www.thistledown.org

I was reading an article on N. Stephenson’s new book, Anathem, that referenced the Clock of the Long Now.

http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061474096

As it turns out, Stephenson had been in contact w/ the Long Now Foundation over 5 years ago and had even sketched some proposals for what the Clock of the Long Now might look like.

http://blog.longnow.org/2008/07/21/anathem-and-long-now/

Since that time, the idea stuck around in his head and he eventually crafted a novel w/ his ideas in it. Pretty interesting tie-in between a novel and the Long Now Foundation.

The Millenium Clock is the most famous of their projects and is an ambitious, optimistic challenge for humanity — to think long, to think slowly, to actually persist for 10,000 years. You can read about the details here

http://www.longnow.org/projects/clock/

Rather interestingly, my first encounter with the Long Now folks had nothing to do with the Clock or the Rosetta project. During my brief stay in SF, a friend of mine went to a Long Now seminar that hosted Will Wright talking about his forthcoming evolution-themed computer game, Spore. Brian Eno was also involved and spoke of the algorithm-generative music he designed for the game. (additionally, Eno is a founding member of Long Now)

http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=45

Eno also designed the chime music for the Long Now clock itself:

http://www.longnow.org/shop/prints-cds/bells-cd.php

(caveat: I’m now member 1572 of the Long Now Foundation. )