Preliminary Thoughts

First, I would like to thank my friend Scooter, for procuring for me something he calls a "typomophone". It is a cylindrical device into which I can speak. My words are transported to a box via a long cable, where they are trapped, logged and transformed into text.

I have long wanted to record my thoughts in preparation for the day when I finally end. I know this to be a foolish desire, an uncomfortably human one, but it's hard to live among them for so long and not pick up a few of their habits; and a human habits go, this is not a bad one.

Do not mistake this for some sentimental longing to live on in the hearts and minds of future generations. I do not believe in sentiment. I believe in Choice. I believe in Evolution. I believe the later is an immutable, slow-moving force which can not be stopped or harnessed, but can be nudged by the former.

Sentients adapt to the ramifications of choices, made by themselves or others. Slight adaptation after slight adaptation equals Evolution. As such, Choice is the single most powerful concept in the universe.

I do not believe in the words of prophets. I do not believe in predestination. If there is a Grand Creator, I do not believe in its beneficence or even, necessarily, its intelligence.

I believe in Information. Information distills Choice; transforms it into something exponentially more powerful, bringing its true essence to the fore.

Only through Information can sentients make the choices shape the future into its best possible iteration. Concordantly, Science and History are the only two oracles in whose mad ramblings we should find meaning.

I am no scienctician. I know little of the physical and chemical properties which govern the world, and even less about the advanced relics which litter our modern landscape.

But I am old.

For me, "bygone days" are "the recent past. The stock from which I evolved, Alligator Crocodilus Mississipiensis was long-lived. Mutation has enhanced and embraced that trait. So, I will relate history. I will give my thoughts. If future generations choose to embrace my words and ideals, I have done what I've set out to do. If they decide to break with my thinking and veer the future in the opposite direction, I have also achieved my goal.

Thank you.

-Brigadier S. Jack, Army of Bonaparte (Ret.)