Project Xanadu envisioned a universal hypertext system where documents were never copied, only referenced. Every quotation would remain linked to its source, every author would be credited, and every connection would be permanent. It sought to encode ethical authorship directly into the medium.

Although it never shipped as intended, Xanadu profoundly influenced how we think about links, attribution, and versioning. Its failure was less technical than systemic, but its ideas continue to resurface wherever people question the fragility and impermanence of the web.