David Luthman

Have you heard of ”the long now”? It was defined as the last 10,000 years and the next 10,000 years, a concept I recently stumbled upon.

Let me give you some background…

As mentioned in previous posts, ”Unleashing Potential” and ”20 years is short term”, I want humanity to reach for immortality and interstellar travel.

Obviously I’m not alone in these kinds of thoughts. They are in no way novel and in many ways stem from religious, philosophical as well as pop-cultural trends. However, while the former mainly argues for us being immortal beings (or part of such) the latter does explore the possibility of attaining it in our current forms (or close to them).

In these endeavors I realize I most likely need to take a longer-than-life perspective, in that I am unlikely to see either goal realized during my lifetime for humanity as we know it.

This is where I stumbled upon the Long Now Foundation:

”Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years —
a timespan we call the long now.”

While I have yet to learn if they take immortality and interstellar travel into their imagination, these types of foundations are the kind I am thrilled to see exist, act, and make a difference.

(Personally I also like their touch of writing years in a 5 digit format, such as being founded in 01996. It does evoke the 10,000 year timespan.)

One of their projects includes building a clock which they hope will ring for 10,000 years. A symbolic project, sure, but meant to evoke the forward-thinking required to keep such a device going for the whole time. A relevant symbol.

Another way to visualize 10,000 years ahead is also to understand and learn about our distant past.

It made me think of Göbekli Tepe.

This is one of, if not the, earliest known megalithic sites of the world, dating to 10,000-11,500 years ago. It is a truly astounding time span and I can’t help but wonder if the people who constructed that site thought about its longevity or not.

Did they wonder if it could last as a monument for 10,000 years and more from then?

Either way it fascinates me and makes me think about how the Long Now is quite an apt timespan, bridging the distant past and the distant future. It makes me more intrigued to work towards a longer perspective and continue building a solid foundation for those who will follow.