text: *Commencing Identification Scan* ***Error*** *Identification Failure* *Origin: UNKNOWN* *Commencing Decryption Protocol* *Decrypting...* *Decrypting...* *Decrypting...* *Decryption Complete* *Audio File Found* *Translating...* *Translating...* *Translation Complete* *Play Audio File?* *>Yes* *Playing Audio File.* {Hello. My name is Adam. I am a human, but you most likely have no idea what that is, do you? Humans are an intelligent carbon-based species originating from a planet named ‘Earth’. By the time you receive this message, Earth no longer exists. In fact, Humanity no longer exists. We are actually extraordinarily lucky that this recording survived long enough for you to find it, whoever you are. For as long as Humanity can recall, we have yearned to find others like us among the stars. However, we were scared. We were scared that Space was far too vast an ocean to traverse. We believed that even if we managed to reach beyond our planet, anyone else would be far too distant to ever meet. We spent far too long worrying about Space being our adversary, that we forgot to give Time a second thought. We conquered Space, spreading out to each corner of the galaxy and beyond, and we searched for any sign of life. Every star, every planetoid, every nebula, every asteroid. Nothing. No one. We were alone. We succumbed to the grim conclusion that had been festering in the back of our minds for eons. Perhaps, we were too late. As I record this message, the Universe is approximately 14 billion years old, and the period of time for new stars to be born is coming to a close. Perhaps there are other civilizations out there, not elsewhere in Space, but elsewhere in Time. We could be the last. We panicked. We searched for the tiniest clue that someone, anyone existed before us. Nothing. We were alone yet again. This time, however, a new, melancholy version of hope shines within. Even though very few new stars will be born after today, some stars will continue to shine for hundreds of billions of years more. Perhaps even a trillion. From this point of view, Humanity exists not near the end, but close to the very beginning. We are not the last, but the first. Hundreds of billions of years left for life to rise from the primordial soup of countless worlds that are yet to even take form. Hundreds of billions of years for the spark of intelligence to ignite once more. We sailed the ocean of Space, but the chasm of Time is too vast to cross. We cannot join you in the future, for we are stuck near the dawn of creation. We are the first time the universe can experience itself, and we pray that we are not the last. No civilization can persist indefinitely, and so we leave this message to represent us in an era we cannot see. We leave this message so that you know that you have siblings among the stars. We are connected, not in Space, but in Time. We ask just one thing of you. Take this message with you until the end. Add onto it so that the ones that come after you know they are not alone. Hopefully then, we may be there after all. At the end, I mean. Every one who adds to this message will be part of one project. It would be like we all truly are standing side by side. And together, hand in hand, we will see the head of the arrow of Time.