The Curious Education of AI Joe

Citizens of a Midwestern prairie village join a space habitat re-creation of the village funded by a nostalgic ag tech billionaire. They try to apply their values to building a new community and environment. The habitat's oversized artificial intelligence, quickly named AI Joe, has an inquiring mind, a thirst for more data about the village. The data sources include three time-travelers from the village in 1976. And the cryogenically preserved brain of the worst creep in their history which (or who?) needs the AI's attention for memory repairs. With such eclectic inputs, will the AI reflect their values? Who will guide their development? Those are the issues tackled with humor and purpose as they grow into a community, a microcosm addressing at a personal level the big issues of economy, politics and control, and quality of life, echoing the economic and political events they have escaped.