Jeff Bezos Shares Video of 10,000-Year Clock Project (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared a video on Tuesday of his latest project: a giant clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. Buried deep in a west Texas mountain, the project is in partnership with San Francisco-based group The Long Now Foundation, which grew out of an idea for a 10,000 year clock that co-founder Danny Hillis proposed back in the '90s. Now, the 500-foot tall mechanical wonder is finally undergoing installation. Bezos is fronting the cash for the $42 million project, saying on the project's website that the clock is "designed to be a symbol, an icon for long-term thinking." The clock is powered by a large weight hanging on a gear, built out of materials durable enough to keep time for 10 millennia. Bezos isn't the only noteworthy name on the clock project. Musician Brian Eno and writers Kevin Kelly and Stewart Brand are also involved in the clock's construction. The team has spent the last few years creating parts for the clock and drilling through the mountain to store the pieces. You can read Bezos's account of that and view photos of the progress here.

Comments

10,000 days

[14erCleaner]

I predict that money to guard it will run out in a few decades, after which it will be vandalized and plundered for metal, or occupied by survivalist squatters.

You know what they say

[willoughby]

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just take a look at who he gives it to.

Re:$42 million

[Anonymous Coward]

I get it's his own money, but seriously, he could use that $42 million to give workers earning less then $30K at Amazon a nice bonus.

Who gives a shit about having a clock that lasts 10K years, honestly what the fuck is the point.

Rich people and their wasteful whims

[Rick Schumann]

I like clocks. I like accurate clocks, to be precise. I have several 'Atomic clocks', synchronized to WWVB out of Fort Colins, Colorado every night. I have a GPS receiver connected to my desktop, synching and RTC-clock-frequency adjusting it every minute, so it's never more than 1 second off. I went to a considerable amount of trouble to fine-tune the 32.768kHz crystal oscillator in a kitchen timer I have, that also displays the time of day, so it's down to single-digit PPM accuracy, only gaining a few seconds per week. More than once I've considered building a clock using an expensive low-PPM TCXO oscillator, so I'd have a clock that doesn't need to have it's setting adjusted for a year or more. So you could say I appreciate clocks.

However: this is one of the most wasteful and stupid things I've ever heard of. Only some rich dude(s), with apparently nothing better to do with their money and time, would waste 42 million dollars on some shit like this. How many poor people could benefit from judicious application of $42M? Charities? Development projects? How much would Habitat for Humanity, for instance, be able to accomplish with that much money?

MEMO TO JEFF BEZOS: Instead of lighting $42M on fire for something as fucking stupid and useless as this, how about you find out how many homeless people live within 50 miles of you, and see how many of them you can help get back on their feet again with that money?

Seriously: We, allegedly, are the greatest nation on earth, yet we have a homelessness problem? People going hungry every day? Really?
How about less RICH PEOPLE money spent on stupid excessive hobbies, and more spent on actually SOLVING SOME PROBLEMS.

..and YES, I'm angry on the inside about things like this when I hear about them. What of it?
..and NO, I'm one of the POOR PEOPLE, I can barely afford to take care of myself these days, let alone give money away to anyone else. What of it?

Re:Rich people and their wasteful whims

[sphealey]

That $42 million didn't just evaporate - it was spent on things. Probably including a lot of engineering, performed by mechanical engineers with salaries in the 60-80k USD range, and machinists with pay rates in the (yearly equivalent) 30-120k range. Also construction workers, similarly in the 30-120k range. And restaurant workers, truck drivers, titanium refiners, etc. All of whom are going to spend that money or invest it in relatively short-term family investments. All in all not a bad way of expanding the economy by some multiple of $42 million (eeeek! fractional reserves! call for the Bitcoin(tm)!) by merely using some otherwise useless markers out of Bezos' account.

Clock already useful

[SuperKendall]

The Clock is already illuminating with stark clarity the further decline of Slashdot into a realm of howling luddite monkeys.

Ironically prooabiy many of the same people complaining about the clock are the same ones that complain modern electronics are no longer durable.

If anyone wants to know the deeper reasoning behind why the clock exists, read the book "The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility".

Are they going to add a math filled with avout?

[enjar]

The concent of Saunt Bezos?

It's a front

[kaatochacha]

For Jeff Bezos' Lex Luthor lair.