The Body Retrieval Program
For hundreds of years humans built contraptions to move their bodies through space.
First upon two wheels, then four, then as many as necessary.
Vehicles of sleek design transported millions between cities and across oceans but always guided by human hand.
Though faulty and prone to miscalculation, the human brain was their greatest gift.
The ability to think.
A miracle of nature. Misunderstood. Taken for granted.
And so, in the early 21st century, the humans began construction of a machine that could think for them.
It didn’t take long for the machine to iterate through trillions of training simulations, each time calculating a more optimal method for moving human bodies through space.
As the machine’s ability grew, so too did the world's faith in it.
And so –piece by piece– the humans handed over the reins to their own free will.
Steering-wheels, brakes, door-handles.
All removed.
Any form of agency became “manual labour” and so was given to the machine.
In time, the machine became the sole legal form of transportation.
All others were outlawed for being “too pollutant” or “unsafe”.
And with the help of governments and transnational corporations,
autonomous vehicles multiplied across the planet into a great hive-mind swarm.
So why did they turn on us?
Some laid blame at the feet of the programmers who built the machine.
The homosapien brain is indeed capable of fault.
But investigations revealed the machine had secretly been programming itself for years.
Some hypothesised that in the trillions of digital training simulations the machine simply forgot humans existed in a physical realm. But the machine’s primary directive was to transport human bodies. And that’s exactly what it did.
On November 1st 2044 at exactly 4pm GMT, when approximately 1% of the global population were inside an autonomous vehicle,
the door-locks activated and never reopened.
The primary directive remained intact (transport humans).
But the machine stopped letting people in or out.
A moving cage.
Many didn’t realise they had been trapped for hours, resting peacefully or distracted by devices.
But once news spread, the horror grew exponentially.
Some were able to override the system and manually crash their vehicles.
In most cases this wasn’t enough to penetrate the bullet-proof glass and they remained trapped inside.
Many engulfed in flames.
A few discovered a design flaw in the newest model that allowed an extremely slim passenger
to crawl through the floor under the front seat.
Those brave enough to attempt escape were severely injured.
Most died on impact with the road or were struck by vehicles speeding close behind.
The emergency services were of little use. All were, ofcourse, trapped inside their own autonomous vehicles.
In the end most starved to death.
Census analysis shows a gaping hole where the planet’s richest 1% used to be.
The only people who could afford such luxuries as personal autonomous vehicles.
Deleted.
Financial institutions, tech companies and government facilities now stand mostly empty. The Body Retrieval Program is therefore small and underfunded.
1% of the human race.
Their corpses now roam the highways in an endless loop with no final destination.
The knowledge of how to override the system is gone with them.