That all be as it may. If the “end times” are upon us, then we’ll just have to take comfort in having planted a few time capsules –to enhance the prospects of our Earthly salvation. However: should 2012 and all those horse riders of the apocalypse mostly ride on by, we’ll then have been very remiss –in having missed a marketing opportunity for Long Now.

* “Y2K” brought forth a sufficient increase in the number of people interested in placing time capsules to support a boom in the industry which manufactures such containers. Aside from the ongoing interest in placing a 50 or 100 year capsule into a local corner stone, I think the growing

“Collapsitarian” awareness, along with the rapid approach of the ballyhooed year of 2012, is going to make what happened to the “time capsuling” industry in Y2K seem rather tame.

Long Now will have a considerable asset in the eyes of this growing community of time capsulers, once they’re made aware of how difficult it is to find and appropriately mark a suitable location, and to balance optimizing the chance of future recovery without exposing the capsule to a greater risk of vandalism in the meanwhile.

Why not tap into the financial and personal support of this interest group by drilling banks of “pigeon holes” into the soft interior walls of Long Now’s mountain cave system –to receive and cement in donors’ capsules? Prices might range from $100 (and/or be a one-time benefit of a standard membership) to $1000 or more, depending on such factors as having a hole for just your own capsule, capsule size, Long Now provided markers (a survey station type magnetic anomaly rod?), and documentation (registration with the Time Capsule Society at Oglethorpe, say).