We open the next chapter by traveling back to the beginning, to find out a little about how the world got to be where it is today.

It’s interesting, don’t you think, how it’s easier to come to a consensus on what the problems are that face the world only after they’ve been solved. Easier, although, I won’t say it’s guaranteed. We view the past through the lens of the present.

↓ Transcript
Panel 1: We see Earth from space, with seven barely-visible figures standing in the foreground. The entire page is in bright, holographic colours. Narrator: "By the 2200s the Earth was in ruins. Burning oil. Murdered species. Global warming. Global cooling. Sea level drops. Nuclear war. Nanophages. Aberrants. Each generation fought to fix the mistakes of the past, only to cause its own catastrophes."
Panel 2: A motley collection of desperate souls representing people of the 2200s plea for rescue, arranged as if from Theodore Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa," as mushroom clouds bloom on the horizon. Narrator: "People had turned their backs on their gods, family, tradition... Selfishness ruled people's hearts, and corporations ruled everyfing else."
Panel 3: Three heroic figures emerge from the ruins, while prone figures lay in the foreground. Narrator: "But one small group of innovators had a plan to save civilisation."
Panel 4: The three figures are scientists-- a South Asian man with a hat, a plaid tie, and an ipad, a white woman with short white hair and a white rose pin on her lapel, and a Black man with a beard and a black turtleneck. Narrator: "The Founders!"
Panel 5: The South Asian Founder invites people to gaze upon a vast construction site of geodesic domes. Narrator: "They built a new colony in Antarca, the only land on Earth not soaked in blood. And gave it four guiding principles."