Found in the archives (1999 Jul 15):

What might be the biggest event of our time of which the only surviving evidence, a thousand years from now, will be indirect allusions rather than direct records?

For example: the life of Elvis Presley. His records, his movies and all serious material about him are lost in the sands of time, but some parodies of Elvis remain, the initial population being greater. Historians debate whether the custom of altering voice and posture while saying “Thagy’ver’much” is a religious/taboo ritual or a nervous disorder caused by faulty learning-machines; whether the man in the ornate white clothing, a minor character in so many movies, is a priest, a prostitute or an angel . . .