Ages of Reed and Lotus [edit]

[dukealien]

Thought provoking. Truly, what happens if there's a civilisational meltdown? Paper records could mean the difference between going back a hundred years and going back a thousand.
Crib: understand that a lotus opens and closes with the sun, but as that's not related to the papyrus reed, the juxtaposition with paper / civilisation isn't satisfying.

The juxtaposition is meant to be through their common Nile/Egyptian source (and the blue lotus apparently rises with the dawn, too, which must be fun to watch if you have the patience).  Needs to be clearer - thanks!

Going back to paper from digital would be like (but much worse than) the Late Roman/Dark Ages move to parchment:  parchment lasts forever unless something eats it, but you could get papyrus by the mile when Egypt was open for business; for parchment, you have to kill an animal every time you want to write something (or scrape an old page, erasng its contents... though not thoroughly enough to hide them from modern investigators).