You don’t read headlines like that everyday do you?
In what may qualify as the world’s most unusual timepiece, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has invested $42 million (along with a hollowed-out mountain he owns in Texas) to construct a giant mechanical clock.
The idea for the 10,000-year clock originally came from Danny Hillis, who wrote an article for Wired magazine in 1995 in which he suggested that such a clock would be good way to think about the long-term future of humanity. The idea gained traction and spawned the Long Now Foundation (of which Hillis is a co-founder), which is the organisation behind the current project.
But why invest so much money in such a project, you may be asking?
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in 2012, Bezos outlined his thinking:
“We humans have become so technologically sophisticated that in certain ways we’re dangerous to ourselves. It’s going to be increasingly important over time for humanity to take a longer-term view of its future.”
“Over the lifetime of this click, the United States won’t exist.”
“Whole civilisations will rise and fall. New systems of government will be invented. You can’t imagine the world- no one can- that we’re trying to get this clock to pass through.”
The clock itself will be 500 feet tall, entirely mechanical, powered by day/night thermal cycles and synchronised at solar noon.
If you’re planning to visit the clock once it’s completed though, you’ll have to prepare yourself for a challenging journey. The Long Now Foundation states that the nearest airport is several hours away, and that to reach the clock involves hiking up a rough trail over 2,000 feet above the valley floor.
A completion date for the project has not yet been announced.
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