I enjoyed reading this article by Michael Chabon about the Clock of the Long Now. The clock, built inside a mountain in western Texas, is designed to run for 10,000 years. It’s been built to run for approximately the same amount of time human civilaisation has existed, suggesting that we’re now in the middle of our species’ epic journey through time. In a period in which we’ve been faced with the finalities of nuclear annihilation and catastrophic climate change, it’s refreshing to come across an organisation which attempts to build a structure which gives us a conceptual space to thinkabout the long term future.
PS, Michael Chabon is a great writer too, I had a Chabon binge and read the ‘Yiddish Policemen’s Union’ and ‘Wonder Boys’ back to back from Toxteth library. He’s brilliant and laugh out loud funny.