A final thing I admire about Future Library is its capacity to evolve and adapt over time. Paterson and colleagues designed it to give subsequent generations choice about how to shape the project: which authors to select, how to conduct the ceremony each year, who to invite, and eventually what will go on the books' covers. There will also be decisions ahead over the cultivation of the forest. At the 2022 ceremony, the Norwegian forester charged with caring for the trees pointed out that he had planted broadleaf species alongside the spruces – a standard practice to encourage healthy growth. He explained that future custodians of the project will therefore have to decide whether to keep this diversity of trees in place, using multiple woods for the books, or stick to a spruce monoculture. Spruces would make a neater but darker forest, he said, while a mixture of species would be chaotic but bring more light.
