Writing for posterity sustained many in the past no matter how dire the times or personal circumstances. Things have changed, though. Posterity, what posterity?

Addendum (December 18, 2015)

Funny enough, I found myself ruminating about posterity just before I went to sleep last night. In particular, I was wondering about the prospects of the World Wide Web. As a whole, my magnum opus is unimaginable without it. Although some of the selections from it may survive in book form a bit longer, I would give it a century to a century and a half at most. Although some vestiges of this civilization may survive a bit longer, its technological foundations will have crumbled by then. In other words, four to six generations may still be able to read some of my writings, but no more than that. In that sense, the fall of this civilization will be much more precipitous than the fall of Rome. Be that as it may, my ruminations last night gave me a boost of sorts. What could be wrong with four to six generations, anyhow? I can only hope that they will still be able to read…