The 10,000 Year Clock
The 10,000 Year Clock, also known as the Clock of the Long Now, is a mechanical clock designed to run and keep time for (you guessed it) 10,000 years.
Computer scientist and inventor Danny Hillis [Ed: blew my mind at a TED conference in the early 1990s when he gave a talk about generative AI] came up with the idea for the 10,000 Year Clock in 1995. He wanted to build a clock that would last for 10,000 years as a way to encourage long-term thinking and perspective. To this end, and in 1996, he cofounded the Long Now Foundation alongside Stewart Brand [Whole Earth Catalog, RR4:84], Kevin Kelly, Brian Eno, Peter Schwartz and Alexander Rose. [Ed: Beaucoup de thinking and processing power in that group.]
The clock (hundreds of feet tall) is being designed to withstand 10,000 years of time. A two-metre prototype is on display at the Science Museum in London. It began working on 31 December “01999”, just in time to display the transition to the year “02000”. (Note that in Long Now world, calendar years have five digits, so as to avoid any Y10K issues.)
The clock is eventually intended to be a public monument that people will be able to visit and engage with.
The originally envisioned home for the public clock was atop a remote mountain in Nevada. But Long Now is currently building a full-scale clock of similar design deep within a mountain in the Sierra Diablo ranges near Van Horn in Texas. The site is on property owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is also funding its construction (US$42M and counting).
Watch the short video documenting the start of installation in 2018 below or HERE.
The clock is entirely mechanical, made from long-lasting materials, including titanium, ceramics, quartz, sapphire and 316 stainless steel. But how do you power a clock for 10,000 years? Many options were considered for the power source of the clock. In the current design, a slow mechanical oscillator, based on a falling weight and a torsional pendulum, keeps time inaccurately, but reliably. At noon, the light from the Sun, a timer that is accurate but (due to weather) unreliable, is concentrated on a segment of metal through a lens. The metal buckles and the buckling force resets the clock to noon. The combination of these two systems can, in principle, provide both reliability and long-term accuracy.
The clock is more than a technological marvel; it’s meant to provoke thought about longterm responsibility and foresight, promoting sustainability and care for the future of humanity and the planet.
As cofounder Kevin Kelly writes for Long Now in 2011:
“Building something to last 10,000 years requires both a large dose of optimism and a lot of knowledge. Why would anyone build a clock inside a mountain with the hope that it will ring for 10,000 years? Part of the answer: just so people will ask this question, and having asked it, prompt themselves to conjure with notions of generations and millennia.”
The point of this new clock is to revive and restore the whole idea of the future [RR2:89], and to get us thinking about that future once again.
Almost 30 years after coming up with the idea, Danny Hillis remains committed.
See also: The Year 2000 [RR2:89] & Zeitpyramide [Coming in RR6]
Video
REMORANDOM Book Chapter
