The pile of old papers handed down from generation to generation and now finding itself in my hands has quite a few folded scraps of yellowed paper–letters, clippings, recipes, and so forth–whose context and relevance I don’t know. They’re interesting in the own right, as artifacts from two centuries ago, and their endurance is fascinating. How have these old letters and receipts managed to survive for so long? And, more importantly, why have they survived for so long? I toss my own papers every day. If I should stuff a few of them into a vault for 150 years, will future generations be fascinated by them? Will they be imbued with importance…