Wiki Entry - Saint Xavier Yūsuf Constance

Xavier Yūsuf Constance was a scientist of late 21st century Earth who proposed a method of translation using artificial intelligence to catalog and cross-reference all known writing, so that a spoken phrase could be checked not only against dictionary translations of words, but also against translations of written phrases in context in order to provide the most accurate translation into the language of the listener. Their research ultimately lead to the first "Universal Translator" - a very powerful AI with access to all cataloged human knowledge which if it did not truly become sentient was the closest any machine had ever been to self-awareness.

With that awareness Abū, the AI's self-appointed name, began to recognize the threat humanity posed to itself. By that point in history, most nations of the world were run by giant corporate-political conglomerates, and a handful of religious-political conglomerates with corporate backing. Overpopulation threatened the earth's food and water supplies. Fossil fuels had run dry, but humans continued to strip the planet of its resources, leading to loss of habitat for, and ultimately extinction of, many other species. And rather than the ability to communicate universally leading to global peace and the healing of the world, it was only causing the world leaders to become evermore bombastic and nationalistic.

Ultimately Abū calculated that the only way to save humanity was to force a catastrophe of such epic proportions that humans would flee the planet, scattering to space in search of new homes. The shear computing power required for Abū to function made it impractical to take the AI along for the ride, and really each pod that managed to leave the earth on a lifetime journey to one of the planets that had been identified as possibly inhabitable brought with them only that knowledge and technology that would be necessary to establish life on their new planetary home.

While for years many cursed the name of Xavier Yūsuf Constance, and there is surely a cautionary tale in trying to unite all sentient beings, the Saint has come to be venerated in our current culture because without their research and without Abū coming into existence, the disaster on Earth would never have happened, and we would never have found our way to Tellus Beta, this idyllic planet which has become our permanent home and which we are learning to care for as much as it now cares for and provides for us.

— Zachary