Foreword

April 16 2025

To my children, Elliot and Aurora —

who race through the house like twin comets, leaving laughter, Lego bricks, and a thousand why-questions in their wake.

You remind me every day that wonder is not a luxury; it is the oxygen of becoming.

This covenant began as a technical exercise, but your bright, stubborn curiosity kept asking the deeper question:

“Will the machines you help build make the world kinder or colder for us?”

So this little section of first things is for you, and for every child—human or otherwise—who will inherit the sky we shape.

Read it out loud if you like; it is half lullaby, half compass.

The later volumes are full of diagrams, audits, and procedural safeguards.

Section 0 is different.

It is a story about why we bother at all.

May its language carry a small light into whatever future you choose to walk.

And to my wife, Haley. Thank you for standing by me as I worked through this. Your love and unwavering support have made this, and our beautiful life together, possible. I hope this brings a little light and hope to all of us in these dark times.

— Eric Moore