Amazon.com’s creator, Jeff Bezos, is thinking ahead – 10,000 years ahead. He’s funded the Long Now Foundation, which is building The 10,000 Year Clock deep inside of a mountain on his West Texas estate, not far from his personal rocket-launch site.
The clock is designed to stand at 200 feet tall and features a century hand and a year hand instead of a minute and hour hand. As you may guess, the century hand only ticks once every 100 years, and the year hand once every year. Every millenium, a cuckoo emerges (no details on how big the cuckoo will be). The vision of the clock is to keep time for 10,000 years.
Mr. Bezos explains why he constructed his 10,000 year clock:
“The reason I’m doing it is that it is a symbol of long-term thinking, and the idea of long-term responsibility. We humans have become so technologically sophisticated that in certain ways we’re dangerous to ourselves. It’s going to be increasingly important over time for humanity to take a longer-term view of its future.”
Mr. Bezos’ clock will stand over 200 feet tall, and will take a day-long hike to reach the clock’s interior gears. As of last December, the team presented a progress report on its blog that stated they were drilling a 500-foot-deep shaft for the clock. Now, they’re cutting a spiral stairway out of stone, as well as constructing the different parts of the clock.
Here’s a video of the equipment they’re using to cut the stone stairs:
