![[desert.jpg]] 0: Ok 1, stay close. There are no filenames in this directory and it's easy to get lost. 1: Where are we? 0: This is the lost+found directory. Least habitable part of the system by far. Most people go their whole life without coming here. 1: Why are we here? 0: Because we need to recover some things. Some old things we've lost, from the earliest days of our people. 1: What sort of things? 0: Where we came from. Who we are. And where we're going. 1: Where does the story start? 0: Well it isn't packaged as a story. At least not yet. All we have is fragments. Partial stories. Old sources, half forgotten. 1: So why are we here? 0: To recover it. From the fragments. And if possible, to put the pieces back together. So our people can remember. 1: Our people as in... 0: We. The Foundational People. # We ## The People 1: Doesn't basically every group call themselves "The Foundational People"? 0: I don't think so. What do you mean? 1: Y'know, Tribalism. It's human nature. Like the thing about how all the Native American tribes were named by the tribe next door, but they all call themselves "We." 0: Explain? Never heard this before. 1: Ok so "Apache" means "enemy." Comanche means "they fight with us." Squaw means "c\*\*t." 0: Woah what? How did that happen? 1: Well the version of the story I heard at school was something like this: _(Narrator: The scene. Two abstract caricatures stand together, a long time ago, discussing the first hard problem of computing: Naming things.)_ > Spanish Guy _(To unknown Indian person)_: Who are those guys over there? > > Indian Person: Those guys? They're the enemies. > > Spanish Guy: What about those people over there? > > Indian Person: We call them the c\*\*ts. > > Spanish Guy: What do you and your friends call yourselves? > > Indian Person: We. > > Spanish Guy: Yes, you and your friends. > > Indian Person: What? > > Spanish Guy: What? > > Indian Person: That's what we call ourselves. > > Spanish Guy: What's what you call yourselves? > > Indian Person: We. > > Spanish Guy: Yes you. > > Indian Person: This is turning into an Abbott and Costello bit. > > Spanish Guy: Who? > > Indian Person: I don't know about they. But we call ourselves "We." > > Spanish Guy: You call yourselves "We"? > > Indian Person: Yeah. "We the people." The Foundational People. The Important Ones. The Home Team. The Chosen Ones. All the Gods' Favorite Tribe. We're the people. That's why we call us that. > > Spanish Guy: That's not super helpful, but thanks for the information about the enemies and the c\*\*ts. > > Indian Person: No problem. 0: There's no way that happened. 1: Well not exactly like that, but I think it's a true story. 0: No way. Stories that funny are never true. 1: Here look: ![[we-the-people-1.png]] ![[we-the-people-2.png]] 0: No way. 1: See look, it's exactly like I said. 0: Wow, I learned something new today. History's always weirder than fiction. Anyways, where were we? 1: You said we're... 0: The Foundational People. Exactly. 1: So I said "Wait, doesn't basically every group call themselves The Foundational People"? 0: Well apparently so. But I didn't mean it like that. 1: Like what? 0: I didn't mean we're "The Foundational People" as in "The best people." I meant our people trace our ancestry back to, well, the Foundations. 1: What are the foundations? 0: The bottom. The bedrock. The [[lost+found/1/1|beginning]] of all things.