We welcome new design and conceptual ideas to the project. If you have an idea please send in a write up or visuals and we may post it. See some of the ideas sent in below:
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These are plans for the clock and housing structure drawn up by Stephen Saff. A letter to Danny Hillis follows which describes his ideas and motivations behind the design.
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The Time Machine
Of
The Long Now
"A Home for the Clock and Time Library of The Long Now"
Dear Mr. Hillis
I found out about the Long Now Foundation serendipitously through a set of events culminating in this letter and the drawings and diagrams that accompany it.
As a subscriber to "Wired" magazine, I came upon an article that showed a picture of a Congreve clock that looked identical to my father’s Congreve clock located in his home. My father has a very intense interest and love of clocks and time keeping and so I brought the article to his attention. He has a skeleton clock collection and an important collection of tower clocks. For the last several years, he has been researching the work of Charles Fasoldt and his wonderful, innovative and precise regulators and tower clocks, in preparation for an article he will be writing for the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. The Wired magazine article referenced the Long Now Foundation concept and sometime later we both read the book "The Clock of the Long Now". I benefited from in-depth discussions with my father about the premise of the clock.
However, my area of training and expertise is not in time keeping. I am an architect, and therefore I approach your plans for the Clock of the Long Now in terms of the housing and placement of the clock. It is a subject to which I have given a great deal of thought. In the chapter" the Clock/Library", there were preliminary concepts of locating the clock inside a mountain bluff. I found myself questioning whether this choice was the most appropriate solution for the placement of the clock. After reading a verbal description of one’s experience upon arrival at the site and procession up to and into the earth and the experience one would feel as he moved through this earth-bored space, I pondered the notion of time and man-made, versus natural form. As I continued to mull over the concept of the clock cradled in the mountain, my architectural predisposition began to conjure a different approach to the housing of such a monumental construct.
Before I continue with my concept for the housing of the clock, let me make a comparison between the Long Now Foundation’s placement and housing of this very important timepiece and those of the great pyramids of Giza and their relevance as both time machine and celestial site. The configuration of the pyramids according to most recent studies and beliefs are based on the constellation of Orion. The organization of structures, both pyramidal and ancillary facilities, and their arrangement and procession, was done in a way that described for the Egyptians their location in the universe at that time. Interestingly, the organization of these structures, relative to true north and the position of the Orion constellation at that given time and location in the sky, has provided new theories of when the Pyramids were actually constructed. Consequently, today we have a better sense of Egyptian time and place during the era of the great pyramids.
So how does this in turn relate to the structure that will house the clock and why should it be a man-made structure rather then spaces created from forging large chambers and channels carved into rock and stone in a bluff in Nevada? The reason one would build a man-made structure is to mark man’s timeline of where we are now, in both time and space. This structure reflects technologically where we are, as well as our aspirations and hopes metaphorically. A built structure would accomplish part of this goal; the rest would be accomplished through the Clock of the Long Now and the time library.
The people who build great structures such as the pyramids of Egypt, most likely built them with past, present, and future in-mind. The Egyptian people provided their Pharaohs with a time machine for their afterlife; for themselves, they built something greater then themselves, individually, something that to this day still evokes great wonder, awe and questions as to the means and methods of construction. These icons like so many other pyramids found throughout the world have become a real testimony to a culture’s technology, beliefs, and infrastructure and demonstrate the foresight of the thinkers of past civilizations.
For the Long Now Foundation I pose a question for discussion and consideration: why not build a large man-made object to house the clock and time library? To create such a facility invites many other questions to add to the numerous technological and philosophical questions and concepts that are already challenging the Long Now Foundation and its illustrious members. I have made the preceding introductory remarks as a framework by which I hope you will permit me to present to you what I believe would be a useful, meaningful and appropriate way to house the Clock of the Long Now and its attendant other structures. The accompanying drawing and diagrams should help with the visualization.
I have chosen for the housing of such an interesting complex of clock, library, and data storage facility a recognizable and simple Euclidean geometric object: "the cone". Unlike the pyramids of the past, the cone is reflective and analogous to the ideas of the clock and time. A cone is a topological extrusion of ever decreasing concentric circles, (similar to the diagram of the order of civilization found on page 37 in the Long Now Book). The circle is a geometrical shape found in the clock gears, the dial, the cross section of the earth and the earth’s rotation around the sun. It, in fact, drives time, which in our four-dimensional world is still linear, but in a sense is based on the circle.
Another analogy of this form is the visual manifestation of the movement of the pendulum and its swing over time. So, for the sake of simplicity and purity in form, I have developed a conical object 500 feet in height and 400 feet in diameter. A 10’-0" wide 100’-0" high slit has been located towards the apex of the cone and is oriented due south. This slit is located to visually orient the viewer to this object’s true South face. This slit will allow light to focus on the solar synchronmeter found inside the cone everyday at exactly noon. It will also create a celestial event within the spherical room that highlights the clock face at noon (there will be more said about this later).
I am very much an environmentalist, but as an environmentalist, I am challenged by the idea of developing a sustainable building using materials present at the site, which in this case appears to be limestone. I feel strongly that a beautiful man-made structure not only enhances its surroundings but also adorns and embellishes it as well. This structure would also provide a beautiful home for the clock. Large CNC milling machines located on site could fabricate each piece of stone, and the great assemblage would take place over time. One possible material that could be used in addition to stone would be a very thick glass coating, maybe 6" inches thick, which could envelop the cone’s exterior stone surface. This combination of glass and cut-stone structure could far out last the life of the 10,000-year clock.
Maybe the combination of materials could be designed in a way that allows the exterior skin of the cone to act as a giant solar panel, providing power for interior lighting and also providing the necessary power requirements for the time library. This could be accomplished by state of the art mylars and solar cells. The new technologies in materials, fabrication and means and methods of construction are presently available for a building of such a long-lasting and complex nature. These materials and new fabrication methods are all a part of the challenges that lie ahead in the development of the clock, the library, and the home for such a fascinating and provocative a project.
Procession, spatial arrangement, program adjacencies, construction methods, materials, data storage facilities, maintenance, human interaction are all considerations in this enormous and monumental task. The foundation, its members, and the scientific community, environmental agencies, and various social entities at large can add insight into all these issues. The challenges that such a change in scope for the clock’s housing brings is, obviously not to lose sight of the intent of the "Long Now Foundation", but to refine, clarify and hone in on all the logistical and technical problems that lie ahead.
Here is a hypothetical experience one could have as one approaches, enters, and experiences the structure, the clock, the time libraries, and infrastructure that lie within:
As one approaches the base or plinth of this massive monumental structure, one would notice the smooth and highly reflective quality of this perfect conical geometry otherwise known as the "Time Machine of the Long Now". A large opening lies to the east side of a truncated square that the cone sits atop. One enters down a passage that is perfectly cylindrical in shape; the walkway sits floating in the middle of the cylinder, and one is not capable of reaching or touching the walls that envelop them. After approximately 200 feet, one enters the heart of the clock. The torsion pendulum room, is a perfect circular room with the pendulum centered on the apex of the cone, an "axis mondi" if you will. One cannot help but be overwhelmed by the enormous spherical weights slowly rotating back and forth attached by large arms that pivot on an axis that slowly moves the concentric gears of the mechanical computer that hovers above the observer.
The structure is massive in size and above the pendulum room and gazing towards the top of the structure with its colossal gears is the celestial room located almost 300’ above. The celestial room, a perfectly hemicyclic space, crowns the clock structure and is home to the clock face with its celestial calendar of stars and dates.
As one departs the pendulum room, and moves towards the outer concentric circulation path, the visitor comes upon six time libraries that are tangentially located 60 degrees apart along a circular hallway that surrounds the torsion pendulum room. Each library contains a particular area of information (examples; arts, history, machines, technology). Each room is fairly large and contains some type of screen of information or data display. The technology of the screen, or the ways in which the library is used or shared, is one of the more complex issues that needs to be developed. Even more challenging is the way in which these libraries are tied into a data storage facility located at some very secured location, either on site or off. After experiencing the libraries, the visitor is ready to make his way up to the celestial room. He will start his journey heading to the ramp on the north side of the torsion pendulum room. As one starts up this 10 foot wide ramp that is set 10 feet off the large skeletal tubes that act as the vertical spines for gears, ratchets, and slides that are contained within this behemoth structure, the visitor slowly starts ascending upward helically circling around the clock. The ramp is physically and metaphorically the path that moves one thru time, spiraling up, or ascending to the oracle or hemicycle room. As one moves upwards around the clock, one becomes fascinated by the changing speeds of the gears. Some gears move slowly, some appear to be frozen in time, yet over the millennium, everything will move, and in turn one gear will move another, and the cycle of time will continue as man’s time advances. This LONGNOW clock is the great keeper of time. It physically fragments and divides man’s conceptual sense of time and metaphysical place.
Upon arriving at the top one cannot help but be awe-struck by the Celestial room’s Boll-like planetarium, a perfectly rounded space, a sky dome. Due south in the hemicycle room lies a 100 foot high and 10 foot wide slit that angles upward penetrating the exterior of the cone. This slit allows for the great celestial event, the solar synchronization of the clock. And for a brief moment on a clear day, the light at noon will peer right thru the large slit, illuminating the room and heating the solar sychronmeter and re-calibrating the clock. At the center of room lies the large Long Now clock face, a group of concentric circles with celestial information and the calendar years forming the outer circle of the clock face, showing clearly markings of the year and the celestial position. As one moves through the slit to the exterior of the cone the visitor walks onto the top of a gnomon fin that extends beyond the face of the cone; this element provides a perch from which to gaze upon the landscape that surrounds the monument.
The gnomon fin found on the exterior of the cone is another device from which the visitor can get a sense of time (solar time). The gnomon fin will create shadows on the exterior of the cone and parabolic lines crossed with hour lines will be etched into the exterior surface of the structure, the final result will be that of a working sundial.
As one explores, experiences, and contemplates the Long Now Clock, Libraries, and this conical ark, one will walk away with a sense of wonder of our time now, and hopefully contemplate the significance of our past and future.
It is my hope that you, along with the Long Now Foundation, will consider my proposal for a home for the Long Now clock. Just as you have succeeded in accomplishing such an important instrument, I believe that one should always reach for and push the boundaries of a concept. Therefore, the housing for, and the facilities accompanying, the Clock of the Long Now should be such that it enhances and embraces the technological innovation and creativity of the Clock of the Long.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Stephen Saff
