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iPhone 17 Pro Max Sealed in Time Capsule Until 2276
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ghostface147
macrumors 601
Fascinating to know I'll never know what the people in the future will think about our stuff today.
emmab2006
macrumors 6502a
Yea if they can find it when the earth is basically a desert because people are ignoring global warming. good luck finding this thing.
Good to know about this. Wonder how technology will develop over the next 250 years!
dr01d
macrumors newbie
"to be reopened in 2276" - lol, this is very wishful (borderline delusional) thinking given the state of all the things.
They should have put this instead…
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HouseLannister
macrumors 68040
Somebody is going to dig it up and take the RAM when no one is looking far before the battery is an issue.
everlast3434
macrumors 6502a
iMas70
macrumors 65816
An iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange has been sealed inside a 250 year time capsule as part of America's Semiquincentennial celebrations, with the device not due to be seen again until the 23rd century.
America250, the congressionally appointed nonprofit leading the 250th anniversary celebrations, announced that "America's Time Capsule" was officially sealed and buried at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, to be reopened in 2276.
The iPhone was included through America250's "America Innovates" initiative as a representative of the cutting edge of American innovation and technology in 2026, with the device showcasing advances in handheld computing, imaging, and connectivity that have transformed how people work, communicate, and create in the 21st century. The device contains "digital artifacts" in the Notes app, intended to give whoever opens the capsule in 2276 a small window into everyday life in 2026.
The capsule itself was built to give the iPhone and everything else inside it the best possible chance of surviving intact. Developed with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and preservation experts at the Library of Congress, it uses a 900 pound, precision milled stainless steel cylinder sealed with indium, a soft metal that deforms under compression to fill microscopic imperfections in the sealing groove. It was covered with a 1,100 pound stainless steel bell jar that creates a protective air pocket to keep the vessel dry underground.
Beyond the iPhone, the capsule holds contributions from all 56 states and territories and all three branches of the federal government, including a feather from Civil War era bald eagle mascot "Old Abe" (Wisconsin), fabric from the Wright brothers' 1903 aircraft (Ohio), and an AI generated response from Anthropic's Claude submitted by California imagining the state 250 years from now.
Article Link: iPhone 17 Pro Max Sealed in Time Capsule Until 2276
I hope they got Applecare.
Attirex
macrumors 65816
Hm. Well, modern historians seem to recreate all sorts of ancient activities based on a whole lot less data--like, they know from how a flax seed is resting just so in the shard of a broken clay vessel that Xerxes of Thebes visited his second cousin the next town over on the second day of March 331 BBC and that it was cloudy and he had a toothache.
He is the one they really ought to have buried (alive) and then forgotten entirely about!
Gengar
macrumors 65816
We all know or can look up the words that were written 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence. But still it is cool to see the real document. No technical reason why it is cool; people just seem to like it. I think the same with an iPhone. In 250 years from now, people could look up the specs and maybe even run the software from an iPhone, but they will think it's cool to see one in perfect condition, even if the battery no longer works. There are so many iPhones that I doubt this will be the only one to survive.
Populus
macrumors 604
Came to say this same thing. I guess many of us had the same thought.
decimortis
macrumors 6502a
This thing will be in the ground 100 years longer than "Invention of the telephone to iPhone 17".
I hope our lightly-irradiated robot overlords know what it is when they crack open the capsule.
I hope our lightly-irradiated robot overlords know what it is when they crack open the capsule.
All jokes aside, they definitely are smart enough to have considered this. But I don't see any information on what they actually did.
It's an interesting question. How do you preserve the battery for 250 years? There's no way to keep it usable. Maybe they just fully discharged it and vacuum sealed the phone, so there's not much energy to ignite and no oxygen to react with.
Hard to say what civilization would look like. But I'm imagining they would remove that battery and replace it with something with the same voltage and connectors if not the exact same chemistry.
Hopefully it will be a simple electronics project for them.
Eric_WVGG
macrumors 6502a
I see some laugh reactions, but honestly that's my only question.
I doubt humanity will still exist in 250 years.