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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''We've gone from bashing our information into ''rock'', where it will last a billion years, to putting the sum-total of the knowledge of the universe on - a chip you can destroy with a fridge magnet.''
|'''Glen Foster'''}}
▲{{quote|''We've gone from bashing our information into ''rock'', where it will last a billion years, to putting the sum-total of the knowledge of the universe on - a chip you can destroy with a fridge magnet.''|'''Glen Foster'''}}
It is, understandably, common in post-apocalyptic fiction [[Ruins of the Modern Age|to show the ruins of society]]. However, many are set several decades, or even centuries or millennia [[After the End]], and the remains of [[The Beforetimes|the pre-cataclysm society]] are in remarkable condition. Buildings and objects will never fall apart due to neglect, and any [[Lost Technology|pre-cataclysm devices or vehicles]] that the characters find will work just fine.
In reality, time isn't so kind to abandoned modern technology. All but the simplest electronics will fail after decades of being unused. Electrolytic capacitors dry out (or succumb to the capacitor plague), batteries self-discharge and leak, flash memory very slowly fades away, and the chassis and contacts rust and corrode. Hard discs rot or degrade over the same time frame, and the skin of optical media such as Blu-Rays and DVDs corrodes, rendering the disc illegible (aka "CD rot").
Large scale structures fare no better. In many climates, wooden frame buildings will last about 50 years before falling apart thanks to termites and rotting. Metal, no matter how well protected, will eventually succumb to the elements. After about 75 years, cars will turn into almost unrecognizable piles of rust. Large bridges will collapse after only a century, and most skyscrapers will collapse around the 200-300 year mark. After 500 years, nearly all concrete structures still standing will crumble as their steel reinforcements corrode. See [[The History Channel]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtHICMmDJk Life After People] for more information. And this is all assuming that a natural disaster like a tornado, earthquake, or hurricane doesn't destroy it all first. (How much of Florida would survive 10 years if people weren't around to board everything up each summer?) It also ignores the likelihood that whatever arises after the fall of society would knock it down/[[Disaster Scavengers|scavenge it themselves]] instead of just waiting for nature to do the job.
After a thousand years, the Earth will look much like it was before humans, and few obvious traces of civilization will be left. Some plastic types, if buried underground (away from UV radiation) will keep for a long time until something figures out how to properly eat them; anything made out of bronze is expected to last for millions of years (so cast your memoirs with it); major cities, being massive conglomeration of artificial rock on the scale of a coral reef or lava flow, will leave traces in the geological record discernible for several hundred million years; depleted uranium will remain detectably depleted for billions of years; -- but none of this will be visible to a casual observer, or even a medieval society, and little of it will be immediately recognizable to future visitors.
If only one thing inexplicably survives, such as in a [[Time Travel]] or [[Earth All Along]] setting, it's known as [[The Constant]].
This trope can be justified, in small doses, since there is an expensive way to render any metal rust-proof the same way that platinum
Societies with
The History Channel produced a television special documentary film and TV series ''[[Life After People]]'' where scientists and other experts speculate about how the Earth might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed.
The term [[The End of the World
A subtrope of [[Sci
{{examples}}
▲== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* Played straight & subverted in the Sankei Newspaper ''[[Astro Boy]]'' serial. When he [[Time Travel|travels back in time]] to the era of [[The Vietnam War]] he eventually shuts down due to the fuel he runs on not having been invented yet. He winds up at the bottom of the Mekong river & isn't found for decades, but a quick refill has him up & about again with no difficulty (though he was in a box at the time). When he runs out of fuel a second time due to its prohibitive cost, though, he falls down on a mountain & by the time his "birth" comes around again he is nothing more than a rusted-out shell.
* The eponymous mecha of ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' lay buried on Earth for over 2000 years before being excavated by the hero's father. Perhaps justified, in that it was kept in a giant space-packing crate and the mech itself is practically indestructible.
* The main premise of ''[[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou]]'' is partly about people (and [[Ridiculously
** One memorable [[Heartwarming Moments]], however, shows the [[Robot Girl]] blown away by the beauty of a submerged Yokosuka, streetlights still operational.
* Both played straight & subverted in ''[[Turn
** Another reason why there aren't any other relics from the "Dark History" is because {{spoiler|the Moonlight Butterfly ''destroyed everything else''.}}
* Played partially straight (but [[Justified Trope|Justified]]) in ''[[
* Averted in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', where one universe features an entire world in ruins from acid rain and pollution, most buildings already starting to crumble from the carbonic acid and lack of human maintenance.
** A flashforward to a few centuries hence shows nothing but desert. The aversion is partially suspended for a single building, justified by its having a magic reservoir underneath it- and it was ''partially'' decayed.
* In ''[[Desert Punk (
* The manga one-shot ''Hotel'' is a case of deliberate
** And when you consider the fact that the AI is not only increasingly self-aware but had managed to keep itself functioning for {{spoiler|''27 million years''}}, even as all its systems break down, it's could also be a case of [[And I Must Scream]].
* The supply hatches in ''[[
** Slightly subverted by a hotel dining room that's found in one chapter. It's obviously rotting and is filled with overgrown plants. Played straight in that it has a perfectly working organ.
* A significant plot point in ''[[
* Completely subverted in the [[Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie]] with Paradox's time frame, which is {{spoiler|nothing but rubble and rust-coloured clouds}}. It gets even worse when {{spoiler|Paradox messes with time, causing it to begin to disintegrate into floating particles of matter}}.
* In the penultimate scene of ''[[End of Evangelion]]'', this trope is mentioned as the true reason why the Evas were created: a monument that will outlast the universe itself.
{{quote|
'''Fuyutsuki:''' It will be eternal proof that mankind ever existed. }}
* Humorously averted in ''[[Slayers]]''. In her first appearance, Martina reactivates a war golem made by her ancestors during the last great Mazoku War, which took place 1,500 years previous. As she gloats over its immense power, the golem starts malfunctioning, due to the fact that its 1,500 years old and hasn't been maintained in at least 1,000.
== Fan
* In ''[[Kyon
* Used to a degree in the ''[[
== Film ==
* ''[[
* Nicely averted in ''[[Back to The Future|Back To The Future III]]''. The time machine, built out of a DeLorean, is sealed into a disused chamber in a boarded-up mine in 1885, to protect it from damage. When it's dug up in 1955, even though it's mostly intact, it still needs extensive repair.
** Bonus points for them explicitly stating that it's mostly the computer systems and circuitry used that needs work, although the car itself has fared better, it is also in need of serious repair. Its tires have realistically dry-rotted into almost nothing.
* ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' is one of the worst offenders. The Earth has been taken over by aliens for a thousand years, and the characters escape into the ruins of Denver, Colorado. Not only are all of the buildings still standing, but books are still readable, computers still work, and military jets that should have crumbled into dust centuries ago are completely operational. And they have perfectly working jet fuel, which has a shelf life of 40 years. And as if that weren't bad enough, the characters even encounter an abandoned shopping mall where frozen chickens can still be found in the supermarkets.
** This is a major divergence from the book, wherein civilization was pretty much completely gone, buildings crumbling, machines rusted to junk, books decayed to the point of falling apart. Although the book has [[Doorstopper|other problems]].
* Averted in ''[[Children of Men]]'' when the main characters walk through a crumbling school and see a deer. The school showed fairly realistic decay and mold for being unused for roughly
* In ''[[Demolition Man]]'', [[La Résistance]] lives as scavengers in the underground ruins of San Diego. (Or possibly Los Angeles. Or literally ''anywhere'' in between.) In the midst of all this poverty and squalor, they happen to have a perfectly maintained and in working order 1970 Oldsmobile
** Well it's not like all that much time passed, the ruins being a result of an earthquake and the squalor fitting their "living down and dirty" philosophy (remember, they could all join in a life of boring comfort on the surface if they wanted).
* ''[[Waterworld]]'' is another major offender. It's been long enough for people to forget that there ever was dry land. The ruins of pre-cataclysm society have spent all this time ''underwater''. Despite this, <s> anyone</s> the Mariner can just swim down to a former city and come back up with perfectly working artifacts. The "smokers" have completely operational jet skis and sea planes, and even large stashes of cigarettes, which have a shelf life of a few weeks.
* Parodied in the Woody Allen comedy ''[[Sleeper (
* In the Ralph Bakshi film ''[[Wizards]]'', Blackwolf finds a movie projector and propaganda films from Nazi Germany. The film is set two million years from now.
* ''[[WALL-E]]'' plays this straight mostly. The world that's been abandoned for 700 years is filled with rust and falling apart. The eponymous robot has only survived for so long by scavenging parts from other robots as they break down. However, even after 700 years, and all the believable wear and tear, there are a great many buildings still standing, ships operate enough to use their magnet, buildings are mostly intact, electronic billboards operate enough to give exposition, and most of the random gadgets that Wall-E finds are in perfect working condition, including an old VCR and VHS (maybe not perfect, but far better off than they should be after 700 years).
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*** One should also note that they didn't skimp on the quality when it came to food as well, as evident by WALL-E feeding a cockroach a ''seven hundred year old Twinkie bar. Still intact. With the cream filling still inside.'' Effective preservatives, then.
*** I think the Twinkie part was played less for realism and more for humor. As the joke goes, "What are the only two things that could survive a nuclear apocalypse? Cockroaches and Twinkies."
** Well, not only it is a Sci-Fi movie set in the distant future, [[Wild Mass Guessing|but it also likely takes place in the same universe as]] [[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]. No need to assume no sentient beings are around just because humanity left.
*** Wow - that's some serious [[Fridge Horror]] right there, if you buy that theory ''and'' go with [[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'s general concept of "toys develop serious problems if humans don't play with them."
* Semi-averted in ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (2002) when Alexander Hartdegen finds the library from 2030, but in the year 802,701; the building itself is in ruins, but the artificial intelligence ''Librarian Vox 114'' is still unbroken and semifunctional.
** Barely. His sanity was hanging on by a thread. Fortunately he got repaired and was able to fulfill his programming, happily teaching kids in the sunlight.
** The computer that is his brain, along with most of the projectors producing his image are undamaged after untold millennia, with no explanation to their power source. Considering that in the original work the Morlocks had considerable technical aptitude this could have been nicely explained that they kept him in working condition... but in this adaptation all Morlocks save for their leader-caste are savage brutes and even they don't seem to have interest in old technology.
*** It's worse than that. The entrance to the chamber the computer is in is below ground level in a river valley. Which means there's a pretty good chance that it has been completely floded more than once.
**** [[No Waterproofing in
* The remake of ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' had a space station shot through a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] of the especially [[Space Is Magic|Magical]] variety. It wound up being abandoned for centuries, on an Earthlike planet's surface, with zero maintenance, and the computer and thrusters still worked immediately upon being activated. Although the main character specifically mentions it was designed to last forever, making this an [[Invoked Trope]].
* The main character in ''[[Doomsday]]'' finds a [[Cool Car|Bentley]] that's been in a storage locker for twenty-seven years. It's in perfect condition with a full tank of petrol, and she has no problem using it to stage a ''[[Mad Max]]''-style chase with the bad guys. This may be justifiable (after all, it had been locked away in a sealed underground bunker), but what can't be explained is how the denizens of post-apocalyptic Scotland have somehow managed to keep their own cars running for twenty-seven years, despite there being no oil on the Scottish mainland (it all comes from the North Sea).
** To be fair, when they're unearthing the Bentley we do see them manhandling some fuel drums, so it's possible it was fueled from these, although this isn't explicitly shown.
** Scotland also has some pretty huge refineries and storage depots for processing of North Sea oil. As civilisation collapsed in a matter of weeks, it's conceivable that there would be enough scavengable fuel to run a limited amount of vehicles.
* Played completely straight in the movie ''[[
** Possibly Justified and/or [[Handwaved]] (at least in the novel) in that the city was specifically designed to function on its own for practically forever; with maintenance systems, food processing systems, and so on that operate out of sight of the residents (some of which are encountered by Logan and other Runners).
* The Space Jockey ship in ''[[Alien]]'' apparently had a transmitter that had been working constantly for however long it had been since the xenomorphs wiped out its crew, which was apparently long enough ago that the skeleton the ''Nostromo's'' crew found had time to petrify.
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** Not to mention that, while the Space Jockey had petrified, the xenomorph eggs were still fully functional.
** The eggs were covered in a layer of "protective mist," which may have functioned as a stasis field. No explanation as to why the ancient beacon shuts itself off in the 57 years between Alien and Aliens, though...
* Justified in ''[[
* Short-term variant: In ''[[
* The film adaptation of ''[[The Road]],'' even though the exact timeframe is never specified, shows a rather grimy, realistic take, given that most ''everything'' has either broken down completely or on the verge of becoming so. Even the [[Survivalist Stash|only intact bomb shelter for miles]] that the protagonists find has lights functional enough to stay on for a few seconds.
* The film version of ''[[I Am Legend]]'' shows with [[Scenery Gorn|graphic realism]] what a {{spoiler|seemingly}} abandoned New York City would look like three years. Parts of the city are flooded, the power's long gone while decay and vegetation spread across the rest of it. The only signs and leftovers of civilization still functioning are pretty much those which Neville maintains.
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== Literature ==
* Marvin from [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The
** This was [[Played for Laughs]] though. The diodes had been causing him pain since before he was first separated from his human companions so, given his [[The Eeyore|miserable outlook]] they would be the only thing on him that was never replaced.
* ''The Takers'', an ''[[
* In the [[Ray Bradbury]] story ''There Will Come Soft Rains'', a futuristic house is shown with still working robot technology after a nuclear war has wiped out humanity, since it has been programmed to do a certain amount of self-maintenance. Too bad it runs out of water trying to put out a fire in itself, since there isn't any water service anymore, and its [[Failsafe Failure|backup systems]] don't prove effective enough.
** There's no indication how long ago the war took place. It's implied that it was recent, since the family dog, suffering from radiation sickness, is allowed to enter the house.
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* Averted in ''[[World War Z]]'' - when most things from before the war end up either being ruined (including buildings), useless (electronics), or scrapped and recycled (cars into Lobos for instance.)
* Averted and justified in the Homecoming series by [[Orson Scott Card]]. The technology was all designed to be self-repairing even on the stuff doing the repairs, and last a very long time regardless... but it's been forty ''million'' years since this stuff was built. Naturally, some of it broke down anyway and characters are amazed that even more isn't broken.
* Averted (sort of) in ''[[
* [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' averts this trope rather hard. It follows the usual route of having buildings still standing and identifiable, but other than that civilization has completely vanished. One library does sill have readable books, but that was because the Psychlos purposefully and specifically sealed the building for preservation, and the books were ''still'' falling apart. Cars and helicopters are literally unrecognizable hunks of metal and all the technology they find has to be rebuilt using alien tech to make it useable. They do find and use a crate of Thompson sub-machine guns, but only because the crate was air-tight and sealed in grease, and they still needed to manufacture their own ammunition since gunpowder is not viable after one thousand years buried in a rockslide. [[The Movie]] took this in the complete opposite direction, with jet-fighters flying right out of the hangers, electronic flight simulators booting right up, and shopping malls still fully stocked. [[It Got Worse|And the movie did not stop there...]]
* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' books by [[Stephen King]] have technology of the Ancients that still exists and functions, for the most part. There are functioning oil derricks in Mejis, working robots near the Callah Bryn Sturgis, and Blaine the Mono. This might be [[Justified Trope|justified]], because the flow of time in Roland's world is said to be very inconsistent, [[Chaos Architecture|as is distance and direction]].
** The robots and Blaine were designed with future tech that was supposed to run ''forever'', so the fact that they're breaking down at all is proof that they weren't Ragnarok Proofed. We'll have to go with the funky flow of time thing for the derricks, though.
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* Semi-averted in George R. R. Martin's ''[[Tuf Voyaging]]'', where Tuf finds an EEC seed-ship which has been abandoned for over 1,000 years, which is somewhat functional as the original crew had shut it down for long term storage including automated repair robots, but which required significant repairs to make it fully operational. But only semi-averted, in that things like air lock door seals and handles still worked perfectly even after being exposed to vacuum for a millennium.
** Actually, that is literally the best possible way to store devices like that.
* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''A World Out Of Time'' has high-tech devices, including a network of [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleport booths]], [[Flying Car
* Averted in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Strata]]''. An artificial world has survived for several thousand years, maintained by a sophisticated AI and an army of robots that have managed to keep it and themselves in working order, but they can't keep it up forever; eventually there will just be too many worn-out parts for them to replace. ("What do you do when the robot that repairs the robot-repairing robots breaks down?") The protagonists arrive just as things are reaching that point and the world is on the verge of final breakdown.
** In fact it is revealed in the end that {{spoiler|they arrive ''because'' the world is on the verge of final breakdown and they've been brought there as a result of the central AI's desperate attempt to get outside help.}}
** Arguably a subversion. Some items built by the builders where still going strong after several thousand years {{spoiler|i.e. all the stars and planets.}} The artificial discworld (the precursor for THE discworld?) was deliberately inefficient {{spoiler|a message/signature.}}
** [[Larry Niven]]'s [[
* Discussed in [[Alastair Reynolds]]' ''[[Revelation Space]]'':
{{quote|
'''Sajaki:''' From what I gathered on the surface there's very little in the fossil record to substantiate that.
'''Sylveste:''' But there wouldn't be, would there? Technological artefacts are inherently less durable than more primitive items. Pottery endures. Microcircuits crumble to dust. }}
** Also played straight later, as several spacecraft and assorted other bits of Golden Age technology that survived the Melding Plague centuries earlier still
* In ''Empire of the East'' by [[Fred Saberhagen]], set thousands of years [[After the End]], the heroes search for a magic metal elephant to help them in the war. The elephant turns out to be a <s> completely</s> mostly operational nuclear-powered battle tank from before the nuclear holocaust. The armament is dead and the chemical-protective gear crumbles when touched, but the controls still light up, the engine roars, and none of the drive mechanism is broken. This is rare enough on a tank that hasn't been maintained since last ''week''.
* [[
** The whole point was to demonstrate just how ridiculously advanced they were. The archive of the Great Race was explicitly stated to have been built to last any cataclysms in the billions of years it'll remain unused, until they come back to reclaim it. None of the advanced technology of either species has survived, however.
** And Lovecraft was writing before [[Science Marches On|plate tectonics was accepted by geologists]], so the assumption that the cities (not to mention the continents they were built on) could've been patiently sitting there for hundreds of millions of years wasn't ''quite'' as preposterous then.
** Also, the Elder Thing city has "only" been abandoned for about 5 million years, and it's made of * insanely huge* stone blocks.
*** And there was a perfectly good reason why the bodies they found were so "well-preserved"...
* In [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' novel ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy|Dark Force Rising]]'', the characters come across a lost fleet of heavy cruisers which have been missing for <s>sixty</s> [[Retcon|forty]] years. The running lights and life support are still active on most of the ships, but other systems, including engines, weapons, and others are either broken or one use away from disintegrating. A few ancient maintenance droids still make their rounds in the ships, and the main computers seem to be online. One character notes that ships using "full slave rigging" were designed to last. And those were the few left over as bait for a trap since Thrawn had stolen the best ones [[You Are Too Late|before our heroes got there]].
** [[Mr. Exposition|For those who don't know]], "slave rigging" means that a ship designed to run with a crew of 16,000 is refitted to run for the rest of its useful life with a crew of 2,000 or so with a massive networked computer system, which turns out to be a huge problem if part of the living crew goes crazy from space disease.
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** Earlier in the ''Foundation'' series, we see centuries-old power plants still operational. Somewhat justified, in that they're being maintained by a hereditary caste of technicians (who don't really understand how they work) and were specifically built to last by an uber-advanced civilization.
* In ''[[Illium]]'' and ''Olympos'' civilization has been out of touch for long that most of the planet has basically been ''forgotten'' yet a transcontinental gondola system still functions.
* Averted in ''[[
* Mentioned in the [[Tortall Universe|Song of the Lioness]] when one character relates stories of the mysterious Old Ones; their society, existing millenia before the current human one, had a cultural fear of aging, and they treated everything they owned with something to keep it from decaying. The method was [[Lost Technology|lost,]] but some of their artifacts did, in fact, survive.
* Inverted in ''Something From The [[Nightside]]'', when John visits a devastated possible future via a Timeslip. London appears to have been abandoned for thousands of years, as plastic and metal have completely degraded and even stone falls to dust at a touch. Yet {{spoiler|it's only a few ''decades'' since the Lilith War, which had subjected the landscape to entropic forces as the opposing sides drained energy from the world to power their attacks}}.
* Averted in Joan Hess's Maggody mysteries, where the ramshackle homestead of {{spoiler|Robin Buchanon}} is shown progressively falling to bits, year by year, in later books after {{spoiler|her}} death.
* Justified in [[Arthur C. Clarke
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Black Colossus", one such building in the middle of ruins obviously has something keeping it like that.
{{quote|
* Scott Westerfeld's [[Uglies]] series, set 500-ish years into the future, has the Rusty Ruins. They're what's left of a major US city, including the metal shells of skyscrapers and roller coasters, which the main character uses for magnet-based [[Hover Board|hoverboarding]].
** Subverted in that the Rusty Ruin's standing structures are rare in the series: the people in Tally's city sprayed them with something to preserve them as an example of a Rusties' city. There are other remains in the series that the characters hoverboard on (the iron from railroad tracks, mostly) but they're generally collapsed and rusted to pieces.
* In ''Across A Billion Years'' by [[Robert Silverberg]] the protagonist (who is a junior member of a mixed alien achaeological expedition) is off to a dig site containing artifacts of the High Ones, a race that existed over a BILLION years ago, give or take a hundred million years. All the technology found is in perfect working order including a large sphere that proves to be a holographic projector that sends them questing after the lost secrets of these ancient precurser beings. Think about that, the percentile error alone covers a span of geological time greater than the death of the dinosaurs all the way to now and the stuff works perfectly even advanced robots stored on asteroids in the depths of space. Even if something is 100.00 percent proof against rust, corrosion by oxygen, UV radiation, deterioration caused by plants taking root, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|inedible]], over that time scale you'd expect it to be engulfed in lava or hit by an asteroid.
* ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' had three abandoned town-sized colony ships orbiting without maintainance for two millenia or so, with [[Deflector Shields]] active, orbital corrections properly performed and [[Antimatter]] containment stable (which, of course, makes two previous points even more important). Granted, those were slow-ships made to hold well for a few centuries, while the nearest repair facility is several light years away and most of the crew are [[Human Popsicle|human popsicles]].
* In [[Terry Goodkind]]'s "[[The Sword of Truth]]" series, many of the items in the Wizard's Keep are thousands of years old. Granted, some are protected by magic, but apparently even clothes can last for three thousand years.
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* The Great Ship from [[Robert Reed]]'s ''Great Ship'' universe spent a couple billion years drifting towards the Milky Way. Aside from superficial damage to the exterior hull, all the on-board systems work perfectly fine with no damage.
* Averted with Antrax, the titular [[Big Bad]] of the second book in ''[[The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara]]''. Antrax is a [[Master Computer|sapient supercomputer]] guarding knowledge of the technological age that preceded the current [[Shannara]] 'verse, and its outpost's automated defenses still work after several hundred years. However, it's noted that Antrax is self-maintaining, and that it's reaching its limits despite this (particularly with its power supply).
* Played with in [[Andre Norton]]'s ''Star Man's Son''. Two hundred years after [[World War III|the atomic war]], [[Fire-Forged Friends|Fors and Arskane]] find containers of fruit that're still good—but only if it's a glass jar rather than a metal can, and they need to check carefully for signs of the lid's seal decaying. Most automobiles and trucks are heavily rusted and unusable; the (nuclear-powered) "sealed engine" vehicles, however, are better-preserved for some reason and can sometimes even be made to run briefly—Fors mentions someone else having driven one for a quarter mile before the engine died permanently. When he and Arskane try the same, the tires shred off the wheels and the engine dies after less than a hundred feet. They're at the top of a hill-slope, though, and manage to coast down for quite a ways. This is important because hostile [[Mutants|Beast Things]] are attacking, but can't keep up with the car.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'':
▲== Live Action TV ==
** In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', Archer is transported to an abandoned Earth in the 31st century. There, he finds a library with books that are still readable.
*** The episode, however, doesn't really tell us ''when'' Earth was abandoned, though it's implied to be sometime before the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine era, so it ''might'' be one of the rare instances of ''Enterprise'' avoiding a screw-up.
** Let's not forget the ''[[Star Trek:
*** If there's no life on the ship, you don't really need life support - so as long as the ship remains sealed (or just bits) then it isn't beyond reason that there is still some breathable air in at least some compartments.
** Or TNG's ''Time's Arrow'' where {{spoiler|Data's head}} is found to still be in working condition after about half a ''millennium''. Underground. With a postmortem-programmed message still recorded and intact inside. That was programmed using a steel file. Not only was it still working, it was returned to service and seems none the worse for its advanced age, throughout the remainder of the series and movies!
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*** Open space is without oxygen and water - so no oxidation and no rust. Fuel is in a sealed container (could you imagine driving a car that leaked fumes?), so there could be some left. Oil in the engine probably boiled off in vacuum, though, so the cylinders could seize - and the battery would be deader than a lump of lead after that time.
** In the TNG episode "Contagion", they come across a perfectly functioning pan-galactic teleporter, which was built over 200,000 years ago... and the planet it was found on was an uninhabitable wasteland... which was made that way via orbital bombardment, around the same time.
* Averted in the ''[[
** Played straight in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", where the ruins of a civilisation that imprisoned what could very well be Satan (as well as the prison itself) predating time itself and containing writing even [[Living Ship|the TARDIS]] [[Translator Microbes|is unable to translate]] still stand circa the 41st-42nd century.
* ''[[
** According to the novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'', the ship was originally used for extremely long periods of deep space exploration before being converted into a mining
** Of course, with [[
** Actually addressed in the show, for comic effect, Holly's IQ has degraded from 6000 to 6. And attempts to revert this do not go well.
* This problem is mostly averted or justified in ''[[Stargate SG
** In the episode Moebius, Daniel takes what appears to be a small commercial camcorder on a time-travel 5000 years into the past. When the team screws up the timeline, he leaves the camcorder in a buried jar to be unearthed in the 21st Century. The [[Alternate History]] SG-1 watches the tape with little difficulty (Hammond says only that the battery needed to be recharged) and take the camera with them to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], then leave it buried '''again''' for the back-to-normal SG-1 to find, meaning this simple piece of home electronics has made a 10,000 year round-trip journey!
*** It is mentioned that Daniel left it in a canopic stasis jar of Goa'uld origin. Also it may have not been the same camera.
* In the spinoff ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' features this in spades. Alpha is ''not'' limber or possessing of sufficient dexterity to have kept the place running for 10,000 years. Dai Shi's palace also survived 10,000 years with no repair, and the haunts of the demons in ''Lightspeed Rescue'' made it for 3000 with no maintenance while all its inhabitants were [[Sealed Evil in
** Averted with the ancient Shogunzords (so old ''Zordon'' considers them "ancient"), which required Finster reverse-engineer technologies from the much newer Falconzord in order to render them operational again.
** Also somewhat averted in the above: the MMPR Command Center is less than two hundred years old, and from its exterior appearance in the 1880s, has been continuously under construction and maintenance since then.
* The titular [[Aquila]] was [[Ancient Astronauts|an alien battlecruiser's]] [[Escape Pod|lifepod]] which crashed on Earth thousands of years ago, where it was later found and used to explore the world by a Roman centurion. After that, it then spent ''another'' thousand years or so buried underground before being discovered by two boys - still in fully working order.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[
* Averted in the ''D20 Apocalypse'' supplement for ''[[
* Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight with ancient human technology in ''[[Warhammer
* Justified in ''[[Exalted]]'': Most [[Lost Technology|First Age technology]] is self-maintaining, so even after hundreds of years of moldering in some forgotten ruin or other, they'll still work perfectly. Since Solars were the only ones who could obtain or create the materials and enchantments that make this possible, however, all [[Magitek]] made since the Usurpation requires periodic maintenance to remain operational.
* Anything from ''[[GURPS]]
* [[
** Also, presumably if you're planning to pass a [[Humongous Mecha]] off to you kids, you're going to keep it maintained. Same applies to [[Drop Ships]], which you don't exactly want to be held together by rusty bolts if you're coming down into an atmosphere at Mach 3 inside a ship that is about as aerodynamic as the Sydney Opera House. Unmaintained and poorly maintained [[
* An old [[Traveller]] supplement detailed the Darrians, a minor human (space-elvish) offshoot in the Spinward Marches which had destroyed its own advanced (
* ''[[Rifts]]'' only uses this a little. Though the physical ruins of some cities and towns still stand a few centuries ''After'' [[After the End]], the chances of finding anything ''usable'' in them is pretty much nil. However, ever so often, a cache of military equipment from the previous age, specifically stated to be Ragnarok-Proofed, is found.
** This has been partially subverted recently, as it's been revealed that many of those caches are much more recent, and were deliberately left for people to find.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'', {{spoiler|some of the technology created by Those Who Came Before}} is in perfect condition after being lost and buried for who knows how many millenia; Altair even wondered if the Pieces of Eden might just be leftover scraps that they wouldn't have given a second thought about despite how wondrous they seem. The secret chamber under {{spoiler|the Vatican}} is in remarkably good shape, and it's suggested there are more places just like it.
** Probably Justified, as {{spoiler|Those Who Came Before}} are shown to have been incredibly advanced, to the point of being [[Clarke's Third Law|beyond human comprehension]].
* Justified/handwaved in ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** [[Lampshade
* You can't swing a sword in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games without hitting a fully functional relic of a lost civilization:
** ''[[
** The Lonka (or Ronka) Ruins of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', buried beneath the surface for thousands of years, work well enough to activate computerized defense systems and artillery when raised into the skies.
** The Gardens in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' were built by the Centra, an ancient civilization that was obliterated during the last Lunar Cry. Though derelict by the time they're turned into SeeD schools, the technology that transforms them into flying, mobile stations works perfectly fine. There's also the appropriately named, fueled & functioning Ragnarok, which spent seventeen years drifting in space. In the Ragnarok's case, it makes some sense (space being a fairly safe environment for preservation) as the ship appeared to be in low-power mode and not using any oxygen thanks to the alien things running loose on the ship that didn't require it. Even more impressive is the Lunatic Pandora, a massive, mountain-sized craft that was buried in the ocean for the better part of two decades but remained fully functional when it was recovered. Those Estharian engineers ''really'' know their craft.
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* Averted in ''[[Half Life]] 2''. The world is one giant ruin, and the only technology that still works reliably is being maintained by either the alien invaders or human survivors.
** Note that the game takes place only twenty years after the alien invasion, so most of the buildings are still standing and such, although many are falling apart.
* ''[[
** Although the Eldridge crashed into Earth tens of thousands of years ago, ''and broke up'' as it hit the surface, its individual systems (such as the security robots, laser turrets, and defense reflectors, and the computer systems needed to run them) work as if they had been built yesterday.
** Additionally, there's the Gears themselves (giant mecha found buried beneath the surface), some of which come from the previous civilization, but the most powerful ones are much, much older than that and presumably come from the Eldridge itself.
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*** {{spoiler|you forget that Xenogears revolves around the Zohar, so its not unlikely that it literally Deus Ex Machina-ed some mecha for the people who would eventually free it... hell, that is why it reincarnated the same dumbasses again and again throughout the centuries}}.
*** Hell: the civilisation that built the Eldridge managed to {{spoiler|''enslave god''}}, so their gadgets should at least be able to endure a few millenia.
* While ''[[
* Avoided by ''[[
** Similarly, after [[The Slow Path|spending a couple of hundred years]] enshrined in a forest temple, Robo had to be repaired ''again'' by Lucca, proving that his technology isn't durable without constant maintenance.
*** To be fair, he did bring that forest back almost singlehandedly. A forest the size of a small country. I'm thinking that didn't help his durability any.
* One part of ''[[Metal Slug|Metal Slug 3D]]'' has Marco fall into decently preserved ruins of an ancient alien civilization... 8 billion years old.
* Averted with glee in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Alpha Gaiden'', wherein they are teleported to a strange and distant world with a mishmash of technology, only to discover it is their future, some unknown amount of years. Almost nothing from the past has survived but technology specifically sealed in Mountain Cycles, chambers made to maintain whatever is in it indefinitely.
** ...which is a plot point taken from ''[[Turn
* Justified in ''[[Halo]]''. The eponymous rings are in perfect working condition, but there's robots to upkeep everything, and factories that build robots, etc. The Forerunners built these things to last.
* In ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'', you can find several artifacts from the original ''[[Mega Man (
** Of course, then it turns out that the common people {{spoiler|''are'' [[Lost Technology]] themselves; a form of robot called a 'Carbon Unit', and the last actual, biological human died a very, ''very'' long time ago. Of course, we're talking [[Lost Technology]] capable of sexual reproduction here.}}
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is littered with Prothean relics and buildings, despite the fact that the Protheans died many thousands of years ago.
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**** Which is again discussed in the ''From Ashes'' DLC mod for ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'': apparently the only reason the Prothean pods failed on Ilos was lack of power. {{spoiler|There's still one pod with a very-much-alive [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|inhabitant]] in the Prothean bunker on Eden Prime}}.
** In the second game, the Krogan homeworld of Tuchanka was apparently bombed into ruins during the Krogan Rebellions around 1000 AD. By AD 2185 it is apparently still in the grips of a nuclear winter complete with constant sandstorm, yet many of the ruins are still intact enough that you can find a recognisable radar dish, pyramidal skyscraper or even an unexploded bomb with the casing intact.
* When you get to the sunken city of Thor in ''[[
** Technology made by the [[Precursors|Quartz]], ranging from a simple lever-operated door to an entire mobile fortress, works perfectly after 2000 years in ''[[
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series takes place a number of years after a nuclear holocaust wiped out every major population center on the planet. Despite that, ''[[Fallout]]'' has completely abandoned sewer systems that haven't collapsed fifty years after the last human could have walked through them, ''[[Fallout 3]]'' is set 200 years after the War, and there are ''still'' freestanding wooden house support beams, identifiable cars ([[Every Car Is a Pinto|that explode]]), glass soda bottles that still have <s>good-tasting</s> potable liquid in them, and ''a standing Washington monument''. The most grievous example? Abraham Lincoln's [https://web.archive.org/web/20120119075242/http://americanhistory.si.edu/
** You don't want to know what's in the food that leaves it edible 200 years after a nuclear holocaust.
** One point about the game is that it's set in an alternate universe, where on the one hand technology leapt forward while on the other the cultural and societal mores stayed roughly in the 1950s, back before planned obsolescence was part of every car design. (Let's face it: restoring a '55 T-Bird will likely still be possible in 2055. Good luck doing the same for an '05 Mustang.) It doesn't cover two hundred years of decay, but things were designed to last back in the '50s.
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** Presumably this also explains why one can enter an area that was hit directly by a nuke (the Glow, for instance) and find computers and other electronics in perfect working order. EMP shielding was serious business in 2077.
** [[Fridge Brilliance|Actually, that ties into the vacuum tubes]]. Vacuum tube computers may be slower, clunkier, and overall less efficient, but they lack the vulnerability to electromagnetic pulses that modern computers have.
** In Fallout 3 one of the most egregious examples is the presence of a functioning power grid 200 years after the holocaust. Seriously, every single intact computer you find, even those in half-demolished, completely abandoned buildings, still somehow has a working power source. And at least one computer entry mentions the user having found buried power lines and tapped into the still-functioning portions of the power grid. [[Fallout: New Vegas]] largely averts this by having various postwar organizations running, maintaining and fighting over several prewar power plants. This still doesn't explain how various long-abandoned buildings have power, though.
*** Actually it's established somewhere in the canon that there are portable small nuclear reactors, which are those things you blow up in the subway stations. This also explains why every car that still has an engine can explode (they are run off nuclear power)
* Used and abused in the ''Zelda'' series, which not only takes place over a period of thousands of years, but already has ancient [[Magitech]] in the chronological beginning, which is ''still'' running perfectly by the chronological end, despite being used (and not at all maintained) fairly frequently throughout. The Master Sword in particular is notable, as it is never shown being cleaned of blood and spends centuries at a time exposed to the elements, yet still hasn't shown any signs of rust.
** The Master Sword isn't made of iron, and it's explicitly magic. I think that one's justified. The bow you get in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
*** Yes it is, and it's the same justification. There's a reason it's called "Fairy Bow".
*** The bow now seems like it could be the same one from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* Done in ''[[Marathon
{{quote|
'''Pfhor computer terminal:''' The quality of the machinery is quite extraordinary, and most of the computer terminals are still functional even after two thousand years. }}
** Justified, in that {{spoiler|the S'pht have been so advanced for so long that prior to meeting the Pfhor couldn't conceive of non-cybernetic intelligence. They were originally created to serve as servants of the Jjaro, a race so advanced that they could warp entire planets instantly through space millions of years before the game's timeline.}}
* ''[[Wild
** Of course, you've still got facilities/bits of tech built thousands of years before game start ''in working order'' in 3...
* Overplayed to the extreme in [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
** Probably justified, since they already know that the plan will work due to time shenanigans, as the game never really makes up its mind on how the time travel works. It's a minor plot hole in a game riddled with huge ones. Also, it's a Chaos Emerald, the series' go to [[McGuffin]] for any given miracle required. it could probably not only stop itself from being destroyed, but also protect a sleep mode enabled Omega.
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' features the Lost City of Ehn'gha, constructed by a long-dead race that inhabited the Earth before mankind showed up. It's remarkably intact, though it's use as a Guardian colony may have something to do with that. The resident [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] also manages to survive for longer than your average book would, but then it is protected by Magick.
* A strangely appropriate trope for [[Ragnarok Online]], where the Juperos Ruins and its machinations are still in surprisingly good shape.
* [[
** It's more averted in ''Bioshock2'', which shows Rapture or what's left of it in a ''considerably'' more decayed state to the point that it would be a matter of time before the sea reclaims it altogether.
* In [[Metro 2033]], guns and ammo specifically are Ragnarok-proof, to the point that pre-war guns are considered rare and expensive and military-grade ammo from [[After the End|before the end]] is actually the game's currency, as well as being much more effective than post-war "dirty" ammo.
** Possibly justified with the relatively recent End. Thousands upon thousands of rifles dunked in grease and arsenaled by the Soviet Union are in perfect working order to this day, along with ammunition of similar vintage.
* ''[[
* The Xel'naga from [[
* ''[[Caves of Qud]]'' has this trope going on in full force with its many [[Lost Technology]] artifacts and [[Killer Robot
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''; one Engineer quest in ''Legion'' requires you to find the inventor of [[Robot Buddy| the Blingtron units.]] You don't find him, but you find his granddaughter, who directs you to his lab, which is underwater, due to an earthquake causing part of the shore of Tanaris to sink. Despite being underwater for years, the lab's generator, elevator, and many lights still work.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Adventurers
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''
** [
* Lampshaded in ''[[Starslip]]'' with Vore<ref>AKA [[Checkerboard Nightmare|Vaporware]]</ref>, a robot from the 21st century found sealed inside a ''water heater'' launched into space the 35th:▼
** Eina-afa is a few million years (1-2 galactic "extinction cycles") old, but it does have automated systems for maintenance of anything that isn't built from near-unbreakable exotic materials. Oisri from the same era is not as overtly complicated, but it had gravitics up and running, so who knows what else; it was still covered with micro-engraved text all over, but the surface was protected by a layer of ice.
{{quote| '''Vore''': [[What Year Is This?]] How long was I in there?<br />▼
** The [[Dyson Sphere|All-Star]] is at least dozens of extinction cycles old, then again, it has enough of ''unused'' processing power that it could transfer the entire population of a galactic civilization at its peak, at least over a hundred times over, and run a thriving noosphere for them all.
'''Vanderbeam''': By our estimation, 1420 years.<br />▼
** Petey is [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-04-17 sceptical] about this as an approach.
{{quote|'''Petey''': Because "needs no maintenance" is a lie. When entropy finally exposes the lie, nobody knows HOW to do maintenance. Then everybody dies, and entropy wins again.}}
▲* Lampshaded in ''[[Starslip]]'' with Vore,<ref>AKA [[Checkerboard Nightmare|Vaporware]]</ref>
'''Vore''': Man! The Japanese build things to ''last!'' }}
* [[Sweet and Sour Grapes (
* ''[[Irregular Webcomic!]]'' [//www.irregularwebcomic.net/139.html observes] that alien tech, no matter how old and abused, "either works perfectly or blows up. No middle ground. You never hear of an enigmatic alien device eating someone's ATM card."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]''. It's very doubtful that the working machinery and the wrecked cars that everybody tosses around like footballs would be anything but dust in the year 3994. Same for all of the buildings which are ruined but still standing.
* Partially justified and averted in "Artifacts", an episode of ''[[
* Old New York is in surprisingly well-preserved ruins a thousand years later under New New York in ''[[Futurama]]'' when Fry, Leela and Bender go there to find Fry's lucky seven-leaf clover, or when Fry and Bender escape Leela's career chip needle.
** The mutants have been working there in the meantime. So there's that.
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** There's also the cryogenics lab where Fry and others throughout the series are frozen. It remains completely functional and undisturbed while the rest of New York appears to get destroyed several times.
*** Justified in that {{spoiler|The niblonians (specifically Nibbler) froze him on purpose and would be watching over him/protecting him so he can save the universe in the future.}}
* ''Cadillacs And Dinosaurs''. ([[Hand Wave
* The ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "Hereafter" has the JL's orbital Watchtower's communication system still functional after 75 years in a jungle without maintainance. Prior to that, it spent nearly thirty thousand years in Earth orbit before falling. [[Memetic Badass|Even Batman]] can't build 'em ''that'' good. Vandal Savage even lampshades how absurdly well its held up.
* Lampshaded then subverted in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. An ancient, abandoned city is in pretty good shape, but then it turns out the inhabitants still live there, just in hiding. No proofing, just actual upkeep.
* Averted in Disney's ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]''. Although some of the technology left by the Great Gummies still works after an unknown period of neglect (possibly over 100+ years), some do need to be cleaned/repaired/refueled before they will work. Many episodes also show that Gummi Glen only continues to exist due to the Gummies continuing to care for it - disused quick tunnel tracks are seen to have collapsed, the books in an abandoned Gummi library are seen to have rotted away, etc.
* ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'': The four ancient starships are still spaceworthy in spite of spending millennia: mostly buried (''Hyperborea''), completely buried (''Ogygia''), sitting with the lower decks in a lake (''Lemuria''), or lying at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean (''Atlantis''). Justified in that they have very good self repair systems that have been doing upkeep the whole time, and that they were built to be extremely tough in order to protect not only their crew and passengers, but also their [[Plot Coupon]] cargo (we're talking god power stuff here).
* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Currently, teams of scientists, linguists, and anthropologists are struggling to properly identify Nuclear Waste burial sites. It sounds simple at first... until you consider the half-life of this crap will [[They Don't Make Them Like They Used To|far out live any facility or structure that contains it]], the memory of what it was, or our descendants' ability to read the warnings on the labels, leaving us [[Neglectful Precursors]] to our own descendants. As an added twist, future archaeologists might successfully decode the labels, just to brush off our warnings as the [[Sealed Evil in
** The Chernobyl facility in
* The [
* Don't forget all the time capsules we've buried, some of which are intended to be opened thousands of years in the future, which are deliberately Ragnarok-proofed.
** Subverted in that for many time capsules, nobody bothered to write down where they were and everybody who knew ''oops'' died of old age.
** Turns out the ragnaroof-proofing on the car time capsule mentioned below wasn't sufficient enough (after only 50 or so years).
** Children's TV show ''[[Blue Peter]]'' dug up its 1971 time capsule in 2000. Half of its contents had turned to slush. Oops.
* Egyptian tombs were also deliberate attempts at Ragnarok proofing, as the ancient Egyptians believed the body had to remain intact forever for their afterlife to work properly. They didn't have all that much success, at least in the case of the Pharaohs, as the conspicuous and treasure-filled tombs tended to draw robbers. That being said, the mummies themselves, while they aren't exactly full-fleshed, still have some meat on their bones, which is almost achievement enough for any sort of organic material that old.
** What's inside them may be (as a rule) long gone to looters... the [[Pyramid Power|pyramids]] themselves are a powerful example of this trope. The Great Pyramid is over four thousand years old and spent most of that time as the tallest structure on the planet. It lacks only its limestone facade from ancient times; much of which was deliberately removed a few centuries later, to use for building houses. Barring the destructive impulses of its [[Humans Are
** Ironically just dropping a body in the sand will preserve it very well as it will dry out and plenty of soft tissue (skin) will survive. Burying a body in a coffin in sand retains enough moisture to let the body rot leaving just bones (both types of actual remains can be seen in the British Museum). Thus the entire mummification process is an attempt to recreate (and improve) the effect of the very simplest form of burial.
* Any object tossed into the vacuum of space can be expected to last a ''long'' time, as there's nothing to erode it except temperature changes, vacuum effects, radiation and micrometeorites. Supposedly, footprints on the Moon could last as long as ten million years if undisturbed (needless to say, more solid things could presumably last a lot longer), and those of the Apollo astronauts are believed to still be there today. Many of our satellites crash from high atmospheric drag once they expend their stationkeeping propellant, but anything in a stable orbit could easily outlast any artifacts on Earth's surface by a long, long time.
** Depends what it's made of. Space conditions can be ''very'' harsh on some substances.
*** With that said, most of the junk currently orbiting the Earth in space can be reasonably expected to fall out of the sky in anywhere from 100-1000+ years. However, some stuff ''will'' stay up there unless disturbed by external forces.
* The book ''The World Without Us'', History Channel's copycat program, ''Life After People'', and National Geographic's adaptation, ''Aftermath: Population Zero'', very vividly and accurately illustrate what would happen to everything if humans suddenly disappeared, wrapped up in a big ol' theme of "[[You Suck|humans suck, yeah?]]". The digest version pretty much is what the main article of this trope says.
** Less "humans suck" and more "humans are utimately small, ephemeral things in the existence of this planet much less the universe." [[
* A working car, a (not enough) tightly sealed time capsule, and only half a century of waiting? Result: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6759273.stm A rusty mess].
** The people who designed that capsule were idiots. Yes, it was "strong enough to withstand nuclear attack" (which was, in fact completely useless: nukes have been used ''how'' many times since then?), but they [[Didn't Think This Through|didn't bother ''waterproofing'' it]]! The car was soaked for the entire duration!
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** Most buildings made of brick and stone are technically Ragnarok Proof. The best example are medieval houses and cathedrals that are several centuries old (some churches may be more than 1000 years old) and they are still in use. Despite weather, wars and natural disasters. In Central Europe many XIX-century townhouses are in definitely better shape (despite lack of maintenance) than concrete housing projects built in 50's and 60's.
** The biggest danger to Greek and Roman ruins is modern air pollution. Acid rain, ozone, and other pollutants are destroying them rapidly.
* [
* Don't forget about the Incan ruins, which have lasted so long because they were built to withstand earthquakes.
* In the days before computers could tell you ''exactly'' how much cement was needed or bricks were required to do a job, the standard way of doing things was to throw as much stuff as possible in, unintentionally
* There's actually only one reason that everything we make isn't inherently Ragnarok Proof: economics. With our current technology level, we could use supercooled niobium for electrical storage, germanium as a semiconductor in place of silicon, tantalum for capacitors, iridium contacts and casings to resist corrosion, and that's just for simple electronic devices. If we did, they could all survive corrosion by water, air and living things for thousands if not millions of years, many times longer than what we actually use. The only problem is, no one wants to pay a million dollars for a wristwatch that'll outlive them by a million years, particularly when the march of technology, or fashion, ensures that it'll be obsolete long before their own death. Actually, even before our current level of technology, the majority of whatever current technology happens to be can usually be perfected into ultra-long-lasting versions. There are town clock towers still in service, with a bell that chimes every hour, that haven't needed maintenance in over a century; not bad for a craft that's probably only three centuries old. And then there's all of the old buildings mentioned above. If something is engineered to last, it will last; the only question is how long it's worth engineering it to last, since most people aren't too interested in how long something will last beyond their own lifetime. If you supposed that a society ever reached the point where there was no need to ever improve on a certain design and no market factors rationing raw materials, you'd probably find that those things would be built to last forever.
** There's also the matter of whether we actually WANT things to last that long for non-'not caring beyond our lifetime' reasons. A major archaeological 'resource' for telling things about the lives of Classical and pre-Classical people are shards of pottery and the remains of tools, containers and household objects in other words. While our modern day plastic bottles and powertools will probably be of great interest to archaeologists from the year 4000, we specifically recycle what we can and attempt to make what we can't biodegradable as much as possible not because we don't want to leave anything to future generations, but because we want to leave them resources in addition to useless, easily-replaced junk. And said future generations would probably appreciate our attempts to leave them a habitable, clean world rather than an ancient artefact-rich polluted wasteland.
* Provided they're well stored, Some gramophone records are likely to last thousands of years due to being made of vinyl.
** Provided they're [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510160850/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7228180621602784407
* Microfilm and microfiche are resilient information storage technologies, because all that's required to read them is light and a lens.
** Even then they need careful handling and storage as they use gelatin, the stuff used to cultivate moulds and bacteria in Petri dishes.
* [[Adolf Hitler]] expected the Third Reich to last for a thousand years, and specifically directed Nazi building projects to keep that in mind.
** Albert Speer, architect and [[Only Sane Man]] in Hitler's regime, pioneered the concept of "ruin value". Taking a note from ancient Greek and Roman buildings, he argued that future Reich buildings and monuments should be built to last and from appropriate materials so that, when they eventually degraded, they would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins like the Colosseum and the Parthenon. His plans for post-war Berlin, including a massive parliament building for the Reichstag; a completely reorganized capital center encompassing the new Reichstag, the old preserved building, and other government offices; a large processional road connecting the capital center to a triumphal arch easily five times the size of the Arc de Triumphe; and a stone stadium meant to be Germany's permanent Olympic home and capable of hosting nearly a half million people, were all quite remarkable. Unfortunately for fans of Speer's style (and the fact that [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Trope Codifier]] for every Evil Overlord stereotype in modern fiction, was his biggest fan should tell you all you need to know) but fortunately for everyone else, Germany [[You Should Know This Already|lost the war]]. The few peacetime projects that Speer had gotten off the ground ended up being made of conventional concrete and steel rather than his preferred materials, and most of those were eventually torn down or destroyed during the war. Today, his only architectural legacy in Berlin is a single lamppost along his planned triumphal road.
* In 2012, a time capsule that had been entombed for 100 years was removed from the cornerstone of a GE building in Cleveland, OH. In addition to documents and photographs, it contained five light bulbs, at least one of which [http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/general_electric_opens_time_ca.html worked fine].
* The 2011 winter brought us a snow-based roof collapse...of a roofing company. [[Sarcasm Mode|That raises the confidence]].
* Mount Rushmore. It is an an area that is geologically stable, and not prone to natural disaster. The granite facing erodes at a rate of roughly 1 inch per 10,000 years. It should be distinguishable as a non-natural construct for over 1 million years, and will exist for an estimated 7.2 million years.
** Assuming it doesn't get hit by an asteroid. And who knows what civilizations after our own might decide to do with it.
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[[Category:Older Is Better]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
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