I had radio 3 on while I was reading the paper and something caught my ear.
An organist called Obrecht, employed at Bruges from 1485 on, who died of the plague in 1505 - exactly 500 years ago. How do they know? from old documents in musty vaults?
500 years from now will there be anyone listening to today's music - in fact will there be anyone around in the first place? Men have survived plagues before - how can we take anything seriously when the news bulletins talk about dead parrots? - but if the polar ice caps really do go into meltdown what happens then?
Looking back a future survivor will be drowned in a sea of information, He's not going to search for facts, he's going to have to pick out the gold from the rivers of dross.
'Celebrity' may fox him. What exactly is one of them? If he can see old TV programs with 'celebrity' guests, he'll be hard pushed to know what one of our contemporaries has to do to be given the label.
Will they know David Beckham's name in 50 years?