Artifacts Change, Needs Endure | Generated by AI
Yes, mostly right. A few corrections and nuances:
Buildings: Cities will have new buildings, but not all old ones get torn down. Reinforced concrete buildings from the 1990s/2000s have a design life of ~50-100 years, so many will indeed be demolished by 2126. But valuable/historic/well-built structures get preserved and retrofitted instead — look at how 100+ year old buildings still stand in Europe, NYC, Shanghai’s Bund. The pattern is: cheap mass-construction gets replaced, landmark/quality construction survives. So in 2126 you’ll see a mix — mostly new, but with preserved old layers.
Devices: Yes, phones/laptops will be more powerful, but the trajectory is likely more radical than just “better laptops.” The current form factor (slab phone, clamshell laptop) is ~20-40 years old already. In 100 years the dominant computing interface may not be a “phone” or “laptop” at all — could be glasses/AR, neural interfaces, ambient/voice-first ambient compute. The function (personal computing, communication) persists; the form changes a lot. Think how the 1920s telephone → 2020s smartphone isn’t really “the same thing improved.”
The general principle you’re sensing is correct: physical artifacts get replaced on cycles, but the human needs they serve persist. Shelter, mobility, communication, computation — these endure; the specific objects implementing them churn.
One thing that won’t fully reset: city layouts. Street grids, property lines, and underground infrastructure (sewers, subway tunnels) are far more persistent than the buildings on top. Manhattan’s grid is from 1811. So 2126’s city sits on largely the same bones even with all-new buildings.