The future without a snooze button


Blog / Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

I use this website to share my own story in the hopes, like many men before me, that I’ll be remembered. I don’t often use this space to share other people’s stories unless they are directly related to me. Today, I want you to read this story: How to Make a Clock Run for 10,000 Years.

It’s such an interesting thought to make something that will outlive you and your children. Chances are that it would outlive your own lineage because it will be around for such a long time.

The people making it aren’t making it to be remembered. They’re making a statement by making it. They’re saying that we can build for the future. We can build things that last. We shouldn’t need to run out and buy the newest gadget just because it’s six months newer than the same gadget I already have (cough Apple fan-boys cough).

I’ve regarded the post-war American economy with a high regard and not because I want to move backwards in time technologically. No, I like the idea that the products were built to last. If you pick up a typewriter (our grandparents Microsoft Word and Google Docs) made in the 50s and 60s, you can feel that it’s a sturdy piece of engineering. It feels like it will last.

This clock is sturdy and built to last.

I signed up for the list of people who want to visit it because I think it will be a modern marvel that can only be viewed in its immensity to be appreciated. I’ll make a pilgrimage to it much the same way people travel to see the pyramids and the Great Wall. They want to see what man has built that has managed to survive time. This one will not only survive time but it will also tell it.

My only fear is that people will forget how to wind it and they’ll fear the day it stops running much the same way we fear the end of the Mayan calendar ending. My personal theory is that the Mayans started writing out a calendar, stopped and decided that in 1000 or so years they’ll come back to it and write some more of the calendar but they never did get back to it.

It’s a long read but I highly recommend reading through all of it. It’s a beautiful story and the message should be one that you think about on a daily basis. I’m going to try and go to bed every night from here on out asking myself if I did something that will last long-term, beyond me.

Leave a Reply