Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is in the top tier of richest men in the world. He reportedly is investing some $42 million to construct a 10,000 Year Clock. This 500-foot clock is being built by Danny Hillis, a computer scientist who has been thinking about such a clock since 1989. The location of this mammoth undertaking is inside a remote mountain in the Sierra Diablo mountains in West Texas.
According to 10000yearclock.net, they have carved a 500-foot vertical shaft that is 12 ½ feet in diameter. “Carved into the mountain are five room-sized anniversary chambers: 1 year, 10 year, 100 year, 1000 year and 10,000 year anniversaries…The clock will activate and run the orrery once a year on a pre-determined date at solar noon.”
The desire of the designer of the 10,000 Year Clock plans to use the Earth’s thermal cycles to power itself. The clock is being designed to tick once a year. It will have a century hand which will advance once every 100 years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. The Clock’s chime generator will create a different bell ringing sequence each day for 10,000 years.
So why make such a clock? “The Clock provides a rare invitation to think and engineer at the timescale of civilization. It offers an ...
