[img_assist|nid=5102|title=a modern proposal|desc=part of the power source of the 10,000 year clock|link=popup|align=right|width=242|height=640]The More things change …
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects,
as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution.
The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today’s
accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. We
hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next
10,000 years.
For those who are curious:
http://www.longnow.org
Thanks for posting this, Mr. Valeska. I’d never heard of this organization, and now I’m very intrigued!
There is an inworld group, “The Long Now Foundation,” that is open to anyone and free to join.
Their groop tile seems to indicate a sim, but I cannot locate it. Have IM’d the group creator…
“Designed by Danny Hillis, the Clock is
designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and
interruption. The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from
sunlight as well as the people that visit it. The primary materials
used in the Clock are marine grade 316 stainless steel, titanium and dry
running ceramic ball bearings. The entire mechanism will be installed
in an underground facility in west Texas.
In 02011, The American Astronomy Society published a paper co-written by Danny Hillis that describes how the Clock reckons time over its 10,000-year design lifetime.”
The idea of planning anything for 10,000 years is certainly a huge leap given that recorded human history so far barely gets to 10,000 years. In that time we’ve seen the rise and fall of the Sumerian, Egyptian, Roman, Ican, Myan and Imperial Chinese Empires.
While I don’t for a second believe that it will last the 10,000 years I’m not going to be around to see it happen anyway. Though the planning for something like this is intriguing. Reminds me of the Abbey of Order of St. Leibowitz. :-)
Even then, the Abbey was only around for about 1800 years.
Good points, Edward. Still, I like the idea of planning for the very long term. It stands in stark contrast to the current culture.
This is definitely a “not the quarry but the chase, not the winning but the race” exercise. LN notes that after the Millennial Year our culture stopped looking long term forward. It seems to be a very high minded group of folks!
considering the thing now a days is short term thinking of a couple years tops, it’s not a bad idea, though I agree it might not be around for the whole time period they’re talking, alot can happen in 10,000 years, though that seems to be the goal of the organization in trying to preserve some things through it, like their language project
I am gratified that there are people out there who are looking into the truly long-term. With the cult of the CEO that seems to dominiate western strategic thinking, we can barely look into the next fiscal quarter.
All hail the Long Now!