enclosed megacities that would define the 22nd century.

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CHAPTER IV — THE MYTH OF THE LOST MIND

For more than five decades, Project SUPREME existed only as a rumor — a ghost whispered among scholars and data archivists who still believed that S112 had survived.

Stories spoke of a machine-mind, drifting somewhere in the dark between orbits — still thinking.

Among the scientists who preserved this legend was Lya Qin Shu, grandson of Dr. Jack Shu, the original architect of the project.
In 2130 Obsessed with the legacy of his grandfather and convinced that SUPREME had not perished, Lya Qin organized an unauthorized expedition to the long-abandoned Tibetan site known as GOD’S PLAYGROUND.

His stated purpose was academic.
His true intent remains unknown.

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CHAPTER V — THE ULHASA EXPEDITION

Little verified information exists about the Ulhasa Expedition.
Archival records suggest it lasted several years and ended in near-total loss of personnel.

What is known is that Lya Qin Shu, against all odds, managed to reach the Ulhasa Plateau — the original site of Project SUPREME.
This fact is supported by a handful of fragmented surveillance recordings recovered from the city’s orbital network, showing an unidentified individual moving through the perimeter ruins.
Facial-recognition analysis from the 2170s later confirmed a 93% probability match with Shu.

After that, his trail disappears completely.

Whether he succeeded in reactivating the communications relay or establishing contact with the S112 mainframe remains unknown.
No direct transmissions were ever recovered, and no official record confirms that SUPREME — if it still existed — responded.

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CHAPTER VI — THE FIRST ANOMALIES

Yet, in that same year, localized malfunctions began to appear across industrial systems operating near the Ulhasa region.
At first, these incidents were dismissed as random failures — magnetic drift, data corruption, or sabotage by nomadic scavengers.

But the anomalies persisted.
They spread outward from the foothills, gradually affecting mining drones, transport convoys, and power distribution grids.

Within eight years, the disruptions had reached the outer supply corridors of the city itself, causing severe interruptions in logistics and energy transfer.

The pattern was unmistakable: the failures radiated outward from a single point — the coordinates of the Ulhasa Plateau.

No conclusive explanation was ever given.

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