Time Capsule Opened 10,000 Years Early, Contents Already Obsolete

A time capsule buried in 2025 and intended for opening in the year 12,025 was accidentally excavated by a construction crew in 2031 — only six years into its planned 10,000-year interment — revealing contents that are, by the standards of the intervening six years, already profoundly obsolete. The capsule, a welded stainless steel cylinder buried beneath a community center in Boise, Idaho, contains: a DVD of the film Interstellar (unplayable; no DVD drives exist in 2031), a fidget spinner (cultural relevance expired circa 2018), a printed Wikipedia article on the state of the world in 2025 (factually superseded within months of burial), a $20 bill (still technically legal tender but increasingly unused), and a handwritten note reading 'This is what we were like. We hope you are doing better. — The People of 2025.' The construction foreman who unearthed the capsule described the discovery as 'depressing.' 'I read the note,' said foreman Greg Halverson. 'They hoped we'd be doing better. It's been six years. I don't think we're doing better. We're doing about the same but with slightly different phones. Also I can't play their DVD. I don't know anyone who can play a DVD. My daughter asked me what a DVD was.' The capsule's creators have been located. Retired teacher Martha Bellingham, who organized the burial, expressed disappointment that the capsule was opened 9,994 years ahead of schedule. 'The whole point was that future people would find it and marvel at how we lived,' Bellingham said. 'Instead, present people found it and felt mildly sad. The fidget spinner especially. That was supposed to represent our culture. Now it just represents a very specific four-month period in 2017.' The city has voted to re-bury the capsule with updated contents, though a committee has been unable to identify any current object that 'will still be interesting in 10,000 years and also fits in a cylinder.'