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This past weekend, our Airbnb guests had come to town for the Mechanicrawl 02011 event hosted by the Long Now Foundation, whose mission is balancing “faster/cheaper” thinking with its “slower/better” counterpart.   It prompted me to take another look at my copy of their book which I’d picked up at one of their monthly events here in San Francisco a few years ago, to refresh my own thinking with their core ideas.


For those unfamiliar, one of Long Now’s foundational projects is the 10,000-year clock – which when complete will tick once each year, and whose "big hand" will advance one step each 100 years.  Every millennium, a cuckoo will emerge.   Whenever it achieves an extra burst of energy, whether from a human or on its own - the bells of the clock will chime a once-only unique melody. 

A Walk Through Time (which measures time in MYA, or "millions of years ago") reminds us that 10,000 years is but a blip on the planetary radar, even though it seems enormous for even the biggest minds of humanity.  The Long Now Foundation’s own way of thinking about 10,000 years:

“Ten thousand years is about the age of civilization, so a 10K-year Clock would measure out a future of civilization equal to its past. That assumes we are in the middle of whatever journey we are on – an implicit statement of optimism.”

Building a 10-millenium clock prompts a design brief that challenges the mind.   Among the questions raised:

  • what materials will withstand time, the elements, and 10,000 years of gear movement?
  • what energy forms will reliably provide power for 10,000 years?
  • where will the clock (clocks?) reside?
  • who will visit it? who will maintain it?
  • how will our descendants regard it? in the next millennium? In five millennia? In ten milliennia?
  • what happens along the way?
  • what happens next?

 

I am keeping my eyes on circa 02111, when my great-grandchildren will witness the Long Now Clock as its "big hand" advances one step – the first great motion of the 10,000 year Legacy that we are creating today.    

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Sue Lebeck 

  Cool Block Platform Director

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