What does practical long-term thinking look like? Bina Venkataraman’s new book, The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age, brings this abstract question to life. Through a series of anecdotes and case studies that draw from her background in public policy, climate change strategy, and journalism, Venkataraman explores . . .   Read More

Geologist Marcia Bjornerud and Long Now’s Executive Director Alexander Rose debate about whether going to Mars is a viable long-term sustainability plan for human survival.

Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director of the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, shares her curatorial perspective on the unique visual art of the Hong Kong protests, which is largely un-authored and digital in nature.. . .   Read More

Our next Seminar speaker, Andrew McAfee, has offered a group of 14 predictions on Long Bets . . .   Read More

In his Long Now talk earlier this summer, David Byrne announced that he would soon launch a new website called Reasons to Be Cheerful. The premise, Byrne said, was to document stories and projects that give cause for optimism in troubles times. He was after solutions-oriented efforts that provided tangible lessons that could be. . .   Read More

Getting to the moon and back again required unprecedented innovation across different sectors of the United States economy. Read More

Taking a question from the audience, author Ian McEwan says that we’ll know we’ve achieved complete trust with lifelike machines once we stop asking them, “Are you real?”

From the Long Now Seminar, “Machines Like Me” by Ian McEwan. . .   Read More

Former Seminar speaker Stephen Pyne was recently interviewed for a piece in New York Magazine about what it means to build permanent structures in California—a state that was always meant to continually burn and shake. 

So quickly, according to the fire historian Stephen Pyne, we forget the threat is even real. “We think. . .   Read More

There’s not going to be a ‘fix’ for climate change, says science journalist Jeff Goodell. There will only be adaptations. From the Long Now Seminar, “The Water Will Come. . .   Read More

Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at UC-Berkeley, believes that the changes AI will bring to humanity will be profound, but that we won’t notice them.

From John Brockman’s Long Now Seminar “Possible Minds. . .   Read More