Jeff Bezos spent $42 million to build a massive clock inside a mountain that ticks just once a year for the next 10,000 years. The “Clock of the Long Now“, also called the “10,000-year clock” is supposed to outlast humanity. The world’s richest man was fascinated by the idea proposed by the computer scientist and inventor Danny Hillis back in 1995.
Danny thought of building a clock that ticks only once a year. It would have a special hand that moves just once every 100 years and a bell that rings to mark every 1,000 years. Danny’s dream was, and still is, to create a clock that will keep working and keep time for the next 10,000 years. After many years of planning and designing, the final design of the clock is now ready, and they have started making the parts for it.
The clock is being built in the Sierra Diablo mountains in West Texas owned by Jeff Bezos. This clock is designed to last for thousands of years and will run using the Earth’s natural temperature changes. There will be five large rooms inside the clock, each celebrating a significant anniversary: the first year, the 10th year, the 100th year, the 1,000th year, and the 10,000th year. There is no information about when the construction of the clock will be finished. It is in a very remote area, and one has to take a long hike to get there. This journey is meant to make you think deeply and reflect.
In 1995, Danny explained: “I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me. I sense that I am alive at a time of important change, and I feel a responsibility to make sure that the change comes out well. I plant my acorns knowing that I will never live to harvest the oaks. I have hope for the future.” (Source)
When it’s finished, the mechanical clock tower will stand 500 feet tall. The clock is built to show time using displays that follow the movements of the stars and the calendar. It will also have a chime that can play more than 3.5 million different bell sounds. This clock is meant to be a symbol for our modern times, encouraging us to think about the long-term future. It is designed to get future generations involved in its upkeep and use.
The first chamber shows a model of the solar system that is smaller than the real one. The other rooms are meant for people in the future to add their contributions. Jeff Bezos is motivated by a desire to encourage long-term thinking and responsibility, which is similar to the ideas of Danny Hillis.
In the words of Stewart Brand, a founding board member of the foundation, “Such a clock, if sufficiently impressive and well-engineered, would embody deep time for people. It should be charismatic to visit, interesting to think about, and famous enough to become iconic in the public discourse. Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think.”
The clock is built to keep track of a future for civilization that is as long as the time that has already passed. This means the people who made the clock believe we are halfway through humanity’s existence. They see this as a positive and hopeful view of our future.
The basic design principles and requirements for the clock are:
Longevity: The clock should be accurate even after 10,000 years, and must not contain valuable parts (such as jewels, expensive metals, or special alloys) that might be looted;
Maintainability: Future generations should be able to keep the clock working, if necessary, with nothing more advanced than Bronze Age tools and materials;
Transparency: The clock should be understandable without stopping or disassembling it; no functionality should be opaque;
Evolvability: It should be possible to improve the clock over time;
Scalability: To ensure that the final large clock will work properly, smaller prototypes must be built and tested.
In 2011 Hillis was asked why he worked on the clock instead of his biotech startup for cancer research. He said: “I think this is the most important thing I can work on. More than cancer. Over the long run, I think this will make more difference to more people.”
Right now, there are three prototypes. The first one is in the Science Museum in London. The other two are at The Long Now Museum and Store in San Francisco. But there’s also another model on Jeff Bezos’ Texas ranch. People sometimes think that one is the original Long Now, but it’s not. Construction on that one has just started.
This mechanical clock needs people to wind it up using a falling weight, and it has a solar synchronizer to keep it accurate. Even if someone forgets to wind it, it will still work, just will not show the time. Instead of regular gears, it has special digital parts that help it keep track of time like a stopwatch does.
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The Clock of the Long Now will be located on Foundation land in Nevada. Bezos’ is at his ranch in Texas, which also holds the Blue Origin spaceport and is now heavily under construction. The completion of this project will inform the final design of the Long Now, so we’re technically looking at two different projects rather than a single one and its prototype.
Jeff Bezos Explains His CRAZY 10,000 Year Clock pic.twitter.com/CwHyRWumNe
— Vicky Verma (@Unexplained2020) September 6, 2024
To build a clock, the engineers will use strong materials like titanium, ceramics, quartz, sapphire, and stainless steel. They will bury the most important part of the clock deep underground, 500 feet into a mountain, and seal it off with metal doors. The clock will be safe from damage because it is situated in a dry and remote place, away from civilization that will protect it from corrosion, vandalism, and development.
Danny chose this area of Nevada in part because it is home to a number of dwarf bristlecone pines, which the Foundation notes are nearly 5,000 years old. The clock will be almost entirely underground, and only accessed by foot traffic from the east once complete.
Building a clock that will last for 10,000 years is very challenging. It needs to be made with great accuracy, be strong enough to survive for a long time, and be able to cope with changes in the environment. However, there are worries about how the construction might affect the natural surroundings in that area.
