From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2000 - 12:59:54 MST
From: Stewart Brand <sb@gbn.org>
>As you know, The Long Now Foundation is well along with the design
>and prototyping of Danny Hillis's 10,000-year Clock. A $2 million
>version has been commissioned for the British Science Museum.
>Part of a mountain in Eastern Nevada adjoining a National Park has
>been purchased for building a massive version of the Clock inside
>its white limestone cliffs. That project will cost on the order of
>$40 million. The idea is to build a mythic mechanism with the
>effect of the photos of Earth from space---temporally reframe
>thinking so that taking the long view becomes common instead of
>rare.
Picture of the prototype in the March WIRED. The clock was recently
refered to on a question on "Hollywood Squares". (okay we can't
think all the time.)
>Kevin Kelly has been pushing his idea of what we've been calling
>a Global Biocensus---set about identifying ALL of the species on
>Earth. The process itself and the results and side effects could
>outweigh (and incidentally build on) the Human Genome Project.
>Kevin can spell out the emerging details. It's a billion dollar
>project---a bargain for the value it would generate.
An excellent idea, we'll never solve the puzzle if we destroy the
pieces... It might not be a bad idea to cryopreserve specimens
on the endangered lists, just in case.
I would guess Stewart has been interested in questions like this
even before he created "The Whole Earth Catalogue".
Every time I get the urge to start building a house, I re-read some
part of his book "How Buildings Learn".
Welcome to the list.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Mars Society, www.marssociety.org
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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