Long Now Executive Director and Clock Project Manager Alexander Rose is currently in Longyearbyen Svalbard in the Spitsbergen archipelago with artist Steven Rowell.  We are here to visit the 1000 year seed vault and talk with its engineers.  We will hopefully be getting into the vault on Sunday (the entry part anyway, no one but. . .   Read More

 
Lawrence Wilkinson posted a nice piece about infrastructure, software, and thinking long-term, where he pulls from a few sources including Pete Warden and Matt Mullenweg:

What’s true of sewers and software is true of most infrastructure:  finding the balance between lean expediency and investment in future capacity is a real trick.  Quoting his. . .   Read More

Making farmers cool again

Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan’s talk promoted the premise — and hope — that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to produce lots of calories cheaply, and they did. They. . .   Read More

Sustainable cities

Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN’s World Environment Day in San Francisco in 2005. For that event, which was called “Green Cities – Plan for the Planet!”, he invited 120 mayors from around the world. Days of intense discussion led to the publication of 21 policy principles. . .   Read More

This is an updated post of one of my early blog entries here at the Blog of the Long Now.  Over the last couple years I have found even more amazing underground and stonework spaces. Since we hope to build the space for the 10,000 Year Clock underground, for the last 10 years I. . .   Read More

Most permanent things begin as a temporary fix. A footpath becomes a road becomes a highway. A quick hut becomes a house becomes a hotel. A doodle becomes a logo becomes a brand. A patch becomes an operating keystone. A camp becomes a city.

Very few infrastructure details begin with the idea that they will. . .   Read More

 In my research of large pendulums for the 10,000 Year Clock I came across the beautifully designed tuned mass damper in the Taipei 101 tower.  Basically really tall buildings are themselves massive pendulums, as they are built to sway in the wind and earthquakes.  However very tall buildings in earthquake zones need something to. . .   Read More

There’s a very good article in this month’s IEEE Spectrum about the engineering challenges of replacement parts for devices intended to survive much longer than industrial cycles of obsolescence. The economics of making sure parts are available in a timely and cost effective fashion and task of designing management processes that survive long. . .   Read More

Amazingly only a few years after it begun the Seed Vault in Svalbard has opened. I cant wait to go and see how they built a multi-millennial structure so fast.
PhysOrg reports:

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds. . .   Read More

Since we are hoping to build a monument of cultural significance, it was great to come across this wonderful collection of blueprints and process photos from the building of the Eiffel Tower in the 01880s. What is particularly inspiring is that they built it before widespread use of electricity, the telephone, and the automobile, making. . .   Read More