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The Clock of the Long Now. Time and Responsibility
Stewart Brand
Basic Books, New York, 1999
320 pages

I must admit i have been very reluctant reading this book. I remember when Daniel Hillis had the idea for the 10,000 year clock in 1993-94. "What a brilliant idea" i thought, what a wonderful mindgame.
When i heard the rumors that they where actually collecting money to built it i was less convinced. I thought that the idea is good enough, its pure - and its brilliant. They don't have to proof that they can actually do it. They are actually ruining the whole idea!

Stewart Brands' book proofs that i am quite wrong. It is a deep and clever book about long-term thinking (in that respect picking up on "How buildings learn") and everyone interested in history, future and sustainability should read it. And everyone else as well.

He starts of with different concepts of time. In this sense it is a little precocious sometimes, explaining details that can be asumed general knowledge.

In an intricate way it is linked to the areas that my project radiomap alludes to.

A footnote to myself:
An earlier view on sustainability and long-term perspective would be Liberty Hyde Bailey. In 1951 he wrote: “The remnants and accumulation of mining camps are left to ruin and decay; the deserted phosphate excavations are ragged, barren, and unfilled; vast areas of forested lands are left in brush and waste, unthoughtful to the future, unmindful of the years that must be consumed to reduce the refuse to mould and to cover the surface respectably, uncharitable to those who must clear away the wastes and put the place in order....” http://insidehighered.com/views/2009/02/11/mclemee

last update: 4/20/02010 15:48

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