The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is a private organization that seeks to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking. The Long Now Foundation hopes to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years. To emphasise this horizon, the group writes years using five digits instead of four: 02007 instead of 2007. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2816x1877, 2041 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Long Now Foundation User:CGP Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2816x1877, 2041 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Long Now Foundation User:CGP Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Projects

The Foundation has several ongoing projects, including a 10,000-year clock known as the Clock of the Long Now, the Rosetta Project, the Long Bet Project, the open source Timeline Tool (also known as Longviewer), the Long Server and a monthly seminar series. The first prototype, on display at the Science Museum in London. ... The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone to last from 2000 to 2100. ... The Long Bet Project was created by the Long Now Foundation to propose and keep track of bets on long-term events. ...

The purpose of the Clock of the Long Now is to construct a timepiece that will operate with minimum human intervention for ten millennia. It is to be constructed of durable materials, to be easy to repair, and to be made of largely valueless materials in case knowledge of the Clock is lost or it is deemed to be of no value to an individual or possible future civilization; in this way it is hoped that the Clock will not be looted or destroyed. Its power source (or sources) should be renewable but similarly unlootable. A prototype of a potential final clock candidate was activated on December 31, 1999, and is currently on display at the Science Museum at London. The Foundation hopes to construct the finished Clock at a location near Ely, Nevada. Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... A millennium is a period of time, equal to one thousand years (from Latin mille, thousand, and annum, year). ... A clock (from the Latin cloca, bell) is an instrument for measuring time. ... Cities are a major hallmark of human civilization. ... Looting (which derives via the Hindi lut from Sanskrit lunt, to rob), sacking, or plundering is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe or riot, such as during war [1], natural disaster [2], rioting [3], or terrorist attack... December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. ... Ely is a city located in White Pine County, Nevada. ...

The Rosetta Project is an effort to preserve all languages that have a high likelihood of extinction over the period from 2000 to 2100. These include many languages whose native speakers number in the thousands or less. Other languages with many more speakers are considered endangered by the project due to the increasing importance of English as an international language of commerce and culture. Samples of such languages are to be inscribed onto a disc of nickel alloy two inches (5.08 cm) across. A "Version 1.0" of the disc was completed in the Autumn of 2002. The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone to last from 2000 to 2100. ... First language (native language, mother tongue) is the language a person learns first. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic and silvery with a gold tinge Atomic mass 58. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A centimetre (American spelling centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of length that is equal to one hundredth of a metre, the current SI base unit of length. ... Fall redirects here. ...

The Seminars About Long-term Thinking are a series of monthly lectures in San Francisco, CA, presented by the Foundation. They are intended to "nudge civilization toward making long-term thinking automatic and common." Topics have included preserving environmental resources, the extension of the human lifespan, the likelihood of an asteroid strike in the future, SETI, and the nature of time. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The Environmental Movement (a term that sometimes includes the conservation and green movements) is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement. ... Lifespan is the maximum number of years a species can survive, defined by the oldest documented age of an individual member. ... 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... This article is about the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. ... Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Quotes

"Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed—some mechanism or myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility—where 'long-term' is measured at least in centuries. Long Now proposes both a mechanism and a myth." ―Stewart Brand

"When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. For the next thirty years they kept talking about what would happen by the year 2000, and now no one mentions a future date at all. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of an ever-shortening future. I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium." ―Danny Hillis

Members

Members of the Long Now Foundation include Danny Hillis (inventor of the Connection Machine), Stewart Brand, Brian Eno, Kevin Kelly, Esther Dyson, Doug Carlston. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Thinking Machines CM-2 at the Computing Museum in San Jose. ... Stewart Brand speaking September 5, 2004 Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938 in Rockford, Illinois) is an author, editor, and creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and CoEvolution Quarterly. ... Brian Peter George St. ... Kevin Kelly Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and former publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. ... Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951) is the daughter of Freeman Dyson and a noted consultant and philosopher in the field of emerging digital technology. ... Doug Carlston was CEO, chairman, and co-founder (with brother Gary) of Brøderbund Software, a software publishing firm that produced such hit titles as Myst and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. Brøderbund was acquired by The Learning Company for $420 million, and the combined company was...

Seminars

In November 2003, the Long Now Foundation began a series of monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) with a lecture by Brian Eno. The seminars are held in the San Francisco bay area and have focused on long term policy and thinking, scenario planning, singularity and the projects of the foundation. The seminars are available for download in various formats from the Long Now Foundation. Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Brian Peter George St. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

See also

• The year 10,000 problem, which will only be a problem if there is minimal software innovation in the next 7,993 years.

This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

External links

• The Long Now Foundation
• SALT (Seminars About Long-term Thinking)
• The Long Now discussion forum
• The Rosetta Project
• The Long Bets Foundation
• A Look at Accountable Predictions Radio feature about The Long Bet Project, from the U.S. public radio program 'Marketplace'