Prompt Cast
The 10,000 Year Clock: A Long-Term Thinking Project by the Long Now Foundation
TLDR The Long Now Foundation is building a 10,000 year clock that represents civilization's entire past and runs without human intervention. Located in West Texas, the clock uses winding, temperature changes, and sunlight to power itself and is designed to be self-adjusting and protected against earthquakes and temperature fluctuations.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The podcast episode is about the 10,000 year clock and the Long Now Foundation.
05:10
The Long Now Foundation promotes long-term thinking and one of their projects is the 10,000 year clock, which is a clock designed to tick off 10,000 years and encourage people to think in the long term.
10:26
The 10,000 year clock is designed to represent civilization's entire past and will run without human intervention, with two proposed methods of power: human winding and temperature.
15:34
The prototype of the 10,000 year clock uses helical weights and a pendulum, which is key to keeping time, and is based on the concept of a mechanical clock using an escapement gear.
20:25
The clock is powered by winding and temperature changes, and uses a Geneva wheel system to carry out digital calculations and produce different chimes, although the algorithm for the chimes falls short of the 10,000 year mark by about 90,000 days.
25:17
The clock, which started ticking on December 31st, 1999, is being built on Jeff Bezos' property in West Texas and will be about 200 feet tall, located in the middle of nowhere and requiring a full day's hike to reach the mouth of the cave opening.
29:52
The clock has a mechanism for winding itself using counterweights that are raised by visitors cranking a horizontal wheel, but it can also collect sunlight through a prism at the top to power itself without human intervention.
34:39
The clock can adjust itself based on sunlight and temperature, and it can store energy to operate fully mechanically without human intervention.
39:17
The clock is designed to be self-winding and can adjust itself to display the correct time, and it is located inside a mountain for protection against earthquakes and temperature fluctuations, with ceramic ball bearings and stainless steel parts that can last for 10,000 years without lubrication.
43:56
The reporter discovered that the 10,000 Year Clock's ceramic ball bearings can be easily turned with gentle pressure, and the clock can be visited by joining the Long Now Foundation, which operates on donations and is funded by people like Bezos.
48:44
The implant releases medication into the intrathecal fluid surrounding the spinal cord, and the doctor refills it with cone snail venom every three months, greatly improving the patient's quality of life.
Categories:
Society & Culture
