Nearly 30 years after its conception in 1989 and six years since ground was first broken, the Long Now Foundation has begun installing the monumental 10,000 year clock at its designated location in West Texas, on land owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
The clock is designed to run for ten millennia without any required human intervention to keep it going. Inventor Danny Hillis, who came up with the idea of the clock, proposed for it to be “an icon to long-term thinking”. A number of parts are still being fabricated as of this date, but now the 10,000 year clock is getting closer and closer to keeping time for a long time. We’re all excited.
After over a decade of design and fabrication, we have begun installing the first parts of the Clock of the Long Now on site in West Texas. …The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from the temperature difference from day to night, as well as the people that visit it.
Installation has begun—500 ft tall, all mechanical, powered by day/night thermal cycles, synchronized at solar noon, a symbol for long-term thinking—the #10000YearClock is coming together thx to the genius of Danny Hillis, Zander Rose & the whole Clock team! Enjoy the video. pic.twitter.com/FYIyaUIbdJ
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 20, 2018
“This present moment used to be the unimaginable future”— @stewartbrand. Installation is under way. Long Now's 10,000 Year Clock: designed and built over decades to last for millennia. Find out more at https://t.co/mzeuOT1fve pic.twitter.com/S9OVhnSVTv
— Long Now (@longnow) February 21, 2018