[GrantS]

True, and even more similar to Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel "Last and First Men" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_and_First_Men

And on a much shorter time-scale, similar to Clifford Simak's novel-ish collection of stories "City" from the 1940s onward: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel)