[[category:Foundations]]
The '''Long Now Foundation''' was established in [[1996]]. It is a private organization that has set itself a two-fold mission of educating the general public of their belief that the human race needs a long-term perspective of its future to enhance its survival. Members believe that [[digital]] information storage is always in inherent danger of destruction due to its often transient nature and that steps must be taken to preserve human knowledge using durable methods and [[medium|media]].
At the time of this writing, the Foundation has several ongoing projects, including a 10,000 year clock, called the ''[[Clock of the Long Now]]'', and, in association with [[The Lazy Eight Foundation]], the ''[[Rosetta Project]]''.
The purpose of the ''Clock of the Long Now'' is to construct a timepiece that will operate with minimum [[human]] intervention for ten [[millennium|millennia]]. It is to be constructed of durable materials and to be easy to repair. It is to be made of largely valueless materials in case knowledge of the [[Clock]] is lost or it is deemed to be of no value to an individual or possible future [[civilization]]; in this way it is hoped that the Clock will not be [[looting|looted]] and destroyed. Its power source or sources should be renewable but also not lootable. A prototype of a potential final clock candidate was activated on [[December 31]] [[1999]]. The prototype is on display at the Science Museum of [[London]]. The Foundation hopes to construct the finished Clock at a location near [[Ely, Nevada]].
The ''Rosetta Project'' is an effort to preserve up to one thousand [[language]]s that have a high likelihood of extinction over the period from [[2000]] to [[2100]]. These include many languages whose [[native speaker]]s number in the thousands or less. Other languages with many more speakers are considered endangered by the project due to the increasing importance of [[English language|English]] as an international language of commerce and culture. Samples of such languages are to be inscribed onto a disk of [[nickel]] alloy two [[inch]]es (5.08 [[centimetre|cm]]) across. A "Version 1.0" of the disk was completed in the [[Autumn|Fall]] of [[2002]].
The ''Seminars on Long Term Thinking'' are a series of monthly lectures in [[San Francisco]], [[California|CA]] presented by the Foundation. The seminars are intended to "nudge civilization toward making long-term thinking automatic and common." Topics have included preserving [[environmental movement|environmental]] resources, the extension of the human [[lifespan]], the likelihood of an [[asteroid]] strike in the future, [[SETI]], and the nature of [[time]].
The members of The Long Now Foundation include [[Danny Hillis]] (inventor of the [[Connection Machine]]), [[Stewart Brand]], and [[Brian Eno]].
In [[2005]], inspired by the Long Now Foundation, Gordon Charlton started the first [[Diary]] of the Long Now, a diary of 10,000 years, with one entry for each year.
==External links==
* [http://www.longnow.org/ The Long Now Foundation]
* [http://www.rosettaproject.org/ The Rosetta Project]
* [http://www.longbets.org/ The Long Bets Foundation]
* [http://longnowdiary.blogspot.com/ A Diary of the Long Now]
[[de:Long Now Foundation]]
[[Category:Futurology]]
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