The Clock of the Long Now is cultural monument which has been proposed by W. Daniel Hillis, the inventor of the Connection Machine. Named by Brian Eno, the Clock of the Long Now is a monumental-scale mechanical clock designed to keep time continuously for the next ten thousand years.

An eight-foot working maquette of the Clock is to be completed by January, 2000. Work on the full-scale clock is to begin in 2001.

This machine is also being called the World's Slowest Computer. The clock face is to include a display showing local solar time, mean solar time, lunar time, the position of the stars and the precession of the equinoxes.

One of the main components of the clock is a mechanical adder. Here are some pictures of the current designs for the Clock. These designs are by Daniel Hillis, Zander Rose and others of the Long Now Foundation.

Copyright 1999 (c) Stewart Dickson