Palimpsest:
- :writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
- :something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
Canada … is a palimpsest, an overlay of classes and generations. —Margaret Atwood
too short a time to get to know the palimpsest of Genevan societies, let alone those of Switzerland —George Steiner
Noted in “Editing the Human Germline: Groundbreaking Science and Mind-Numbing Sentiment,” Kenneth W. Krause, quoting Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR gene-editing pioneer, Skeptical Inquirer (November / December 2017, not apparently online yet):
Humans had never before had a tool like CRISPR, and it had the potential to turn not only living people’s genomes but also all future genomes into a collective palimpsest upon which any bit of genetic code could be erased and overwritten depending on the whims of the generation doing the writing …
[Typos mine]
