Physical businesses that fall on hard times often leave signs in the built environment, like the distinctive facades of deserted or adapted Pizza Huts, but what might social media sites look like in a post-apocalyptic, non-digital world?

For that matter, many giants, from Yahoo! to MySpace, have already crumbled and been replaced. But in this series, graphic artist Andrei Lacatusu imagines the still-strong and thriving leaders of the pack in a future state of IRL disrepair.

Like abandoned offices, retail stores, gas stations or movie theaters, signs for Google, Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, Twitter and Pinterest are seen withered, cracked and eroded by the elements over time. 404 Error: Business Not Found.

The result looks like gloomy snapshots of a ghost town with boarded-up storefronts and rusted-out metal security doors. And the details are quite convincing, with faded paint, chipped light-up signs and missing signage lettering.

This photo-realistic ‘Social Decay’ series was created with a combination of Adobe Photoshop and 3D rendering programs, Autodesk 3DS Max and V-Ray.

Online reviews indicate how popular your favorite place is in general, but cannot tell you whether now is a good time to drop by or if you may be stuck in a crowd or waiting in line – this is where the Density Sensor comes into play.

No need to resort to complex spatial mapping or real-time video sensors with this gadget, a people-counting device that simply tracks passages through doors (attached to the frame). Some more obvious applications include specific bars, restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses that have time-of-day and day-of-week cycles to contend with, but the same data can also help you pick the DMV or grocery store with the shortest line.

In turn, businesses can choose what data to share with customers and what to keep for optimization purposes, offering discounts during less busy times or adjusting when to open and close. Compared to non-networked break-beam technology or real-time surveillance cameras, there is no need to wait for data or face privacy concerns.

Of course, up-to-the-minute incoming and outgoing traffic are just a starting point – architecture firms, for instance, could use extended datasets to anonymously track customer or employee flows through a building and use that data to optimize going forward, shaping extensions or remodels. Ultimately, one could imagine this system being replaced by more detailed heat-mapped trackers keeping tabs on entire spaces, but for now this is a cheap solution to a long-standing problem.

Aiming to revolutionize the most basic material units of construction, these building blocks snap together like LEGO bricks while leaving space for insulation and infrastructure inside and between them.

Designed by Kite Bricks, a startup company with lofty aspirations, these Smart Bricks offer “high thermal control, full passage of pipes, wires, cables and the like, finishes for both indoors and outdoors, extraordinary tensile strength, ease of construction, safety of materials, and total application throughout a structure—floors, ceilings, and walls.”

Among other ecological and cost advantages, a core idea is to reduce the difficulty of construction and the equipment and debris associated with the building process. The bricks can be stacked by hand and are self-supporting from the start – no scaffolding needed.

As for applications: “The brick is amenable for building houses, buildings, bridges and more.. The block is constructed of high-strength concrete with unique properties that allow for … large savings in electricity expenses associated with seasonal heating and cooling. The block allows for faster, cheaper, more precise, and stronger building than is available through traditional building methods.”

Whether this approach will replace bricks as we know them remains to be seen, but the next step will certainly involve full-scale prototypes, albeit hopefully ones more creative and attractive than the rough-and-ready examples shown in the video above.