sections:
How long do things last – houses, cars, planes, political movements, love, social trends, economic booms, artistic styles? Everything has a lifespan. The tallest mountain on earth will be one day dispersed into dust and on its site, instead of a huge protuberance, will be a depression under water.
What does for things: material decay, technical obsolescence, fashion, or the depreciation of the accountant? Lifespan uncovers some surprising rules about duration. Everyone has heard of the Seven Year Itch but do we understand why passion has a term?
The physical degradation of an object will not to lead to its demise if it is a strong enough idea. The B52 Bomber has outlasted several generations of supposedly superior planes and is set to be in service till at least 2025 (that's over 60 years).
Then there are the questions of culture and human generations. There is a problem when the culture developed by one generation has to be passed on to the next. Whatever the physical infrastructure built by that generation (eg Kibbutzim) they will fall to the ground unless the Kibbutz concept is strong enough to be taken up by the new generation.
Lifespan shows why sea creatures can live longer than land-based ones; why trees outlast them all; why the naked midriff persists despite fashion editors routinely pronouncing the fashion dead; and why the supposedly ephemeral popular art of the Beatles and Bob Dylan is currently assuming canonical artistic status.
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