Which best captures the fleeting present — past or future?

[ by Charles Cameron — architectural history as a question in philosophy — Palmyra ]

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Future?

A jailed activist’s 3-D models could save Syria’s history from ISIS https://t.co/4YjbSuaOwB pic.twitter.com/K8daGICoUW

— WIRED (@WIRED) October 21, 2015

Past?

#Getty Research Institute Acquires 150-Year-Old Photographs of #Palmyra and Beirut http://t.co/wuRsA5VfZZ

— Mariam (@Mariamirani) October 13, 2015

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I’ll admit my preference for “past” — but is it just “the patina of antiquity”I’m appreciating?

What building from the first decades of this millennium might people think worth preserving — or destroying — a thousand years hence?

And what if the present should arise and fade, unaided?