Curating Content To Support Learning About Humanity's Transition

The Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation
A monumental, multi-millennial, mechanical clock as icon to long term thinking
Established in 01996
A monumental, multi-millennial, mechanical clock as icon to long term thinking
Established in 01996
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From their website:

The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. We hope to foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

* The Long Now Foundation uses five-digit dates, the extra zero is to solve the deca-millennium bug which will come into effect in about 8,000 years.

People


Primary
Stewart Brand
President of The Long Now Foundation
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Description:

From The Long Now website:

Stewart Brand is co-founder and president of The Long Now Foundation and co-founder of Global Business Network. He created and edited the Whole Earth Catalog (National Book Award), and co-founded the Hackers Conference and The WELL. His books include The Clock of the Long NowHow Buildings Learn; and The Media Lab. His most recent book, titled Whole Earth Discipline, is published by Viking in the US and Atlantic in the UK. He graduated in Biology from Stanford and served as an Infantry officer.

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Associate
Roman Krznaric
Public Philosopher | Author | Founder Empathy Museum | Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation
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Description:

Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. His books, including EmpathyThe Wonderbox and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 20 languages. His new book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short Term World, will be published in July 2020, and has been described by U2’s The Edge as ‘the book our children’s children will thank us for reading’.

After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political sociology. He went on to found the world’s first Empathy Museum and the digital Empathy Library, and was also a founding faculty member of The School of Life. He is currently a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation.

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Recent Content

Last 50 posts on own channels (YouTube, Podcast, Medium or Website/Blog):

Lynn Rothschild | The Ultimate in Extreme Ecology: Life Off-Planet for Science and Settlement
Published on: 26 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Blaise Agüera y Arcas | What is Intelligence?
Published on: 26 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Against Human-Centered Design – Kim Carson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 17 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Honoring Creativity — Kim Carson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 15 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Kim Carson | Inspired by Intelligence: Purpose and Creativity in the AI Era | Long Now Talks
Published on: 13 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Simulating the Universe — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 2 Jun 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Assembly Theory, Explained — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 29 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Assembly Theory, Explained — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 29 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Assembly Theory, Explained — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 29 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Simulating the Universe — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 28 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Simulating the Universe — Sara Imari Walker | Long Now Talks
Published on: 28 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Sara Imari Walker | An Informational Theory of Life | Long Now Talks
Published on: 28 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Outcomes & Processes — Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 20 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Rural Broadband — Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 19 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Speed as a Progressive Value — Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 18 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Accountability & Democracy — Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 17 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson | Abundance | Long Now Talks
Published on: 15 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

The Atlantic Charter — Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 7 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

The Berlin Wall — Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson | Long Now Talks
Published on: 2 May 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson | A Logic For The Future | Long Now Talks
Published on: 30 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Immersive Media — K Allado-McDowell | Long Now Talks
Published on: 12 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Neural Networks & Creativity — K Allado-McDowell | Long Now Talks
Published on: 11 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

K Allado-McDowell | On Neural Media | Long Now Talks
Published on: 10 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

K Allado-McDowell – On Neural Media
Published on: 2 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

Sara Imari Walker – An Informational Theory of Life
Published on: 1 Apr 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

The Bridge — Ahmed Best | Long Now Talks
Published on: 29 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

A 02050 For All of Us — Ahmed Best | Long Now Talks
Published on: 28 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Ahmed Best | Feel The Future | Long Now Talks
Published on: 28 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, Michael Pollan – Abundance
Published on: 23 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

Blue Marble, Black Hole — Benjamin Bratton | Long Now Talks
Published on: 20 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Copernican Traumas — Benjamin Bratton | Long Now Talks
Published on: 20 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Benjamin Bratton | A Philosophy of Planetary Computation | Long Now Talks
Published on: 20 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by The Long Now Foundation

Benjamin Bratton: A Philosophy of Planetary Computation
Published on: 18 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson – A Logic For The Future
Published on: 16 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

Kim Carson | Inspired by Intelligence
Published on: 3 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Sara Imari Walker | An Informational Theory of Life
Published on: 3 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson | A Logic For The Future
Published on: 3 Mar 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Ahmed Best – Feel The Future: A Valentine’s Evening
Published on: 11 Feb 25 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

K Allado-McDowell | On Neural Media
Published on: 6 Feb 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Ahmed Best | Feel The Future
Published on: 17 Jan 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Benjamin Bratton | A Philosophy of Planetary Computation: From Antikythera to Synthetic Intelligence
Published on: 8 Jan 25 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Lost Landscapes 02024 Streets, People and Play: The Drama of Daily Life | Rick Prelinger
Published on: 16 Dec 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Historical Rabbit Holes | Neal Stephenson
Published on: 6 Dec 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

What Doughnut Economics Can Learn From History | Roman Krznaric & Kate Raworth
Published on: 22 Nov 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Roman Krznaric & Kate Raworth – What Doughnut Economics Can Learn From History
Published on: 21 Nov 24 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

What Doughnut Economics Can Learn From History | Roman Krznaric & Kate Raworth
Published on: 21 Nov 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Polostan | Neal Stephenson
Published on: 13 Nov 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Neal Stephenson – Polostan
Published on: 12 Nov 24 in The Long Now Foundation – Podcast by The Long Now Foundation

Neal Stephenson | Polostan
Published on: 14 Sep 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Unlocking Innovation Together: The Power of Public-Private Partnerships | Elle Miller
Published on: 3 Jul 24 in The Long Now Foundation – YouTube by Long Now Foundation

Lynn J. Rothschild is a research scientist at NASA Ames and Adjunct Professor at Brown University and Stanford University working in astrobiology, evolutionary biology and synthetic biology. Rothschild’s work focuses …Read more
In What is Intelligence?, Blaise Agüera y Arcas, VP, Fellow and CTO of Technology & Society at Google, explores what intelligence really is, and how AI’s emergence is a natural …Read more
Creative technologist and futurist Kim Carson pushes back on the idea of “human-centered design,” and instead advocates for a new mode of vulnerable, interconnected design that sees humanity as part …Read more
Creative technologist and futurist Kim Carson explains how we can honor the human capacity for creativity even as we make use of artificial intelligence tools. From Kim Carson’s Long Now …Read more
What if AI is not here actually to replace us, but to remind us who we actually are? That was the question at the heart of Kim Carson’s Long Now …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker discusses the flaws in the current paradigm of how we simulate the universe, and proposes a new foundational approach to simulating the complexity of life in …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker explains Assembly Theory — her theory of how and why life exists in the context of historical contingency and informational complexity. …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker explains Assembly Theory — her theory of how and why life exists in the context of historical contingency and informational complexity. …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker explains Assembly Theory — her theory of how and why life exists in the context of historical contingency and informational complexity. From Sara Imari Walker’s Long …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker discusses the flaws in the current paradigm of how we simulate the universe, and proposes a new foundational approach to simulating the complexity of life in …Read more
Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker discusses the flaws in the current paradigm of how we simulate the universe, and proposes a new foundational approach to simulating the complexity of life in …Read more
“What is life?” In her Long Now Talk, astrobiologist and theoretical physicist Sara Imari Walker explores the many dimensions of that seemingly simple question. Starting from the simplest precursors, Walker …Read more
Derek Thompson discusses the benefits of outcome-oriented regulations, and the risks that come from relying on process-oriented regulations like CEPA and NEQA, which can ironically slow down efforts to build …Read more
Derek Thompson explains how the failure of rural broadband expansion exemplifies the problems of contemporary process-oriented governance. From Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson’s Long Now Talk: Abundance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9wga7S3nAw This Talk …Read more
Ezra Klein makes the case that we need to “rediscover speed as a progressive value” and make sure government delivers at faster paces. From Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson’s Long …Read more
Ezra Klein discusses how we have “chosen slowness” in governance and broken the linkages of accountability and democracy in doing so. From Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson’s Long Now Talk: …Read more
As they look upon the United States of America in 02025, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson see a country wrought by a half-century of failed governance. They see states and …Read more
Stephen Heintz discusses the Atlantic Charter — the fraught historical context of its drafting, and how its hopeful vision inspired the United Nations. From Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson’s …Read more
Stephen Heintz discusses being in Berlin one month before the Wall fell — and the missed opportunities after the fall to build a better world of its rubble. From Stephen …Read more
Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson say we live in an “Age of Turbulence.” Looking around our geopolitical situation, it’s easy to see what they mean. Faced with the ever-growing …Read more
Artist and Machine Intelligence researcher K Allado-McDowell discusses the history of immersive media design in the 20th century. Watch the full talk: https://youtu.be/Eu3ygZh8pY8?si=mt0mPB8sQ6QBdnuE How will AI shape our understanding of …Read more
Artist and Machine Intelligence researcher K Allado-McDowell explains how neural networks embed information, and how they can be used to produce images with thought-provoking implications for our own intelligence. Watch …Read more
How will AI shape our understanding of our creativity and ourselves? In February, artist and technologist K Allado-McDowell delivered a fascinating Long Now Talk that explored the dimensions of Neural …Read more
Actor and Afrofuturist Ahmed Best shares a story from his life about the power of vulnerability and collective storytelling. From Ahmed Best’s Long Now Talk: Feel the Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM1Krt6-4Ek Episode …Read more
In the mid-2000s, the virtual world of the game Second Life was seen by many as a nascent metaverse, a term for virtual worlds coined by Neal Stephenson. Courtesy of …Read more
Bernard Moitessier’s yacht Joshua was the model of perfect maintenance in his 1968 circumnavigation of the globe Maintenance is all around us. On every level from the cellular up to …Read more
Bernard Moitessier’s yacht Joshua was the model of perfect maintenance in his 1968 circumnavigation of the globe Maintenance is all around us. On every level from the cellular up to …Read more
A sign from the No Planet B global climate strike in September 02019. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The following essay was written by Lucienne Bacon and Lucas Kopinski, …Read more
A sign from the No Planet B global climate strike in September 02019. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The following essay was written by Lucienne Bacon and Lucas Kopinski, …Read more
The first book of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series was also published as The 1,000-Year Plan —  an indication of the series’ focus on long-term thinking. Cover design by Ed Valigursky …Read more
The first book of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series was also published as The 1,000-Year Plan —  an indication of the series’ focus on long-term thinking. Cover design by Ed Valigursky …Read more
Long Now’s Website, as reimagined by the Internet Archive’s Wayforward Machine For the past 25 years, the Internet Archive has embraced a bold vision of “Universal Access to All Knowledge.” …Read more
Long Now’s Website, as reimagined by the Internet Archive’s Wayforward Machine For the past 25 years, the Internet Archive has embraced a bold vision of “Universal Access to All Knowledge.” …Read more
Sediment cores like these can help uncover the deep climatological history of the earth and provide insight into our climate futures. Courtesy of Hannes Grobe AWI/CRP The 02021 Working Group …Read more
Sediment cores like these can help uncover the deep climatological history of the earth and provide insight into our climate futures. Courtesy of Hannes Grobe AWI/CRP The 02021 Working Group …Read more
The skies of the Bay Area turned orange in September 02020, as the smoke from the complex of wildfires throughout the Bay overwhelmed the sky. Image courtesy of Long Now …Read more
The skies of the Bay Area turned orange in September 02020, as the smoke from the complex of wildfires throughout the Bay overwhelmed the sky. Image courtesy of Long Now …Read more
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides an enlightening window into the history of global trade and human …Read more
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides an enlightening window into the history of global trade and human …Read more
3 bound copies of the Letters to the Future Project. Source: Letters to the future In our efforts to foster long-term thinking and preservation, we at Long Now do not …Read more
3 bound copies of the Letters to the Future Project. Source: Letters to the future In our efforts to foster long-term thinking and preservation, we at Long Now do not …Read more
“It is Time” (02020) by Alicia Eggert in collaboration with David Moinina Sengeh. The neon sign was commissioned by TED and Fine Acts for TED Countdown, and driven around Dallas, …Read more
“It is Time” (02020) by Alicia Eggert in collaboration with David Moinina Sengeh. The neon sign was commissioned by TED and Fine Acts for TED Countdown, and driven around Dallas, …Read more
Gutter Street, a London-based theatre company, is premiering a play called The Long Now later this month. “The Long Now is inspired by the work of the @longnow foundation and takes a look at …Read more
Gutter Street, a London-based theatre company, is premiering a play called The Long Now later this month. “The Long Now is inspired by the work of the @longnow foundation and takes a look at …Read more
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/529378458" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" In March 02021, We Are As Gods, the documentary about Long Now co-founder Stewart Brand, premiered at SXSW. As part of the premiere, the …Read more
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/529378458" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" In March 02021, We Are As Gods, the documentary about Long Now co-founder Stewart Brand, premiered at SXSW. As part of the premiere, the …Read more
Long Now is pleased to announce that longtime Interval bartender Ty Caudle will become The Interval’s next Beverage Director. He takes the reins from Todd Carnam, who has moved to …Read more
Challenging perceptions of time and place to enhance climate change engagement through museumsLong Now co-founder Brian Eno in front of his 77 Million Paintings generative artwork (02007).By Henry McGhie*, Sarah Mander**, Asher Minns***AbstractThis …Read more
Futurist Peter Schwartz distills the lessons learned from his work in scenario planning for organizations.Photo by Andrew Neel on UnsplashThe following transcript of Peter Schwartz’s Long Now talk on scenario planning …Read more
An interview with Vincent Ialenti, author of Deep Time ReckoningInside Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear waste repository, 1,500 feet underground. Photo Credit: Peter GuenzelWith half-lives ranging from 30 to 24,000, or even 16 …Read more
Insights from 14 of the world’s foremost long-term thinkersLong Conversation speakers (from top left): Stewart Brand, Esther Dyson, David Eagleman, Ping fu, Katherine Fulton, Danny Hillis, Kevin Kelly, Ramez Naam, …Read more
Tickets to the Moon. Teleporting inanimate objects. A woman on the roster of an NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLS team. These are the Long Bets and Predictions made about the …Read more
“Digital storage is easy; digital preservation is hard.”-Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now (01999)In March of 02019, MySpace, the one-time de facto social media network before the rise of Facebook, …Read more
We can no longer see ourselves as separate from the natural world or our technology, but as a part of them, integrated, codependent, and entangled.Quantum entanglement. (Courtesy: iStock/Traffic-Analyzer)By Danny HillisWe humans …Read more
50 years ago, the Apollo 11 moon landing was televised live to some 600 million viewers back on planet Earth. One of them was future Long Now co-founder Brian Eno, …Read more
A History of Land Art in the American West, Part IIISource: The Center for Land Use Interpretation.As installation begins at the Texas site for Long Now’s monumental 10,000 Year Clock, it’s …Read more
There are reasons to be hopeful after the fire.East facade of Notre Dame in the 1860s.In the hours after news broke that the Cathedral of Notre Dame suffered extensive fire damage, many …Read more
Transmissions from the ambient frontierContinue reading on The Long Now Foundation » …Read more
A new paper by archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo addresses one of the longstanding mysteries of the monuments of Easter Island: their location.Four hundred of the statues, known as …Read more
How will AI shape our understanding of our creativity and ourselves? In February, artist and technologist K Allado-McDowell delivered a fascinating Long Now Talk that explored the dimensions of Neural …Read more
Sara Imari Walker – An Informational Theory of Life by The Long Now Foundation …Read more
As they look upon the United States of America in 02025, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson see a country wrought by a half-century of failed governance. They see states and …Read more
We find ourselves in a pre-paradigmatic moment in which our technology has outpaced our theories of what to do with it. The task of philosophy today is to catch up. …Read more
Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson say we live in an “Age of Turbulence.” Looking around our geopolitical situation, it’s easy to see what they mean. Faced with the ever-growing …Read more
When you feel the future, how do you share that feeling in order to build community? Over the past quarter-century, Best — first as an actor, musician, and performer, and …Read more
Social philosopher Roman Krznaric and renegade economist Kate Raworth explore how we can survive and thrive by looking to the past for clues on how to build more regenerative economic …Read more
We are thrilled to be hosting the launch of Neal Stephenson’s newest book Polostan. This is the first installment in a monumental new series called Bomb Light — an expansive …Read more
The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is a participatory artwork facilitated by artist Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante which collaborates with the public to create new words for feelings and experiences …Read more
Alternative visions for social change rooted in the frameworks of capitalism and colonialism only reproduce contemporary structures of power. How can indigenous perspectives and knowledge inform the structural transformation necessary …Read more
Economic policy can seem abstract and distant, but it manifests the physical world – affecting us all. Our economic stories shape our systems, and they in turn shape us. What …Read more
“What really interests me is how long-lived plants allow humans to think about—and emotionally relate to—long units of time. They provide a bridge between human time and geological time.” — …Read more
As authoritarianism continues to rise around the world, the stories we tell ourselves about our collective history become a battleground for competing visions of the future. Drawing extensively from Russian …Read more
Over the last two years, the US government has started thinking about the future of the world in a very different way. Across speeches and policy papers, a vision of …Read more
Coco Krumme traces the fascinating history of optimization from its roots in America’s founding principles, to its dominance as the driving principle of our modern world. Optimized models underlie everything …Read more
Bette Adriaanse is a writer and co-founder of TRQSE, an international network of artists and scientists working together on social issues. Her new novel What’s Mine revolves around topics of …Read more
The Long Now Foundation has teamed up with Anthropocene Magazine (a publication of Future Earth) and Back Pocket Media to take the magazine’s new fiction series “The Climate Parables,” from …Read more
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation between two Hugo award-winning science fiction authors, Becky Chambers and Annalee Newitz. Known for challenging classic science fiction tropes such as war, violence, and …Read more
How can we turn the tide on species loss and help biodiversity and bioabundance flourish for millennia to come? Ryan Phelan is Executive Director of Revive & Restore; the leading …Read more
Artist and writer Jenny Odell brings her acutely insightful observations to the dominant framework of time, based on industrial and colonial worldviews, that is embedded within our societies. Addressing the …Read more
The map of humanity isn’t settled — not now, not ever. In the 60,000 years since people began spreading across the continents, a recurring feature of human civilization has been …Read more
Psychedelics and other mind-altering substances have been used for thousands of years across the world in religious, spiritual, celebratory, and healing contexts. Despite a half century of a “War on …Read more
Eric Debrah Otchere’s research revolves around the power of music in the context of work; covering an ambitious range from ethnographic research on Ghanaian indigenous fishing culture to personalized musical …Read more
How would someone fare if they were dropped into a randomly chosen period in history? Would they have any relevant knowledge to share, or ability to invent crucial technologies given …Read more
In the Fall of 01968, Stewart Brand put the Whole Earth Catalog out into the world. Now, 55 years later, our friends at Gray Area and the Internet Archive are launching the Whole Earth Index – a nearly complete free online archive of Whole Earth publications. Read it all at wholeearth.info Read our full story on how the Whole Earth …Read more
Good evening everyone! Welcome to tonight’s Long Now Talk featuring Abby Smith Rumsey on Hijacked Histories, Polarized Futures. As authoritarianism rises globally, the stories we tell about our history become battlegrounds for competing visions of the future. Historian Abby Smith Rumsey draws on 20th century Russian history to create a framework that situates current socio-political tensions & explains how increasing …Read more
Just as beavers build dams and termites construct mounds, humans manipulate our environments. The urge to reshape our environment is no transient social pressure. Instead, it’s a set of behaviors with deep evolutionary roots stretching back millions of years. Conservation Geneticist Andrew Tighe argues that controlling nature might be in itself part of our nature – an evolutionary adaptation that …Read more
We’re excited to share the Whole Earth Index, a new project from our friends at Gray Area and the Internet Archive that brings together more than 30 years of Whole Earth publications, freely available for your perusal. Read more from Gray Area Executive Director Barry Threw:When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group …Read more
What can old trees tell us with our own relationship with time? Next Tuesday: Join us for an evening with geohumanist and historian Jared Farmer, who will share his multi-faceted approach to understanding our human relationship with trees over millennia.When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can …Read more
What can old trees tell us about our own relationship with time? Good evening everyone! Welcome to tonight’s Long Now Talk featuring Jared Farmer on Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time with Trees. The talk will be followed by a Q&A. Geohumanist and place-based historian Jared Farmer has studied trees in the context of human society for decades. Here, he shares his …Read more
Maintenance matters. Here at The Long Now Foundation, we know that maintenance is about preserving possibilities for the future – something to celebrate, not to dread. Long Now’s mission is to foster long-term thinking and responsibility. That work means carefully maintaining the things that matter most. We’d be honored if you would consider making a donation to Long Now & …Read more
Join us at 7:00 pm PT for Rick Prelinger’s LOST LANDSCAPES 02023 City and Bay in Motion: Transportation and Communication. Watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liHpw789GRs …Read more
Happy 85th Birthday to Long Now Co-Founder and President Stewart Brand. Here’s to many more. …Read more
As authoritarianism rises globally, the stories we tell about our collective history become battlegrounds for competing visions of the future. Join Historian Abby Smith Rumsey for our next Long Now Talk: on the Hijacked Histories & Polarized Futures of our present moment. Drawing on the research behind her new book Memory, Edited: Taking Liberties with History, Smith Rumsey will explore …Read more
Globalization has remade our world, but failed our societies. What comes next? Watch Henry Farrell’s talk on the Complex Aftermath of Globalization, featuring a Q&A with Nils Gilman of the Berggruen Institute. Henry Farrell | The Complex Aftermath of Globalizationyoutube.comOver the last two years, the US government has started thinking about the future of the world in a very different …Read more
Good evening everyone! Welcome to tonight’s Long Now Talk featuring Henry Farrell on The Complex Aftermath of Globalization. Globalization has reshaped the world into a more tightly interconnected one – for better, and for worse. Challenges like climate change, supply chain vulnerabilities, and mass migration emerge from the interdependent choices of people and governments in a global system without global …Read more
Good evening everyone! Welcome to tonight’s Long Now Talk featuring Coco Krumme on The False Promise of Optimization. Optimized models underlie more and more of the world around us. They are deeply embedded in the technological assumptions that have come to comprise our material reality and what we make of it. But how did a mathematical concept take on such …Read more
Optimized models underlie more and more of the world around us. They are deeply embedded in the technological assumptions that have come to comprise our material reality and what we make of it. But how did a mathematical concept take on such outsized cultural shape? What have we lost through a single-minded pursuit of optimization? Tomorrow: Join us for a …Read more
𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙬? 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙤 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚? Long Now is accepting pitches of essays, reported features, interviews, book reviews, fiction & poetry for 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴, our living archive of long-term thinking. For more information on the kinds of stories we’re looking for, how much we pay, and how to pitch us, see our pitch guide: How …Read more
Photos from The Interval at Long Now’s post …Read more
In scientific archives the world over, ghosts of time and space lurk. Collected by long-dead naturalists and biologists, each collected specimen is a window into the moment of its creation — and the centuries of science that followed. In a dispatch from the entomological archives, writer and researcher A’liya Spinner tells us of how the preservation of bee specimens across …Read more
From Dirt to Treasure | Ya’el Shatzyoutu.beLong Now Member Ya’el Shatz reveals the layers of dust that connect us all to each other — past, present, and future.With thousands of members from all arou… …Read more
Good evening everyone! Welcome to tonight’s Long Now Talk featuring Bette Adriaanse in conversation with Chelsea T. Hicks on Radical Sharing. Bette & Chelsea will be joined for this Talk by virtual guests Brian Eno, Margaret Levi, and Aqui Thami.Bette Adriaanse, Chelsea T. Hicks | Radical Sharingwww.youtube.comOur bodies, our houses, our land, our space – we humans don’t always like …Read more
Next Week: We humans don’t always like to share. Author Bette Adriaanse talks with Chelsea T. Hicks, and virtual guests Brian Eno, Margaret Levi, and Aqui Thami, about property, sharing, and how to make a lasting positive change in the way we share the world with each other.Photos from The Long Now Foundation’s post …Read more
Miss our Member Ignite Talks last week? You can watch all of them on YouTube now: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6uS2H8g4Y2_M7AxP7tXReQS7FpAbaQXL …Read more
Good evening everyone! Welcome to the Long Now Member Ignite Talks featuring 13 Long Now Members on topics of their choice. Long Now has produced hundreds of talks from the world’s leading long-term thinkers. Now, we’re showcasing a curated set of Ignite Talks created & given by our own members. An Ignite talk is a story format created by Brady …Read more
Biotechnology can help us turn the tide on the new wave of species loss – and unlock a new age of biological abundance for future generations. Ryan Phelan, Executive Director of Revive & Restore, explains how we can bring biotech to wildlife conservation: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ryan-phelan-bringing-biotech-to-wildlife-conservation/id186908455?i=1000617775298 …Read more
If you’re using a battery-powered device today, thank a torpedo ray. Here’s how the shockingly long medical tradition of using electric fish as treatments helped create the first batteries. https://longnow.org/ideas/the-shocking-medical-history-of-electric-fish/ …Read more
RT @Thieudaddy: Thread https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1643441898915516417 …Read more
RT @chrismichel: Inspiring @longnow talk last night by @Revive_Restore’s @Ryanphelan6 about leveraging biotech for wildlife conservation. Brilliantly moderated by @psaffo. …Read more
RT @MaxCRoser: This painting by the artist Isabella Kirkland is called ‘Back’. It shows 48 diffent species that were brought back from the brink of extinction through environmental conservation efforts. — http://isabellakirkland.com/back via @longnow …Read more
Miss our Long Now Talk with Ryan Phelan last night? Watch it now: https://youtube.com/live/wBgDd6hHfQo https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1643433627244699648 …Read more
RT @stewartbrand: A fine thread on the @Ryanphelan6 Long Now talk. https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1643437224263028744 …Read more
RT @erleellis: Conservation Optimism! 48 species brought back from the brink of extinction through habitat restoration and focused husbandry. Back, a painting by the artist Isabella Kirkland via @longnow @Ryanphelan6 #biodiversity …Read more
RT @EdAlvarezB: @longnow @Revive_Restore @Ryanphelan6 Very interesting the synthetic alternative to horseshoe crab blood …Read more
RT @DustinBajer: We’re living in an extinction valley https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1643438192794959872 …Read more
Two artifacts from the Long Now Foundation are featured in the Smithonian Institution’s National @airandspace Museum at the heart of an exhibit that takes a long-term perspective on the aerospace revolution and its impact on society. https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-smithsonian-air-space/ …Read more
Biotechnological tools can help protect the most threatened species in the world today. Tomorrow at 7 PM: join us for a Long Now Talk with @Revive_Restore co-founder and Executive Director @Ryanphelan6 on Bringing Biotech to Wildlife Conservation. …Read more
RT @rifish: The first of my BBC deep time films is now on YouTube https://youtu.be/esqxYO5vsEI …Read more
RT @longnow: To understand the world we’re living in, we need to look beyond the nation-state and towards something bigger. https://longnow.org/ideas/understanding-the-modern-world-system-over-the-longue-duree/ …Read more
RT @longnow: Long-lasting indigenous traditions may present the best way to preserve the national animal of Peru. Written and featuring photographs by Heather Jasper (@HJasperTravels) on Reviving the Vicuña: https://longnow.org/ideas/vicuna-fur-conservation-peru/ …Read more
RT @rifish: 🎉 A big day for me today: The Long View is published! 🎉 We wanted to mark the launch with something special – and so here is the cover… in wood! The story behind it speaks to the kindness & creativity I often encounter in long-minded communities. Here’s how it was made… …Read more
To understand the world we’re living in, we need to look beyond the nation-state and towards something bigger. https://longnow.org/ideas/understanding-the-modern-world-system-over-the-longue-duree/ …Read more
RT @Revive_Restore: Bay Area friends! Join us for an evening with @Ryanphelan6 on April 4th at Club Fugazi, for an exploration of how new advances in biotechnology can support wildlife conservation. Tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/6tu66k6b …Read more
RT @stewartbrand: So, my wife’s doing a show next week at a beloved theatre in San Francisco’s North Beach for Long Now. https://twitter.com/revive_restore/status/1640761110558113803 …Read more
RT @JohnAblett: Taking a long view on the psychedelic renaissance: @MAPS policy director Ismail Ali (@sage_izzy) talking for the @longnow Foundation. He suggests that discussions about psychedelics are really rooted in ideas about grief, trauma, community & connection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AF7ZcPZYsc …Read more
Next week: join us for a Long Now Talk with @Revive_Restore co-founder and Executive Director Ryan Phelan on how new advances in biotechnology can support wildlife conservation. …Read more
RT @JohnAblett: Taking a long view on the psychedelic renaissance: @MAPS policy director Ismail Ali (@sage_izzy) talking for the @longnow Foundation. He suggests that discussions about psychedelics are really rooted in ideas about grief, trauma, community & connection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AF7ZcPZYsc …Read more
RT @longnow: Long-lasting indigenous traditions may present the best way to preserve the national animal of Peru. Written and featuring photographs by Heather Jasper (@HJasperTravels) on Reviving the Vicuña: https://longnow.org/ideas/vicuna-fur-conservation-peru/ …Read more
“The best climate fiction can do more than spur us to action to save the world we have — it can help us conceptualize the worlds, both beautiful and dire, that may lie ahead. These stories can be maps to the future.” https://longnow.org/ideas/how-to-imagine-climate-futures/ …Read more
RT @warrenmyers: “Where gaps in public knowledge exist, conspiracies spring into life” https://longnow.org/ideas/the-truth-about-antarctica/ …Read more

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