Vigilantes? Internet Archaeologists? Digital doomsday sayers?

The Archive Team has been called many things. Here at Long Now we’ve been following their work, which was recently featured by NPR’s On The Media. In a brief interview for the program, founder Jason Scott talked about some of the work they’re doing, and why. . .   Read More

Sometimes technology fails – but luckily, collective memory can step in to lend a hand.

In a recent LA Times article, José Holguín-Veras writes about an old legend that saved a small island community in Japan from perishing in the tsunami that followed the earthquake of March 02011. The quake had toppled their tsunami. . .   Read More

It seems that our ancestors left behind a bit more than the pyramids and temples we still enjoy today.

Using satellite photos and digital mapping technology, a group of archaeologists has discovered traces of ancient life on a much smaller scale. A recent article in Nature reported on the finding, quoting one of the study. . .   Read More

Environmental change and a growing world population bring up a pressing question: how do we ensure that future generations won’t go hungry? Some scientists believe that one solution may lie in lending nature a helping hand.

A recent article on EurekAlert announces that a group of researchers at the University of Adelaide have succeeded. . .   Read More

If you spelled out a poem in stone, at the rate of one letter – and one tile – a week, how many miles would your verse stretch across the earth in 12,012?

The Letters of Utrecht project hopes that in 10,000 years, someone will be able to answer that question.

Inspired by the Long. . .   Read More

Long before the era of the Internet, humans already dreamt of creating the perfect search engine.

In 01895 two Belgian lawyers, Paul Otlet and Henri la Fontaine, began building their Universal Bibliographic Repertory: a card catalog similar to that of a library, but vastly larger. It aimed to classify all human knowledge and provide searchable. . .   Read More

Not sure what to do with your old paperbacks now that the latest bestsellers are available in electronic format? According to a recent article in the New York Times, Brewster Kahle would be happy to take them off your hands.

Kahle, a former SALT speaker, is undertaking the monumental task of collecting – and preserving – a. . .   Read More