Slashdot Mirror
Work Progresses On 10,000 Year Clock
KindMind writes "CNet has pictures of a planned 10,000 year clock to be built in eastern Nevada by the Long Now Foundation. From the article: 'Running under its own power, the clock is an experiment in art, science, and engineering. The six dials on the face of this machine will represent the year, century, horizons, sun position, lunar phase, and the stars of the night sky over a 10,000-year period. Likely to span multiple generations and evolutions in culture, the thinking and design put into the monument makes it a moving sculpture as beautiful as it is complex.' This was reviewed on Slashdot in 2005. Really cool pictures, including one of a mechanical 'binary computer' that converts the pendulum into positions on the dial."
I betcha it breaks 6 months after the warranty expires.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IN 12009
THE AMERICANS PREDICTED IT
Mars?
Again, we're talkin' Best Buy here. The basic warranty is 90 days. The extended warranty for the rest of the 10,000 years cost $OMGTHATSALOTOFMONEY.
And they won't sell you the clock without the warranty. "Nope, sorry, fresh out, we got a really small allocation from the distribution center. I think you passed the guy who bought the last one walking out of the store as you were walking in. Check at the other store (20 miles) across town. Kthxbye."
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
In 10000 years after humans are long dead and gone and it has finally wound down its readout will show simply "42".
Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
Kull: She told me she was 19!
Perhaps if more people stopped to consider the future that far in advance, our odds would improve. And perhaps the mere existence of such a clock would encourage a few to do so.
Ah that's crazy. Any year now, the Yellowstone supervolcano is going to blow, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. The world will be plunged into a dark ice ages, and that will be the end of us.
This is my sig.
For example, the Mayan clock has a digit rollover in December of 2012, and that kind of forward thinking has allowed the Mayans to become one of the dominant cultures in the Western... oh, wait.
We have been fooled ! This will last only 16 years !
And I understand binary !
--
There are 10 types of people in the world : Those who understand binary, and those who don't...
And yes again.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
They'll probably find it an go; "oh my how did those primitive people two thousand years ago build this?!? They can not possible have been smart enough to figure it out on their own; it must have been aliens!"
The Long Now Foundation
Alabama.
What's six times nine?
54
someone has to enter a code and press execute every 108 minutes.
What about adiabatic quantum computing?
Children, the ancient Nevadans were a race of people known for their great engineering skills and their faith in the God Roulette, a god that they believed would judge people, punishing them or rewarding them. It is said that with a wave of the hand, the King of the Nevadans could cause a great temple to crash to the ground and then raise a new one up that very day.
The Nevadan culture built this clock, it will run out in 3 years. They were known for their prophecy. They must have known something we don't. The world will end in the year 12,012. This is off course, a significant number...
Taken from a lecture at the Art Bell Elementary School in the year 12,009.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
And when (not if) this clock breaks down, what will that encourage us to do?
My old wind-up alarm clock is busted but it is still right twice a day.
it was like that when I got here.. I wasen't here when that happened... second shift musta done that....
Now you just need to set it so that it's showing the right time when you want to wake up, then you'll be able to set the alarm and have it go off at the right time.
Oh wait...
They should have it count down 10,000 years. Think of the chaos and concern that would cause the future folks.