We use coinage and alphabets, transmute rocks into metal, have near-universal literacy, fly through the air like birds, bring the fire of the Sun to Earth to slay our enemies, walk on the Moon, transplant hearts and kidneys from one person to another, and bring forth plentiful harvests within glass temples in frozen wastelands.

We craft elephants of iron that swallow us when we wish to travel from one city to another. Upon arrival, they disgorge us unharmed. They run five times as fast as the fastest horse.

Eleven years ago, we finished building a tower that is five times as tall as the Great Pyramid; building it took only six years and 22 million person-hours (so perhaps 1000 people, the size of Merer's aper, though unlike Merer's workers they were enslaved). It's not defensive (towers are almost useless for defense now); it's mostly luxury housing. In two centuries it will be gone.

We turn night into day whenever we wish, making travel at night just as easy as travel in the day.

Only one in 100 children die before age 5 now, a number that was around 20 throughout all human history until a century ago. Most people who are born live threescore years or more. But many fewer people are born compared to our population (which is 250 times bigger than in Merer's time), because now people do not become pregnant unless they want to, usually. Most people do not raise their own children any more; they put them into state institutions except for evenings, weekends, and summertime.

When someone is badly injured or sick, we put their body into a state of temporary death, cut it open, fix the problem, sew them up like a torn sweater, and bring them back to life; it's so commonplace that people sometimes choose to undergo this procedure for cosmetic reasons such as having bigger breasts.

To speak to one another, we often use the power of lightning, invisibly leaping through the air, to convey our thoughts to one another, even though we may be on opposite sides of the earth. We have put thousands of new, tiny moons in the sky because they help this system work better. Usually when we write, instead of using ink, we write in letters of lightning. It's easier that way, because the letters disappear and reappear whenever we wish.

95% of the world's work is now done by servants made of metal such as the elephants I mentioned. For example, almost nobody washes clothes anymore, and we can all listen to music more perfect than any human can play, whenever and wherever we wish, played for us by these metal servants. These servants do not eat food; instead they are fed on lightning made from the black blood of the Earth. Doing too much of this sort of thing is changing the weather and melting the glaciers, so now we are teaching these servants to feed on sunlight instead.

Most countries, especially the militarily strongest, no longer have kings.

We have the same kind of paintings Merer had, but also a different kind of paintings that glow, move, and speak. Sometimes people sit for hours watching these incredibly lifelike paintings, laughing and crying. Sometimes they show us things that are happening right now, far away, and sometimes they show us things that happened in the past, or that never happened.

Most houses no longer have fireplaces. Most people no longer know how to make fire; they have tiny tools that make fire for them.

But sure, basically nothing has changed, because we still use spreadsheets.