Gizmodo asks half a dozen natural historians to speculate on who is going to be doing what jobs on Earth after the people disappear. One of the streams that runs wide and deep through this series of fun thought experiments is how so many niches stay the same through catastrophic changes . . .   Read More

Michelle Swanson, an Oregon-based educator and educational consultant, has written a blog post on the Internet Archive on the increased importance of digital librarians during the pandemic: With public library buildings closed due to the global pandemic, teachers, students, and lovers of books everywhere have increasingly turned to online resources for access to . . .   Read More

Living in a world with multiple spatiotemporal scales, the very small and fast can often drive the future of the very large and slow: Microscopic genetic mutations change macroscopic anatomy. Undetectably small variations in local climate change global weather patterns (the infamous “butterfly effect”). And now, one more . . .   Read More

Human history in the Americas may be twice long as long as previously believed — at least 26,500 years — according to authors of a new study at Mexico’s Chiquihuite cave and other sites throughout Central Mexico. According to the study’s lead author Ciprian Ardelean: “This site alone can’t be considered . . .   Read More

For everyone who cannot see the Comet Neowise with their own eyes this week — or just wants to see it from a higher perch — this video by artist Seán Doran combines 550 NASA images from the International Space Station into a real-time view of the comet from 250 miles above Earth’. . .   Read More

Pleistocene dormouse Leithia melitensis was the size of a house cat. New computer-aided reconstructions show a skull as long as an entire modern dormouse. It’s a textbook example of “island gigantism,” in which, biologists hypothesize, fewer terrestrial predators and more pressure from predatory birds selects for a much larger . . .   Read More

Human beings have an astonishing evolutionary gift: agile imaginations that can shift in an instant from thinking on a scale of seconds to a scale of years or even centuries. Our minds constantly dance across multiple time horizons. One moment we can be making a quickfire response . . .   Read More

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay The Long Now Foundation has partnered with Avenues: The World School to offer a program on the past, present, and future of innovation. A fully online program for ages 17 and above, the Avenues Mastery Year is designed . . .   Read More

Long Now Community, Since 01996, Long Now has endeavored to foster long-term thinking in the world by sharing perspectives on our deep past and future. We have too often failed, however, to include and listen to Black perspectives. Racism is a long-term civilizational problem with deep roots in the past, profound effects . . .   Read More

On April 14th, 02020, The Long Now Foundation convened a Long Conversation featuring members of our board and invited speakers. Over almost five hours of spirited discussion, participants reflected on the current moment, how it fits into our deeper future, and how we can address threats to civilization that are rare but ultimately predictable. . . .   Read More