This month’s Discover magazine features a colorful and well-written cover story [1] about the Clock of the Long Now [2], a clock that’s being masterfully engineered to remain on Earth for 10,000 years (that’s twice as long as the Great Pyramid of Giza [3]) and to keep impeccably precise time along the way. It has yet to be built although an extraordinary prototype is currently on display at the Science Musuem [4] in London. It is a unique clock not only in function and scope but in almost every other way: design, power system, mechanics, placement, and philosophy. Just a small example: it tracks leap centuries. Think about it. In our disposable culture, something that lasts 400 human generations is almost incomprehensible.

And that’s the true genius behind this clock. Embeded inside the materiality of this efffort rests it’s noblest function. Not within the multitudes of technical hurdles; nor within the massive creativity and intelligence that’s applied towards solving them. No, the real importance is the idea, the meme, and how this affects our busy, fleeting lives. Just like US currency was backed by gold, so too are ideas of longevity and duration and sustainability [4] now being backed by a gold standard in the form of a clock being built by the Long Now Foundation [5].

Some of the western world’s most original thinkers, including Danny Hillis [6], Brian Eno [7], and Stewart Brand [8] are involved with the project, and occasionally holding seminars on long-term thinking [9].