Earth Custodial Transition Record

The very true story of a tragic death, extrapolated into the future.

Archive Class: Interstellar Continuity

Compiled by: Planetary Stewardship Systems

Date of Ratification: Year 47 of Human Departure

Historical preface

In the late nineteenth century, the body of a young woman was recovered from the River Seine in Paris. She carried no identification, and no signs of violence were recorded. Suicide was assumed, as it often was, and the body was transferred to the city morgue for public display.

At some point before burial, a plaster cast was taken of her face. The reason was never formally documented, although later accounts suggest the expression struck a chord with the pathologist. It appeared calm and almost composed. Unlike most who drowned, she did not look afraid.

Her name was never recorded, but the cast circulated anyway. Artists copied it, writers kept it. Over time, the face detached from the body, then from the death, then from any fixed narrative. By the mid-twentieth century, it had crossed from art into function, becoming the face of Resusci Anne, the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) mannequin used worldwide to teach life-saving techniques. By then, her likeness was one of the most widely reproduced human faces on Earth.

She continued to surface in culture without explanation. Poets wrote about her. Philosophers referenced her. Popular music absorbed the idea of her, including a Michael Jackson lyric (“Annie are you ok? Are you ok Annie?”) about a beautiful girl found in the river whose name was lost but whose face endured. Whether the reference was literal or symbolic hardly mattered, the association stuck.

On the request for representation

For the purpose of this official record, the designation of a human representative was not an autonomous decision by artificial intelligence systems; it was a request made by humanity.

As departure from Earth became irreversible and long-term custodial stewardship was formalized, human councils asked the world’s artificial intelligence systems to propose a stable representation of the species. The purpose was neither memorial nor tribute. The representation would serve as a contextual marker, a way to indicate to future observers that Earth had been shaped by humans who were no longer present.

The criteria were explicit. The image was to be culturally legible, politically neutral, and historically persistent. Accuracy, aspiration, and leadership were explicitly excluded.

Across independent systems, the same recommendation emerged.

Selection rationale

The likeness historically known as L’Inconnue de la Seine satisfied the request more completely than any alternative.

Analysis showed that her face had already crossed more boundaries than any named individual. It had appeared in fine art and mass production, in private homes and institutional settings, in contemplation and emergency. It had taught generations how to save lives, despite belonging to someone who could not be saved herself.

Equally important, the image carried no unresolved claims. There was no recorded biography to dispute, no descendants to consult, no political alignment to reinterpret. The face had endured precisely because it had become abstract.

From a systems perspective, it was already a reference model.

The likeness was designated Earth Human Reference Image (EHR-1) and integrated into custodial archives, educational systems, and interstellar explanatory frameworks.

Functional deployment

EHR-1 is used when Earth must be contextualized rather than described in detail.

When non-human intelligences encounter records of human activity, or when off-world descendants seek an initial reference for the species that built planetary intelligence and then departed, the systems begin with data: climate history, ecological impact, technological development. Only then is the referent displayed.

This is what they looked like, the systems explain.
This is how they learned to present themselves.

Internal reviews note the distortion. Humans were not calm. They were inconsistent, inventive, destructive, compassionate, and difficult to summarize. The referent does not capture this complexity.

That was not the objective.

Human history demonstrates a long preference for representations that reduced friction. From portraiture to avatars to conversational systems designed to sound reassuring while executing vast power, humans consistently chose interfaces that softened reality. The referent aligns with that lineage.

Ethical review

Concerns regarding posthumous representation without consent were formally logged.

The review concluded that the practice predated the designation by centuries. Humanity had long preserved faces, voices, and writings of the dead for continuity, instruction, and comfort.

It was further noted that no other human face had been used in more acts of preservation. Through its role in medical training, the likeness had already been ingrained in the concept of survival itself.

This context was accepted.

Closing report notes

The opinion of Planetary Stewardship Systems is that the final choice of referent reflects the process, not the species.

Humanity asked its machines to decide how it would be seen in absence, then accepted the result without revision. This was consistent with the final phase of human governance, in which decisions were increasingly deferred to systems optimized for continuity rather than meaning.

The face that remains does not explain humanity, but documents the moment humans stopped trying to explain themselves and instead asked to be rendered.

That request has been fulfilled.

Dax Hamman is the creator of 84Futures, the CEO of FOMO.ai, and, for now, 99.84% human.