IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - 56

TIME MArCHEs oN:
to reach the clock,
visitors will have to walk
for the better part of
a day until they arrive
at this 150-meter-long
tunnel. the clock will be
housed in a tall vertical
chamber at the tunnel's
end [model shown at
far right]. they'll climb
the spiral steps until
they reach a platform,
where they'll wind the
clock. Winding the
clock causes the clock's
display to move forward
to the current time
and also triggers the
ringing of the chimes.
Photo: Long now foundation

The year is 12011. two HiKers cut tHrougH a stretcH of
cactus-filleD Desert outsiDe wHat was once tHe small
town of Van Horn, near tHe mexican BorDer, in west
texas. after walKing for tHe Better part of a Day unDer
a relentless sun, tHey struggle up a craggy limestone
riDge. finally tHey come to an opening in tHe rocK,
tHe moutH of wHat appears to Be a long, Deep tunnel.

As they heAd into the shAdows, not quite knowing to measure time for 10 millennia. Danny Hillis, an electrical engiwhere the tunnel will lead, the sudden darkness and the drop neer with three degrees from MIT who pioneered parallel superin temperature startle their senses. After a few minutes the computers at Thinking Machines Corp., worked for Walt Disney
hikers reach a cool chamber dimly lit from above. A tall column Imagineering, and then cofounded the consultancy Applied
of strange shiny metal gears and rods rises hundreds of meters Minds, dreamed up the project in 1995 to get people thinking more
above them. Steps cut into the walls spiral upward, and the about the distant future. But the clock is no longer just a thought
hikers ascend until they reach a platform. A black globe sus- experiment. In a cluttered machine shop near a Starbucks in San
pended above depicts the night sky, encircled by metal disks Rafael, Calif., it's finally ticking to life.
that indicate the year and the century.
This clock, the f lagship project of Hillis's Long Now
A giant metal wheel sits in the middle of the platform, and Foundation, is a wonder of mechanical engineering. Over the
the visitors each grasp a handle that juts out from its smooth course of its 10 000-year life span, it will be able to power itself
edges. For the next several hours, they push and walk and enough to keep time, synchronize that timekeeping with the sun,
push and walk in a circle, methodically, silently, until the wheel and randomly generate unique melodies on its chimes so that visiwill turn no further. Exhausted, they rest on the platform and tors will never hear the same tune twice. And it will do so entirely
drift off to sleep. At noon the next day, they're suddenly awak- without electricity. Think of it as "the slowest computer in the
ened by the ethereal tones of chiming bells.
world," says project manager Alexander Rose.
It sounds like science fiction, but this is the real vision for the
With funding from Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of
10 000-Year Clock, a monument-size mechanical clock designed Amazon.com, three teams of engineers in San Francisco, Seattle,
56

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum November, 2011