Published on February 8th, 02010 by Danielle Engelman
About this Seminar:
President Obama’s first executive action was the Open Government Memorandum calling for more transparent, participatory, and collaborative government. It is likely that one of the longest lasting effects of the current administration will be how much it changed the culture of Washington by opening government data and pioneering innovations in policymaking.
Published on February 4th, 02010 by Bryan Campen
Rosetta Project Director Laura Welcher recently took part in a segment on The History Channel’s Life After People series.
In an episode titled “Crypt of Civilization,” Laura discusses the Rosetta Disk and The 10,000 Year Clock. The central question of the series is “How long would it last?” The series explores various materials, systems and structures built by humans to determine their durability sans maintenance as well as natural systems and how they might flourish or decline without human intervention.
“Crypt of Civilization” focuses on time capsules, vaults and other attempts to create long-lasting caches of materials or data. Laura explores some of the unique challenges in designing artifacts like the Disk and Clock to last thousands of years while the show’s producers vividly illustrate them.
You can watch the series on its website (though the “Crypt of Civilization” episode isn’t available yet).
Published on February 4th, 02010 by Austin Brown
Dedicated to bringing together video documentation of the daily lives of disparate global citizens, the Global Lives Project celebrates the opening of its first installation on February 26th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. This installation is sponsored by the Long Now Foundation through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The Global Lives Project’s World Premiere installation will be on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from February 26 – June 20, 2010! The exhibit is part of an artist residency that will evolve over four months. We will be showing, for the first time ever, our series of ten 24-hour videos of daily life from around the planet.
Join Global Lives, Long Now and the YBCA for the opening night celebration on February 26th from 7:30pm to 11:30pm. There will be a cash bar and music from San Franciscans Kid Kameleon, Chief Boima, and Tinker. Global Lives producers and directors will be there to discuss the project.
The event is free, but you’ll want to RSVP so you can be sure to get in!
Published on January 27th, 02010 by Austin Brown
As you may remember, Longplayer is a project by Jem Finer: a composition designed to last 1,000 years. Along with a live performance of portions of the composition last year, a Long Conversation was held that lasted for 12 hours:
In parallel with a live performance in the Roundhouse’s Main Space, the Artangel Longplayer 2009 Conversation took place in the Studio Theatre. Writer Jeanette Winterson began and ended the 12-hour talking marathon of twenty leading writers, filmmakers, scientists, academics and technology activists, inspired by the philosophical implications of long time.
MP3 audio of that conversation is now available.
Those of you in the general vicinity of Berlin should check out the next round of the Long Conversation at the Transmediale Futurity Now! Festival on February 5th. The following evening (Feb. 6th) will feature presentations by Bruce Sterling and our very own Alexander Rose on the topic of Atemporality.
Published on January 26th, 02010 by Danielle Engelman
There is new media available from our monthly series, the Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Stewart Brand’s summaries and audio downloads or podcasts of the talks are free to the public; Long Now members can view HD video of the Seminars and comment on them.
Watch the video of Wade Davis’ “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”
Published on January 25th, 02010 by Danielle Engelman
About this Seminar:
Journalist Weisman traveled the world to investigate what happens when humans stop occupying an area. How long do our artifacts last? How does nature recover? What does that say about the human impact on the world? What would be the actual sequence of events if all of humanity suddenly disappeared?
Published on January 18th, 02010 by Kirk Citron
The Long News: stories that might still matter fifty, or a hundred, or ten thousand years from now.
Robert Fogel writes in Foreign Policy this month:
In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000… Although it will not have overtaken the United States in per capita wealth, according to my forecasts, China’s share of global GDP — 40 percent — will dwarf that of the United States (14 percent) and the European Union (5 percent) 30 years from now.
If we’re considering the long term future, it may seem parochial to worry about which nation is “ahead” — but the world will be a different place if China is the country setting the global agenda for everything from climate change and the exploration of outer space to human rights and censorship (go Google!). China is rising; is the rest of the world ready?
Some recent news stories about China:
1. Last year, China passed the U.S. in carbon emissions. Not only that:
China overtakes Germany to become largest exporter
China overtakes U.S. as world’s biggest car market
China consumers to overtake U.S. in a decade
2. They’re making great strides in technology:
Nuclear power expansion in China stirs concerns
Gene rice on its way in China
China’s high-speed-rail revolution
China unveils anti-missile test
China energy efficiency “improves in first half”
3. And science:
China ascendant
Get ready for China’s domination of science
4. As the dustup with Google shows, China approaches social issues differently:
China’s says web crackdown to be “long-lasting”
China to be short 24 million wives
In China, DNA tests on kids ID genetic gifts, careers
We invite you to submit Long News story suggestions here.
Published on January 18th, 02010 by Danielle Engelman
There is new media available from our monthly series, the Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Stewart Brand’s summaries and audio downloads or podcasts of the talks are free to the public; Long Now members can view HD video of the Seminars and comment on them.
Listen to the Audio of Wade Davis’ “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World” (downloads tab)
Published on January 15th, 02010 by Stewart Brand
Native guidance
What does it mean to be human and alive?
The thousands of different cultures and languages on Earth have compellingly different answers to that question. “We are a wildly imaginative and creative species,” Davis declared, and then proved it with his accounts and photographs of humanity plumbing the soul of culture, of psyche, and of landscape.
He began with Polynesians, the wayfinders who mastered the Pacific ocean in the world’s largest diaspora. Without writing or chronometers they learned 220 stars by name…
Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary
Published on January 12th, 02010 by Bryan Campen
Great piece in the Washington Post on the future of ancient books in Timbuktu.
“A sort of ancient-book fever has gripped Timbuktu in recent years” as outsiders encounter large, family-owned collections of ancient manuscripts which remain in private hands. at the same time, Timbuktu’s residents “hope to lure the world to a place known as the end of the Earth by establishing libraries for visitors to see their centuries-old collections of manuscripts.” For those who do not sell their collections privately, small libraries are in bloom across the city.
Yet with instructions from ancestors to preserve ancient books within families, there is a reluctance to place them in libraries currently being built for the very same purpose. “Many owners refuse to part with their books… but they struggle to raise funds to restore or display them.”
It is interesting that that so many families were able to preserve these manuscripts for so long. What caused this culture of long term preservation?
Consider the Library of Alexandria, which Stewart Brand covers in Clock of the Long Now. It experienced at least four fires, two from “collateral damage” by Ptolemy VIII (88 B.C.E) and Julius Caesar (47 B.C.E.), and two from religions on the rise (Christianity and Islam).
The ability to preserve these books over many centuries so far rests with families intent on honoring and adhering to requests from ancestors, a rather small and fragile model compared to the infrastructure needed to build a great library. Yet it is possible that a family with instructions from ancestors is, in some sense, a better library than a library itself.
Six hundred years ago, Timbuktu was packed with university students (at about 25,000, the size of a modestly large mid-western university these days) and a constant flow of merchants. It was a nexus of trade and intellectual life on the continent which then slowed. Perhaps because it did not intersect with the dramatic tension between three continents, like Alexandria, it was less prone both to collateral damage *and* the request by military or religious leaders to dispose of books not relevant to the prevailing winds. In any case, this slowing may well have ensured greater preservation over time.
It’s also confirmation that a library in the middle of a continent–away from the intersection of countries, military conquests and ascendant religious movements–is a really good idea. With “ancient-book fever” now in Timbuktu, some combination of library and family models will have to preserve them.
Ideas about Long-term Thinking.
The Long Now Foundation
Fostering Long-term Responsibility
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