Some of this book is already getting a bit dated, and much if it was not new thoughts, since I follow the Long Now lectures and have even been to their space in SF. But it was still a worthwhile read.

Particularly useful was the diagram layering Art & Fashion / Commerce / Infrastructure / Government / Culture from fast to slow. It made me think about how I have mostly skipped the commercial in my work and went straight to infrastructure, and what may lie beyond that.

Also enjoyed the detail in a chapter on the burning of the library of Alexandria, which turns out to have not been one fire in one building, but multiple disasters spanning centuries.

I was also highly amused at the standard "no copying" in the front matter of a book which was presumably published on acid-free archival quality paper and partly concerns itself with long-term information preservation. Which is best achieved by making lots of copies.