I’m building a database in which nothing is ever deleted. I have the tables in the DB segregated into two types: Platonic and not. The Platonic forms maintain all data for the non-Platonic forms which persists over time. For example, I have, say, a:

PlatonicCompany(id:Int, name:String)

and a

Company(id:Int, pcFK:Int, createdOn:Timestamp, deletedOn:Timestamp)

where pcFK is a foreign key back to the PlatonicCompany. This naming scheme is not sufficient. Consider the following tables:

PlatonicConversation(id:Int, cFK:Int, who:String, why:String, where:String) Conversation(id:Int, pcFK:Int, createdOn:Timestamp, deletedOn:Timestamp)

where “cFK” is a foreign key to the Company. Now, PlatonicConversation is not strictly a Platonic form: it depends in on the finite nature of Company. It is an eternal entity, but only within a context; we might call a god that lives forever “immortal” but it will eventually meet destruction if it is:

• Contained wholly in a Universe and
• that Universe exists for only a finite timespan.

I believe the correct word to describe these indirectly time dependent entities is “coeternal”, but that does not quite fit. Jesus Christ is said to be coeternal with God the Father, but I know of no Christian that would assert the Trinity ends its existence when (if?) the Universe collapses back in on itself.