A phone with current hardware but without a camera notch in the screen. I absolutely hate the notch, it annoys me on a deep level that I can’t get over.

The vastness of time and space.

I think Diaspora by Greg Egan had a chapter with a crab planet, or maybe it was a crab universe. Its been a long time since I read it but I remember a scene where someone kind of turns themselves into a crab so they can talk to alien crabs about math and physics.

That might potentially work if you timed it exactly right but I’m skeptical of the idea of gold as a store of value, I think it will get hammered like every other asset class if we’re talking about the end of the US as a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law. Especially if you have actual physical gold you need to keep secured, if things get bad enough that becomes a real liability. If its not physical gold will it still be there without the US legal system to enforce your rights? I would much rather have a pile of freeze dried food than a pile of gold or a pile of GLD ETF shares if it’s actually a worse case scenario.