To my great-great-grandchildren,
You will inherit a world farther from mine than I can possibly imagine.
Perhaps you will live for centuries. Perhaps disease will be little more than a memory. Perhaps intelligence will no longer belong only to humanity. Perhaps the impossible will have become ordinary.
Every generation believes it stands at the edge of the future. Yours may finally arrive there.
If this book somehow survives long enough to find its way into your hands, I hope it serves as more than a story. I hope it reminds you that technology is a magnificent servant but a dangerous master, that wisdom cannot be downloaded, and that the greatest gift you possess is not the ability to know the answer—it is the willingness to ask the right question.
No matter how intelligent your machines become, never surrender your curiosity.
No matter how convenient the future becomes, never outsource your conscience.
And no matter how much the world changes, never forget that it was human imagination that created every miracle you now take for granted.
The future belongs to you.
Take good care of it.
—YNOT