The clock of the Long Now

I had read about the Long Now Foundation years ago but my all too human preoccupation with what I suppose we must, by contrast, call the short now, drove the foundation and its work from my mind.

Fortunately, writer Kevin Kelly, a board member of the foundation, has written about the foundation's signature project, the 10,000-year clock. The foundation hopes to build many such clocks; the one Kelly described is inside a mountain in western Texas.

The challenges to building anything designed to last for 10,000 years are daunting. Consider that, according to the History Channel show Life After People, no current human construct will last for that long except, possibly, for the figures on Mount Rushmore, and Hoover Dam. (If you're considering a very long-term bet, put your money on Mt. Rushmore, by the way: concrete is good, but granite is better.) The Great Pyramid might survive (though it's possible it will have been buried in the sand by its ten-thousandth year), as might Stonehenge.

These objects, except for Hoover Dam, are made out of rock and don't move. The Clock, as Kelly calls it, isn't made of rock and must move. Its survival for 10,000 years, therefore, would be an unprecedented achievement -- and it means it has no precursors on whose experience the Clock's designers and builders can draw.

For the pessimists out there (and I suppose I count myself among you), the Clock is intended to keep time without human maintenance. The Clock uses an ingenious mechanism that relies only on the sun for this primary function. Marking the passage of that time, however, e.g., by chiming, requires visitors to provide the energy by winding up certain parts of the clock. It's a clever inducement to keep society interested in the Clock -- as long as society lasts, that is. The point, though, is that the Clock doesn't need humans to carry out its mission.

As far as I can tell, the Clock isn't designed to withstand extraordinary crises. If a comet or asteroid strikes anywhere nearby, the Clock will likely be irreparably damaged or destroyed. If the supervolcano under Yellowstone blows and throws enough debris into the atmosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the earth above the Clock, its timekeeping will almost certainly be thrown off. Other, more localized seismic events that affect the structure of the mountain may damage the Clock. A lot can happen in 10,000 years.

Nevertheless, it's a fascinating exercise to think in terms of building for the truly long haul (on the human timescale). And, as the quest to put a man on the moon demonstrated, such seemingly quixotic efforts can yield unexpected boons to society.

Let's hear it for the Long Now Foundation and its Clock!

(Thanks to LongReads for the link.)