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The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility Paperback – April 6, 2000

by Stewart Brand (Author)

4.4 132 ratings

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Using the designing and building of the Clock of the Long Now as a framework, this is a book about the practical use of long time perspective: how to get it, how to use it, how to keep it in and out of sight. Here are the central questions it inspires: How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare? Discipline in thought allows freedom. One needs the space and reliability to predict continuity to have the confidence not to be afraid of revolutions Taking the time to think of the future is more essential now than ever, as culture accelerates beyond its ability to be measured Probable things are vastly outnumbered by countless near-impossible eventualities. Reality is statistically forced to be extraordinary; fiction is not allowed this freedom This is a potent book that combines the chronicling of fantastic technology with equally visionary philosophical inquiry.

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Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 6, 2000
Dimensions

5 x 0.47 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0465007805
ISBN-13

978-0465007806
Lexile measure

1160L
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The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility

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132 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book thought-provoking and creative. They appreciate the author's deep understanding and broad perspective on long-range thinking and planning. The symbolic expression in an extraordinary, novel clock is described as interesting and provocative.

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Thought provoking Creativity

6 customers mention "Thought provoking"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and engaging. They appreciate its broad perspective and deep understanding of long-range thinking and planning. The book explores how to extend the present and engender long-term thinking.

"Like to look and think long term, then this is the read for you. I wish I could attend one of their meetings and see the clock in person" Read more

"...While I thought the book was generally very well-written, and presented many, many thought-provoking points, some of the ideas seem to have been..." Read more

"...that conveys knowledge through 10,000 years are more interesting, broader, and a more fundamental aspect of the Long Now project...." Read more

"Very intersting book really worth reading, very broad prospective and deep understanding." Read more

4 customers mention "Creativity"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's creativity. They find the symbolic expression in a novel clock interesting and provocative.

"...A monumental work! - Bernie Taylor" Read more

"Interesting. Got me thinking. Seemed to me a bit of a vanity project." Read more

"...world and at history that is finding its symbolic expression in a extraordinary, creative and novel clock to be designed and built over the next few..." Read more

"Provocative and thoughtful..." Read more

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LoudLenny
Great group and great book
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
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Like to look and think long term, then this is the read for you. I wish I could attend one of their meetings and see the clock in person

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Buckeye
A unique view of our responsiblity for the future
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2000
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This book examines the topic of thinking and planning for the long term - and the author definitely means the LONG term. The book focuses on two nascent projects headed up by the author and the "Long Now Foundation" - the effort to build a 10,000 year clock and a 10,000 year library. This projects are intended to help shift humanity's concept of "now" to a much longer time frame. And with this shift in the concept of now, it is hoped that a new concept of responsibility for our individual and group behavior will emerge.
This book and the thinking behind it represent an excellent counterpoint to the prevalent and destructive view of "now" as beeing some extremely short term time frame - today, this week, or (for many corporations) this quarter. One can only hope that it is widely read. If the ideas behind this book and its associated project change only a small segment of our population's view about stewardship and care for the long-term health and longevity of our planet and our race it will be well worth the effort.
While I thought the book was generally very well-written, and presented many, many thought-provoking points, some of the ideas seem to have been rather poorly thought out and gave the impression of having been simply tossed in to the mix. At one point a potential role of the 10,000 year library as a repository of both sides of important debates is described - an excellent idea, but the objective is described as allowing future generations to know who to "blame" if things go wrong. Going to all this trouble just so our descendants can engage in blaming someone for something seems rather silly. Fortunately, there are loftier goals for this project, and many are very well described throughout the book.
This book has strongly impacted the way I think about the future. I highly recommend it.

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N. H. Hubbard
challenging and inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2013
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This book was suggested by a university lecturer who is teaching courses in strategic thinking and strategic analysis. While book doesn't answer any questions about strategic analysis, it contains many pointers about what is involved in thinking in longer time frames, including futures. Perhaps it's subtitle could be "Don't panic" (taken from Douglas Adams). The book does not itself say don't panic - but it does provide comfort that current and future issues need to be considered, rationally and optimistically, not with fear and dread - conditions which are likely to lead to misguided efforts to address the wrong problem...

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2 people found this helpful

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Bernie Taylor
This is an important book...
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2020
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This is an important book, not just for what author Stewart Brand puts forth in his vision of how we may see the distant future, but also what we may communally decide will be plan for the near term. A monumental work! - Bernie Taylor

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Captain K
Would That We Could ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023
I had never heard of this book until The Week magazine issued a series of pamphlets in which various public figures listed their favorite reads. The late folksinger Richie Havens praised it, for the same reasons I would: It "takes a brilliant and insightful look at why our culture's pathetically short attention span may be our doom. I loved its concept of holding politicians accountable for the future damage caused by their decisions."
Apparently, when ordering it nearly 25 years after its publication, I did not realize that the titular "clock" was something the author and his intellectual colleagues actually intended to build. As a result it was not possible for me, at first, to get beyond the first few pages, so I put it aside. Only then did I peruse the Amazon reviews to see if I would be better off taking "Clock" to a used bookstore. Most reviews are quite favorable but a few of the negative ones scored points as well. Words like "obsolescence" and "naivete" come to mind, as does the notion of unwarranted optimism.
As it later happened I was between books and, due to other obligations, only had time for a short one. Thereafter I read "Clock" in a single sitting, and used up more than one marker underlining what I considered the more memorable passages. As I expected, I found the clock essentially a distraction. The true significance of the author's vision is the establishment of some sort of archive of all knowledge thus far preserved by humanity, adding to it as the "clock" ticks onward for 10,000 years. (The apparent physical impossibility of this alone has been pointed out by reviewers with much more knowledge than I about information technology.) I was also touched by a reference to the Library of Alexandria, the destruction of which is among the most vile occurrences in human history.
What the book does exquisitely is describe, and explain, the competing forces underlying human existence - preparing for our posterity vs. instantaneous gratification. But it is also likely to throw off some readers (myself included) by its constant reminders that predicting the future may be a talent of, mainly, science fiction writers, which weakens the initiative to try and follow the author's recommendations. The road to Hell, as Dr. Johnson said, is paved with good intentions. Thankfully, there are some indications that our institutions, especially science, are beginning to buy into the "long time" concept. On the other hand the author's expressed admiration for religion is dubious, particularly given the brands of extremism that have emerged since publication.
What carried the day for me is the vision, heart, and decency of the book's premise. As Brand writes, "The debt we cannot repay our ancestors we pay our descendants." Or should.

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Charles Rovira
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2017
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I like Stewart Brand's view of things. If you haven't read this book, you're missing out.

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NDH
Provocative and thoughtful
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2021
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AG interesting discussion of how to lengthen “now” and engender long term thinking. Building a block that might count 10,000 years is a surprisingly tough problem. But in many ways, the concepts for a library that conveys knowledge through 10,000 years are more interesting, broader, and a more fundamental aspect of the Long Now project.

Surprisingly, the book seems a bit anchored in the late 1990s time when it was written, and so much has happened and changed since then that renders discussion of a timeless subject feel dated already!

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C. S. Cooper
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2017
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Very intersting book really worth reading, very broad prospective and deep understanding.

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Top reviews from other countries

Aaron Hamilton
A new appreciation for slowing down and considering the long view
Reviewed in Canada on May 17, 2019
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Instant gratification is the order of the day for citizens and leaders of this planet. The author injects a much-needed perspective which encapsulates the longer view of humanity and this planet. We must plan for LONG term in order to survive.

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Nicholas
Great selection of essays on a big problem
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2015
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Stewart Brand is a worried man. Earthquakes, war, murder, the burning of libraries; bad things happen fast, he argues. Good things, in contrast, like reforestation, the growth of a child, the maturing of an adult, or the building of library, happen slow. Today’s world though happens on a faster and faster time scale – our “now” is a smaller and smaller increment of time. How, he wonders, can we make our society see the last ten thousand years as if it were last week, and the next ten thousand as if it were next week? How, in other words, can we give ourselves a long now?

The Clock of the Long Now is a collection of essays by Brand about this topic. Brand is an ecologist and environmental activist, including running the Whole Earth Catalog and being instrumental in having NASA release the first picture of Earth as seen from space, believing it could symbolize our shared destinies. Today, he is a co-founder of the Long Now Foundation, devoted to the issues The Clock of the Long Now raises.

For our world to survive, he argues, we must think and compete on 6 different time scales. Over the scale of years, individuals compete; over decades, families; over centuries, tribes or nations; over millennia, culture; over tens of millennia, species; and over eons, the whole web of life on our planet. Thinking on these scales means we can identify and work to preserve what really matters.

Unfortunately, as he points out, “the great problem with the future is that we die there.” To help, he has a number of suggestions, including writing dates in five digits (02013, not 2013), increasing history education among all professions, and following James Lovelock’s proposal of writing a start-up manual for civilization, from making fire through ancient genetic design to modern biotech.

As with any collection of essays, any given reader will like some essays and dislike others. Overall, however, this book, and Brand’s foundation, form a powerful message. We can still read Galileo’s technical correspondence from the 1590s, but not the correspondence that launched AI research in the 1960s, because the electronic storage has decayed. What does that say about what we’re leaving to future generations? I’m not sure Brand knows the answer, and I certainly don’t, but the question is one that is too often lost in the babble of the present.

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Brad Mattson
Long View and Short Life to make an impact
Reviewed in Canada on December 21, 2015
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Thoughtful, many highlights. Pondering one's own existence in a moment can make a significant impact, but does it last more than a week?

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Sylvia Bowden
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2015
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very interesting gateway to many podcasts, articles and authors. Worth reading.

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AK
One of the best collections of essays on sustainability and resilience, as well as long term planning
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2010
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While I have been intensely interested in long term planning and sustainability - both professionally and personally - I only discovered this gem of a book rather late. It is a collection of essays, joined by the common theme of the 'Clock of the Long Now' project - with the aim of building a mechanical clock designed to last 10,000 years.

The questions addressed by the essays differ in the framing of the problems and their solutions - namely the change in perspective from a week, month, year or even decade to hundreds, thousands or 10,000 year timespans. Over that period of time many problems are much more amenable to solving. On the other hand taking that perspective also leads to designing solutions maximising the resilience of the systems designed - to be as good under as many possible futures as possible, rather than optimising them for a single future, which seems likely in the short run but is in effect increadibly unlikely to materialise over a period longer than a couple of years.

I feel the examples are much more eye opening and powerful than the regular 'scare tactics' employed for the purpose. The book will also nicely complement other such volumes, which mostly work on a shorter time scale such as The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update, The Living Company: Growth Learning and Longevity in Business, Brain of the Firm (Classic Beer Series) or Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management and Organization. As opposed to several of these mentioned above, the book can easily be read by a layperson and does not require much in terms of background reading, either.

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