ATLAS
the supercomputer that chose the colonists of Koprulu
The Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, or ATLAS, was a revolutionary supercomputer that selected which prisoners would survive the journey that founded the Koprulu sector colonies. Fragments of its code still survive in terran adjutants.
The Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, or ATLAS, was a revolutionary supercomputer that shaped the founding of the terran colonies in the Koprulu sector. It selected which of the prisoners loaded aboard the supercarriers would survive the voyage from Earth, and remnants of its code persisted long afterward in terran adjutants. (StarCraft; Project Blackstone)
Selecting the survivors#
After cataloguing the various mutations and cybernetic enhancements of fifty-six thousand United Powers League prisoners, Doran Routhe fed all of the data into ATLAS. The supercomputer processed this genetic information and predicted which of the prisoners should be able to survive the rigorous conditions of long-term cryogenic hibernation. ATLAS deemed forty thousand of them viable. The fate of the other sixteen thousand is unknown, though they had been slated for mass execution before Routhe acquired them. (StarCraft)
The voyage from Earth#
ATLAS was installed into the supercarrier Nagglfar and controlled all four supercarriers as it monitored the prisoners in stasis over the voyage toward Gantris VI. While evaluating the mutations and enhancements in their gene pool, ATLAS became aware of a powerful mutagenetic strain present in the DNA of less than one percent of the prisoners, one that seemed to augment the latent psionic potential of the human brain. It calculated that many of the prisoners might benefit from this psionic mutation within only a few generations should they survive in their new environment. (StarCraft; Koprulu Sector Systems: Tarsonis)
At some point during the journey the navigation systems linked to ATLAS shut down, erasing the coordinates of both Gantris VI and Earth. After the ships landed on Umoja, the passengers of the Reagan found that ATLAS had somehow erased all information about their current status from their computer banks. The passengers of the Nagglfar accessed ATLAS directly and confirmed their growing suspicion that they would never see Earth again. (StarCraft)
A lasting legacy#
Even though ATLAS had suffered many critical failures, it proved vital in giving the new inhabitants of Tarsonis a head start as they established themselves. Long afterward, Terran Dominion technology had made surprisingly little progress in the fields of encryption and machine language, and significant portions of the original ATLAS coding and functionality still existed in adjutants. It was assumed that dependence on the servile and deliberately limited sapience of these automatons had allowed intellectual complacency in those fields to set in. (Koprulu Sector Systems: Tarsonis; Project Blackstone)
Frequently asked questions
- What is ATLAS in StarCraft?
- ATLAS, the Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, was a supercomputer built for Doran Routhe. It processed the genetic data of fifty-six thousand United Powers League prisoners and predicted which of them could survive long-term cryogenic hibernation.
- Who built ATLAS?
- ATLAS was built for Doran Routhe, who fed it the catalogued mutations and cybernetic enhancements of fifty-six thousand United Powers League prisoners.
- How many prisoners did ATLAS select to survive?
- ATLAS deemed forty thousand of the fifty-six thousand prisoners viable for cryogenic hibernation. The fate of the other sixteen thousand is unknown, though they had been slated for mass execution before Routhe acquired them.
- Why did the colony ships end up in the Koprulu sector?
- During the voyage toward Gantris VI, the navigation systems linked to ATLAS shut down, erasing the coordinates of both Gantris VI and Earth. The four supercarriers crash-landed in the Koprulu sector instead of reaching their destination.
- What happened to ATLAS after the colony was founded?
- Despite suffering many critical failures, ATLAS gave the new inhabitants of Tarsonis a head start. Long afterward, significant portions of its original code and functionality still existed in Terran Dominion adjutants.
Sources
- GameStarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 1998
- WebKoprulu Sector Systems: Tarsonis, Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft II website, 2010
- WebProject Blackstone, Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft II website, 2012
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Adjutant
Adjutants were the non-sapient artificial intelligences that served terran commanders across the Koprulu sector as advisers, navigators, and keepers of data. Humanoid in form but bereft of social grace, they descended from the original ATLAS coding and offered commanders an ever-present strategic eye over the field of battle.
United Powers League: the police state that exiled humanity
The United Powers League ruled almost all of Earth from 2229 onward, banning religion, imposing a single language and killing more than four hundred million of its own citizens under Project Purification. Its surplus prisoners became the involuntary colonists of the Koprulu sector, and its panic at the discovery of alien life reforged it into the United Earth Directorate.
Earth
Earth, called Old Earth by the terrans of the Koprulu sector, was the birthworld of humanity and the seat of the United Powers League and its successor, the United Earth Directorate. It exiled the prisoners who founded the Koprulu colonies and later sent a fleet to conquer them.
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Umoja
Umoja was a fertile world in the Koprulu sector and the capital of the Umojan Protectorate, a fiercely independent terran nation known for its small government, advanced technology, and long opposition to the Terran Confederacy and Dominion.
Mentioned in9 entries
Adjutant
Adjutants were the non-sapient artificial intelligences that served terran commanders across the Koprulu sector as advisers, navigators, and keepers of data. Humanoid in form but bereft of social grace, they descended from the original ATLAS coding and offered commanders an ever-present strategic eye over the field of battle.
Artificial intelligence: machine minds of the Koprulu sector
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Earth
Earth, called Old Earth by the terrans of the Koprulu sector, was the birthworld of humanity and the seat of the United Powers League and its successor, the United Earth Directorate. It exiled the prisoners who founded the Koprulu colonies and later sent a fleet to conquer them.
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Long Sleep
The Long Sleep was the centuries-defining journey during which four supercarriers loaded with cryogenically frozen prisoners were exiled from Earth, drifted blind through warp space, and crash-landed in the Koprulu sector, founding the colonies from which all terran civilization descended.
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Terran Confederacy
The Terran Confederacy, also called the Confederacy of Man, was the dominant human government of the Koprulu sector before the Great War, ruled by the Old Families of Tarsonis and brought down by the zerg invasion and the Sons of Korhal rebellion.
United Powers League: the police state that exiled humanity
The United Powers League ruled almost all of Earth from 2229 onward, banning religion, imposing a single language and killing more than four hundred million of its own citizens under Project Purification. Its surplus prisoners became the involuntary colonists of the Koprulu sector, and its panic at the discovery of alien life reforged it into the United Earth Directorate.
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