We rarely see in full the cities that we live in. Focused on our daily lives, urban dwellers are often only dimly aware of the numerous, enmeshed layers of critical infrastructure that quietly hum in the background to make modern life possible.
Come and explore the amazing stories and surprising histories to be found lurking. . .   Read More

Tony Hsieh is perhaps best known as a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He founded and then sold LinkExchange in the late 01990s, before going on to become CEO of online retail giant Zappos. But what Hsieh really does is build communities. Corporate tech is, for him, primarily a way to bring people together and foster. . .   Read More

photo by Tanya Hart
In 01995, Brian Eno surmised that the fast-paced uncertainty of life in New York City led people to retreat into the immediacy of their own private worlds. As a counterweight to this preoccupation with the “short now,” he posited the idea of “The Long Now” – and thus the name of. . .   Read More

This lecture was presented as part of The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking.

Lost Landscapes of San Francisco, 8
Tuesday December 17, 02013 – San Francisco

 
Video is up on the Prelinger Seminar page for Members.
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Unlost San Francisco Life – a summary by Stewart Brand
“You are the soundtrack,” Prelinger. . .   Read More

There’s no place like an airport to ponder the notion of place in both its microscopic and macroscopic manifestations – in its continuities, and its evolutions.
Next time you fly in or out of San Francisco’s International Airport, take a stroll down to Terminal 2 (post-security), where a series of historic local maps. . .   Read More

Now in its eighth year, Rick Prelinger’s Lost Landscapes of San Francisco is almost always the largest of our Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Pre-sale tickets have sold out again at the Castro Theater and a few tickets will be released to the walk up line on the day of the show.
Those. . .   Read More

Since the beginnings of civilization, humans have had reason to think carefully about where to grow food, where to sleep, where to put waste. We call it land use planning and for most of history it’s happened pretty haphazardly. Like other activities, though, we’ve gradually systematized the process, especially as we’ve come. . .   Read More

Long Now’s Long Bets project is founded on the premise that we can improve our long-term thinking by holding ourselves accountable for the predictions we make about the future. By revisiting our forecasts as time goes by, we reveal the subtle mechanics of society’s evolution, and teach ourselves something about what kinds. . .   Read More

In 02011, economist Paul Romer was given an opportunity that few of his colleagues ever get: a chance to see one of his theories tested in a real-world setting. Octavio Sanchez, an idealistic government official in Honduras, saw in Romer’s proposal a resemblance to an idea of his own: to solve the country. . .   Read More

The Returning Tree from YuriSerizawa on Vimeo.

Digital artist Yuri Serizawa created this visualization as his graduation work at Digital Hollywood. It blends the biological with the urban and set the stage for our June 02012 SALT talk with Benjamin Barber on the role of cities in the future, “If Mayors Ruled the World.” We. . .   Read More