In the mid-2000s, the virtual world of the game Second Life was seen by many as a nascent metaverse, a term for virtual worlds coined by Neal Stephenson. Courtesy of Jin Zan Sometime in the late 01980s or early 01990s, five-time Long Now Speaker Neal Stephenson needed a word to d … | Continue reading
The first book of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series was also published as The 1,000-Year Plan — an indication of the series’ focus on long-term thinking. Cover design by Ed Valigursky Courtesy of Alittleblackegg/Flickr Perusers of The Manual For Civilization, The Long Now Foundat … | Continue reading
The art of Alicia Eggert makes time tangible. . . Read More | Continue reading
Nadia Eghbal is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the internet – and how the dynamics of these subjects play out in software, online communities and generally living life online. Eghbal, who interviewed hundreds of . . . Read More | Continue reading
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. I want to lead you through some of the research that I’ve been doing on a meta-level around long-lived institutions, as well as some observations of the ways various systems have lasted for hundreds of thousands of … | Continue reading
Human beings have an astonishing evolutionary gift: agile imaginations that can shift in an instant from thinking on a scale of seconds to a scale of years or even centuries. Our minds constantly dance across multiple time horizons. One moment we can be making a quickfire respons … | Continue reading
The year 02020, like 02000 before it and 02050 after it, has long captivated the popular imagination as a kind of shorthand for “the future.” Some predictions about life in 02020 are remarkably prescient: In 02004, the National Intelligence Council predicted that an “America firs … | Continue reading
As someone who spent my childhood moving from epidemic to epidemic with my virologist father and epidemiologist mother, I am surprised at the degree of certainty expressed by both optimists and pessimists regarding their predictions of the COVID-19 epidemic. . . Read More | Continue reading
Companies that operate with a long-term mindset tend to outperform their peers over time. But the pressure to achieve short-term quarterly gains often works against longer-term sustainable growth, and can push even the most visionary company into a short-term mindset. In 02019, t … | Continue reading
We humans are changing. We have become so intertwined with what we have created that we are no longer separate from it. We have outgrown the distinction between the natural and the artificial. We are what we make. We are our thoughts, whether they are created by our . . . Read … | Continue reading
Long Now is pleased to announce that we have partnered with GitHub on its new archive program to preserve open source software for future generations. The archive represents a significant step in averting a potential future digital dark age, when much of the software that powers … | Continue reading
Two new projects are making million-year time frames more relatable . . . Read More | Continue reading
La French Tech recently interviewed Long Now Director of Development Nicholas Paul Brysiewicz on the appropriate role of long-term thinking in an increasingly accelerated world. . . Read More | Continue reading
From National Geographic comes a video profiling the durable windmills of Nashtifan, Iran. These windmills constructed over a thousand years ago out of clay, straw and wood are not only still standing; they work just as well as they did when they were first built.In designing and … | Continue reading
Ashley Braun has recently written a feature for Longreads about de-extinction. Her piece profiles Revive & Restore‘s efforts to bring the passenger pigeon and black-footed ferret back from extinction, and features interviews with past Long Now speaker Beth Shapiro and Revive & Re … | Continue reading
Introducing wide-scale refrigeration to a nation’s food system brings about massive changes. Podcaster and journalist Nicola Twilley was able to witness those changes in real-time during a visit to China, where the amount of refrigerated space has grown more than 20x in the past … | Continue reading
On August 6, 02014, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe successfully reached Comet 67P. In addition to studying the comet, Rosetta was able to place one of Long Now’s Rosetta Disks on its surface via its Philae lander. In 02017, ESA released over 400,000 images from the Ros … | Continue reading
Peter Brannen, writing in The Atlantic, details why a popular claim being made on social media isn't true—not to downplay the impact of the fires, but to educate audiences on how the various systems of our planet interact Read More | Continue reading
Members of Long Now London chalking the White Horse of Uffington, a 3000-year-old prehistoric hill figure in England. Photo by Peter Landers. Imagine, if you will, that you could travel back in time three thousand years to the late Bronze Age, with a bird’s eye view of a hill nea … | Continue reading
Geologists have verified that the legend of a great flood passed down orally by the Pacific Northwest’s Klallam people for 2,700 years is not a myth, but a warning. A new study has found that as many as five tsunamis hit an ancient Klallam village in present-day Washington state. … | Continue reading
We are pleased to welcome Patrick Collison to the Long Now board. Collison is the CEO and co-founder of Stripe, a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet.Collison has been in Long Now’s orbit for several years. In 02017, Stripe began sponsoring the … | Continue reading
Last week, The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang profiled a University of Edinburgh science experiment that began in 02014 and—if everything goes according to plan—will conclude in 02514.The experiment is studying the longevity of bacteria, which can remain viable well past the lifespan of … | Continue reading
On the western flank of the Hoover Dam stands a little-understood monument, commissioned by the US Bureau of Reclamation when construction of the dam began in 01931. The most noticeable parts of this corner of the dam, now known as Monument Plaza, are the massive winged bronze sc … | Continue reading
In a recent talk at The Interval, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ursula K Le Guin's student 40 years ago and now a celebrated science fiction writer himself, reflects on Le Guin the teacher, her impact on his work, and how she changed the world. Watch the full video here. | Continue reading
This graphic from the California Water Atlas (1979) represents the water flows of major rivers in California. The yellow figures represent the actual flow measured in a single year, with the peak typically occurring in spring. The corresponding blue figures represent the estimate … | Continue reading
Image by George Steinmetz.This month, The New York Times published an ambitious 30,000 word feature by Nathaniel Rich on how humanity missed its window to address climate change. In the decade of 01979–01989, Rich argues, the world came closer than it ever had to agreeing upon a … | Continue reading
10 years ago, Joe Keane placed a Long Bet that the Large Hadron Collider will destroy Earth by 02018. He was challenged by Nick Damiano. The stakes were $1,000. If Damiano won, the winnings would go to Save the Children. If Keane won, the world would end, and the winnings would ( … | Continue reading
Changing demographics will do more to shape the future than the politics of Washington, says George P. Shultz. The politics of Washington is something Shultz knows well: now 97, Shultz served in four cabinet positions over two decades. Under Nixon, he served as the Secretary of L … | Continue reading
Science author Steven Johnson discusses the legacy of "Spacewar!", one of the earliest and most influential computer games. Johnson explores this story and more in his latest book, "Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World" (02016). This clip is from the Q&A with Stewart Brand, … | Continue reading
“The Long Now is the recognition that the precise moment you’re in grows out of the past and is a seed for the future.” - Brian Eno (founding board member of The Long Now Foundation)After over a decade of design and fabrication, we have begun installing the first … | Continue reading
“Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available…a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.“ — Astronomer Fred Hoyle, 01948I. “Why Do You Look In A Mirror?”InFebruary 01966, Stewart Brand, a month removed from launching a multimedia psychedelic f … | Continue reading
This year, Warren Buffett won his multi-million dollar, decade-long Long Bet.From the preacher warning that the day of reckoning is nigh, to the sports analyst prognosticating about the outcome of next week’s big game, to the fortune teller calling for hard times in Mercury retro … | Continue reading