It's 02005

When we die, what do we leave behind? I don't mean our children.

Egyptians slaves left us the Pyramids, but the best estimate is that they are only a little over 5000 years old. Stonehenge is still there, The redwood trees of California are only a few thousand years old, but those are just trees. The tallest buildings we had in the US crumbled and were carted away after an airplane flew into them. So what do we leave behind if these things do not last? Could we build something to last 10,000 years? If we did, what would it be? What would last besides a pile of rocks?

How about a clock?

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From "The Millennium Clock" by Danny Ellis:

I think of the oak beams in the ceiling of College Hall at New College, Oxford. Last century, when the beams needed replacing, carpenters used oak trees that had been planted in 1386 when the dining hall was first built. The 14th-century builder had planted the trees in anticipation of the time, hundreds of years in the future, when the beams would need replacing. Did the carpenters plant new trees to replace the beams again a few hundred years from now?

I want to build a clock that ticks once a year. The century hand advances once every one hundred years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years. If I hurry I should finish the clock in time to see the cuckoo come out for the first time.

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That's right folks, a clock. A giant clock embedded in a mountain that tracks the sun and planets and will last for 10,000 years. It would be embedded into a mountain top that these people bought that is currently hundreds of miles from civilization. I'd think it was crazy if they didn't have millions of dollars to spend and a couple of completed working prototypes.

My favorite part of the site is where they define the principles behind building something maintainable that will last:

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Longevity:

• Go slow
• Avoid sliding friction (gears)
• Avoid ticking
• Stay clean
• Stay dry
• Expect bad weather
• Expect earthquakes
• Expect non-malicious human interaction
• Don't tempt thieves
  

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Check it out. They just completed their second prototype.



I guess the real question is, do you believe that anyone will be around in 10,000 years to appreciate it? And if not, are you working to change that?