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For a Friday thread change of pace, I want to tell you a story about time. (1/18)
Far from civilization, there's a mountain in a remote part of Texas. (2/18)
Inside this mountain there's a construction project underway, and has been for a while. It's taking longer than expected, but there is no rush. No, there's very much no rush. (3/18)
When completed, the mountain will contain a clock designed to keep accurate time for the next 10,000 years. That's all. Just a clock. (4/18)
"Just a clock." A mechanical clock that's designed to run without maintenance or human intervention for ten millennia. It's hundreds of feet tall. (5/18)
For context, 10,000 years is approximately the length of human civilization to this point. We could be said to be at the midpoint of our journey, from the clock's perspective. (6/18)
(Mechanical clocks as a technology are over 700 years old, for reference.) (7/18)
The engineering challenges are immense; the science surprisingly tricky. (8/18)
How do you build anything to last that long? It's harder than you'd think. Just as one example, the "millennium" dial moves so slowly as to be perceived as completely still for a human lifetime. (9/18)
At that timescale, metals in contact with one another either destroy one another or fuse, so you work with stone or ceramics instead. (10/18)
How do you wind it? How often over a hundred centuries do you need to wind it? Can it wind itself? A grandfather clock needs to be wound at least weekly. (11/18)
How do you keep the clock in sync? How do you ensure that it's serviceable by future generations of humanity?How do you make it accessible to visitors? (12/18)
How do you explain what it is to future generations who rediscover it? (13/18)
This isn't a thought experiment. This clock exists (or will), is called the Clock in the Mountain, and it's a project of the @LongNow foundation. (14/18)
Imagine what that clock will see. Imagine what people seeing it will experience. Imagine what it takes to build something aimed at hundreds of generations from now. (15/18)
It's aspirational on a scale that virtually nothing else can touch. (16/18)
It speaks to a different level of long-term thinking. About the future of humanity. About starting something that you'll never live to see. (17/18)
I'm not an overly sentimental person, but this project resonates with me. To learn more, you can visit longnow.org. They're also at @LongNow. (18/18)
