Time is an ephemeral thing, moving like grains of rice through the fingers – each second passing to be replaced by the next.  But devices that can measure time do not need to be so temporary, they do not need to rust and be thrown away.  This is a vision that is conjoured up by the 10,000 year clock which is starting to be constructed in the Sierra Diablo mountains.  It is a monumental project to build a device that could run for a length of time that would allow a beam of light to travel almost a quarter of the way to the center of the galaxy.

It is an idea first conjured up by Danny Hillis in Wired magazine and has been sparked in to life by funding provided by Jeff Bezos.  It has an admirable goal of attempting to convince people to start thinking about the long term and to take actions that will provide benefit to mankind over centuries, not just quarters.

Learn more about the clock here: http://www.10000yearclock.net/

Read a longer article in Wired here: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/24/10000-year-clock

James.