Historical value

While randomly having come across a Wikipedia article of the Stomachion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomachion), a barely-surviving ancient mathematical treatise attributed to Archimedes, I realized how much of what we write is transient, only relevant for a relatively short duration of time. For most of what we write, especially on these blogs, only a few months, weeks even, flow before most of their significance is reduced to the whisper of a memory, and that only for the writer itself.

If the relevance of a piece of writing, of an idea, is to be extended further into the future, its content must appeal to people beyond the context inside which it is written (its "scope", if programmers will). If a piece of writing depends on its context for meaning, then it will be interesting only to others who are interested in that particular context. Otherwise, it might interesting only a very small group of people, and only as a curiosity. A piece of writing should not depend upon any particular context if it is to persist across others. How to write something that is fully context-free? Maybe I might find a hint to that in context-free grammars (in the context of Compilers)?

Volumes that Archimedes wrote include (says Wikipedia):

• On the Equilibrium of Planes (two volumes)
• On the Measurement of a Circle
• On Spirals
• On the Sphere and the Cylinder (two volumes)
• On Conoids and Spheroids
• On Floating Bodies (two volumes)
• The Quadrature of the Parabola

Mathematical and physical treatises seem universal enough. The properties of shapes, of ideal figures, and of water and floating materials are not expected to change anytime soon - hence, perennial relevance. And of course, they have been proven to be most useful in engineering and science - hence, long-lasting. They may not be exactly top-sellers in these times, but there still exists a non-trivial portion of the human population who is highly interested in maintaining the memory of these treatises alive and healthy in the culture of the world.

The bible is another long-lasting piece of writing. Does its relevance extend onto our times? The events described in there are of interest to historians and to anthropologists - the esoteric and moral concepts, to people affiliated with christianism and with interest in spirituality, ethics, morality. And maybe to atheists who try to find contradictions in it. It has survived for many hundreds of years, and parts of it for thousands. Does it hold universal relevance, too? Will people always be concerned with morality, ethics, and jewish history? Or was it artificially kept alive by an enormously prominent international organization during almost two thousand years now? (the catholic church, of course). I'd vote for the former imo, but wouldn't discard the latter.

How many topics are there that extend across all contexts and cultures? What are all the possible topics of which one can write, that will contain relevant information to all people, of all times, from all over the world? (I do consider only people, of course, since it's the only species that I know can read what we write).

Starting off a rough list:

• Ethics
• Science (Math, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, etc...)
• Thoughts about life and purpose? (People call it Philosophy, but I think that's etymologically incorrect)

That's the list I came up with just now. Any additions?