FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hello! To whomever is reading this, it is my privilege to congratulate you on discovering this time capsule. What you’ve uncovered is 1 of 100 titanium caches buried in various places around the globe, their contents each containing an archive of mammalkind’s artistic, historical, scientific, and cultural achievements. Plus, some practical knowledge that might be useful for whoever comes across these time capsules. All of this is courtesy of myself and others.

You most likely won’t recognize me, but my name is Dr. Timothy Joseph Lewandowski. I’m a fifty-two-year-old bloodhound and professor that teaches world history at the University of Milwaukee. I am but one member of a group that calls itself ‘The Alexandria Project’, and our mission is to preserve everything that civilization has accomplished.

We fear the world is on the brink of societal collapse. We do not currently know if or when civilization will reach a tipping point, but we feel it is getting closer. As I’m writing this letter and preparing the capsule you found, climate change has been taking its brutal toll on the world. Severe drought in the southwestern United States has transformed the region into a harsh and lawless landscape. The Great Salt Lake is completely dried up. Tornado Alley east of the Rocky Mountains has become a chaotic place to live in, between farmers struggling to sell food they can’t grow, reports of large cities and communities being outright abandoned, and record-breaking tornado seasons every year. Intense heatwaves and blizzards have become commonplace every respective summer and winter, with some people feeling like Spring is no longer present throughout the year. Not to mention the sharp increase in hurricanes up and along the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard. Just a couple of months prior, New York City struggled to turn the lights back on after enduring two consecutive hurricanes in a row.

And what I’ve mentioned isn’t just happening in North America; severe weather and changing climate patterns have already resulted in some countries collapsing into anarchy. China’s already in a civil war. The European Union is fracturing. The Middle East is in the grips of regional war. Whole economies and power grinds are in shambles from all of this.

I digress. My colleagues and I don’t know what kind of world the next generation will live through, but we know it won’t be pleasant. Society across the globe is inevitably going to collapse and mammalkind will find itself thrust in another deadlier version of the Dark Ages. Not only will hundreds of millions of people die, but so much will be lost. It pains me to imagine that this is how Alexandria’s librarians felt as their repository burned. Not this time though.

Based on the state of things, it’s too late to make a difference—far too late—but not too late to try. We've filled each of these capsules with the things all of us in the Alexandria Project felt mammalkind needed to remember. You’ll find this laminated letter, plus twenty external USB drives, and three high-quality tablets that come with visual instructions, plus a solar panel charger should you not have electrical power.

I personally hope that the information stored on these USB drives will be of use to whoever finds them. You won’t just find knowledge about history, science, or culture, but detailed images of art that will no doubt be destroyed in the decades to come. You’ll find recordings of the greatest films and musical hits across music history. You’ll find digital copies of historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, _Journey to the _West and so on.

However, these USB drives don’t just contain material about history or the arts. On the flash drive marked with a red sticker, you’ll find detailed schematics and formulas. They include plans to craft tools, weapons, parts, medicine, machines, and much more. Use these plans and schematics. We won’t tell you to use them for good or for the benefit of all mammalkind. We just want you to thrive in this world we’ve left for you.

I doubt you will find me. Not only am I going to likely be already dead, but if I am still alive, I’ll be hiding by choice. And I feel you need to be warned why: I was recently met by a mysterious group of elites who claim they have their own plan to make sure civilization survives in some form. They didn’t provide any specific details, but I do remember them mentioning how their own group planned to transform various cities into enclaves. The benevolence in their pitch seems deceptive, however. They way they described their future endeavors sounded less like a multi-layered plan for rebuilding society and more like…aristocrats seizing up new territory. I especially wasn’t fond of the way they dismissed the influx of invited survivors as ‘working class’. I’ve feigned interest in taking their invitation and so have several other colleagues of mine who were similarly contacted, but we fear they might become trouble. We fear they might want to hold a monopoly on technology in the ruined world, and subjugate rather than educate. Even if our fears are unfounded and these men in their enclaved cities never come to fruition, don’t hesitate to transcribe what you’ve found into physical paper, such as medieval monks had done thousands of years ago. Pass it down through oral tradition, if you must. Don’t let this become hoarded like wealth or gold.

Please think of these time capsules as not only our gift to you, but our collective apology, and something I feel will hopefully allow future generations learn to forgive mine. It is the least we can do for the next generation to live on this wonderful planet of ours.

I don’t know how long it will take for the Earth to heal, how long it will be until civilization finally rebuilds, or if these time capsules will assist with the former two, but I feel it will make a difference. I hope this will. Whoever you are, take care of yourselves. Godspeed to you, and good luck.

Sincerely,

Dr. Timothy Joseph Lewandowski

Professor at UW-Milwaukee and proud member of The Alexandria Project