The Clock in the Mountains


Deep inside a mountain in Texas, there are men who are hard at work clearing out enormous amounts of stone. They are building a clock inside the mountain. The clock is meant to run for 10,000 years: equal to the age of civilization, give or take a century.


First conceived by Danny Hillis in 1995, the clock is meant to inspire long-term thinking. It is meant to ask the question that virologist Jonas Salk once asked: Are we being good ancestors?

Hillis introduced the idea of his clock by talking about the future:

I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me. I sense that I am alive at a time of important change, and I feel a responsibility to make sure that the change comes out well. I plant my acorns knowing that I will never live to harvest the oaks.

I want to build a clock that ticks once a year. The century hand advances once every 100 years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years.


Though Hillis was thinking about his clock for over 15 years, with the help of Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com, Billionaire)… his concept is becoming reality. The clock is being funded with $42M of Bezos’ vast fortune, and build on land owned by Bezos.

Also involved in the project is musician Brian Eno, who gave the clock its name (Clock of the Long Now) and also coined the phrase Long Now. Eno is also responsible for the mechanics behind the Clock’s chimes – each time they ring, the sound will be unique. The chimes are programmed so that they will never repeat themselves for 10,000 years.

Kevin Kelly has a wonderful article about the clock: The Clock in the Mountains. It’s a great summary of the project – and captures both the technical and philosophical workings behind the concept. It’s a great read, and I’ve been thinking about the project for a few weeks now.

I truly am fascinated by this clock, and it’s something that’s been difficult to describe to friends. It’s awe-inspiring, it’s massive on a scale that’s sometimes hard to comprehend. In some ways, it’s a temple to humanity… a project as ambitious as the pyramids, or the Great Wall of China. Something to last longer than ourselves, and then some.

I’m not sure what it is that draws me to this clock – whether it’s the mechanism itself, or the thinking behind it. I know that I want to be a part of its creation, and that I want to join the Long Now Foundation. There’s something romantic about participating in a project this large in scope and intent.

I want to travel to the Sierra Diablo Mountain Range, hours away from the nearest airport. I want to go on a day’s hike, ascending 1500 feet above the desert in search of the Clock’s entrance. I want to walk through the inner chambers and ask the Clock to give me its time. And, if I’m lucky, I want to be there at noon so that I can hear the Clock chime: a unique sound that won’t be heard again, for at least 10,000 years. This is the kind of pilgrimage I’d like to undertake.

When I think about this clock, I think about my daily life… my small stresses and problems, my challenges and my accomplishments. I think about my bills, the deadlines at work, standing in line at the store. I look to the watch on my wrist, and I’m reminded of the appointments I have to keep, the places I need to be. I look to the clock in the mountain and I’m reminded of the days that are ahead, and the world I’ll never see.

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Related:
The Long Now Foundation
10,000 Year Clock – Official Website
Clock of the Long Now – Wikipedia
How to Make a Clock Run for 10,000 Years (Wired)
The Clock in the Mountains (Kevin Kelly)

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