Members get a snapshot view of new Long Now content with easy access to all their member benefits.
Published monthly, the member newsletter gives in-depth and behind the scenes updates on Long Now's projects.
Clock Blog for Members
Special updates on the 10,000 Year Clock project are posted on the members only Clock Blog.
The Long Now was founded in 01996 to develop the Clock and Library Projects and to become a long lasting cultural institution. You can read more about the Long Now on our About page and about our Board of Directors on our People page.
Our founding Board Members were Stewart Brand, Douglas Carlston, Esther Dyson, Brian Eno, Danny Hillis, Kevin Kelly, Paul Saffo, and Peter Schwartz. You can read about them, and those who joined later on our People page.
The five digit date serves as a reminder of the time scale that we endeavor to work in. Since the Clock is meant to run well past the Gregorian year 10,000, the extra zero is to solve the deca-millennium bug which will come into effect in about 8,000 years.
The Long Now Foundation is funded by a roughly even three-way split between our Membership Program, individual donations, and grants from other foundations.
The Long Now Foundation’s major projects include The 10,000 Year Clock, a monument scale, all-mechanical clock designed to last 10,000 years; The Rosetta Project, a durable archive of human languages; Long Bets, a public arena for accountable predictions; Revive & Restore, a project to enhance biodiversity through genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species; and PanLex, which aims to help you express any lexical concept (such as “democracy”, “elongate”, “à la carte”, or “Africa”) in any language.
Designed by Danny Hillis, the 10,000-Year Clock is currently under construction and designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. The entire mechanism will be installed in an underground facility in west Texas. Stewart Brand writes:
Such a clock, if sufficiently impressive and well-engineered, would embody deep time for people. It should be charismatic to visit, interesting to think about, and famous enough to become iconic in the public discourse. Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think.
The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a publicly accessible digital library of human languages.
Long Bets is an arena for competitive, accountable predictions (Long Bets), a forum for focused discussion and debate about prediction, an attractive tool for philanthropic giving, and a way to foster better long-term thinking.
Revive and Restore‘s mission is to enhance biodiversity through genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species.
Molecular biologists and conservation biologists all over the world are working on these techniques. The role of Revive & Restore is to help coordinate their efforts so that genomic conservation can move ahead with the best current science, plenty of public transparency, and the overall goal of enhancing biodiversity and ecological health worldwide.
The vision underlying the PanLex project is that the world’s thousands of human languages can flourish over the long-term future. To help make them all useful for global communication, PanLex aims to translate any word (or word-like phrase such as “sweet potato”) from any language into any other language.
Open positions are posted on our Jobs page.
You can follow our blog, you can like us on Facebook, and you can follow us on Twitter. We're also on FlickR and have a group on LinkedIn.
Send an email to services@longnow.org.
Send an email to services@longnow.org.
Long Now t-shirts and caps, as well as books, are for sale at The Interval, our public venue at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.
Please come visit us at our headquarters: The Interval café, bar, and library at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Open seven days a week from 10 AM to midnight, The Interval is a coffee shop by day, full cocktail bar by night, and features many Long Now artifacts and other information about the Foundation’s projects. Tours may be arranged upon request. Please email us at services@longnow.org for more information.
We are open seven days a week from 10 AM to midnight. We close to the public for our Salon talk series on some Tuesdays from 6.30-8:30 PM, as well as for some private events. Please check our website or the @Interval Twitter feed for the specific times and dates of any upcoming closures.
All ticketed events, including our Salon talk series, are listed on The Interval’s events page. Any special closures will also be listed on this page. Donors to The Interval and Members of Long Now receive advance notice of Salon talks at The Interval.
Yes, The Interval is available for private events. Please tell us more about your event and we will get right back to you.
Our cocktail menu was designed by award-winning bartender and mixologist Jennifer Colliau.
We serve a number of small bites. You can find our full offer of food and drinks on our website. Private events may bring in outside catering.
The Interval is a project of The Long Now Foundation. It serves as the Foundation’s headquarters, but also directly furthers the Long Now mission as our event space, library, and museum. The Interval is a gathering place meant to inspire conversation about long-term thinking. The space houses Long Now’s Manual for Civilization, as well as many prototypes and other artifacts connected to Long Now’s varied projects.
The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility and we are entirely supported by donors and members like you. Membership connects you to a whole world of ideas, people and projects working to make a better future and your support will help inspire long-term thinking for generations to come.
More than 10,000 people across 60+ countries have signed up to become a member of The Long Now Foundation. Our membership includes students, CEOs, writers, scientists, parents, politicians, musicians, artists, naturalists, journalists, professionals, famers, explorers, astronauts and more - we welcome all ages, races and genders to join the organization and share the ideas about long-term thinking and responsibility with their friends, families and networks.
We have a few regional groups and increasing interest from members around the world to have one in their area. You can join one of our Meetup Groups, or start one in your area - and we have prepared a Meetup Guide to help you get started!
You can also start a Facebook group and we encourage any member looking to start a group to be inclusive of anyone that is interested in learning more about long-term thinking (your participants don't all need to be members of Long Now).
Members provide essential support to the Foundation; over 30% of our operating budget comes directly from member dues. Many people join to help Long Now run its programs which promote long-term thinking and responsibility to the wider public.
As a member, you will receive our monthly Member newsletter which highlights long-term thinking around the world and gives in-depth updates on our projects. Members can also tune into Long Now Live where we broadcast our monthly Seminars and frequent Conversations at The Interval. You'll see progress reports on the 10,000-Year Clock, can get on the interest list for visiting The Clock once it is completed, and more. Please see the Become a Member page for a full list of benefits.
Stainless Steel Members and above also receive 2 complimentary tickets to the Seminars and if you have an address in the San Francisco Bay Area, you'll be on our email list for early notice to reserve and purchase tickets to our events.
Our newest offering is the Bronze Membership level, designed to keep our global community connected to Long Now and our work to foster long-term thinking. Bronze level members can watch the Live Stream and receive our monthly Member newsletter, along with other benefits.
Since this level does not include complimentary tickets to our Seminars, we often see members who move away from the San Francisco Bay Area drop down to this level so that they can keep supporting Long Now's work.
Your membership dues are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, minus the fair market value of any gifts you have received from us. For more detailed information about the tax deductibility of your membership dues, please consult your local tax laws, or speak with a tax professional. Our Federal Tax ID Number is 68-038 4748. If you need further assistance, please contact us at membership@longnow.org.
Members provide essential support to the Foundation; over 30% of our operating budget comes directly from member dues. The income we receive from membership goes directly to operational costs for projects and programs like the Long Now Seminars, Conversations at The Interval, our monthly Member newsletter, social media team, digital infrastructure and running our office in San Francisco. Thank you for supporting us!
Your Long Now Member card is made of stainless steel, with a photo-etched design taken from the face of the 10,000 Year Clock. Each card is individually engraved with your membership number.
The design on your Member card is the outline of the rete, the curving arcs on the face of the 10,000 Year Clock that Long Now is building. The two widest arcs of the rete delineate the range of view of the night sky as seen from the earth from a sea level elevation. The two narrower arcs delineate the range of view of the night sky from a high elevation. The two arcs that meet and point show the location of the celestial pole, which is currently the North Star, Polaris.
If you've lost your Member card, send an email to membership@longnow.org and let us know. We ask for a $25 payment, which you can make online, to cover the cost of re-engraving your member number and shipping your replacement card.
Members who would like to edit their card information or with lapsed accounts can easily sign into longnow.org to update their credit card info and start paying their membership dues again. Here are more detailed directions on how to do that.
How to update your account info securely online:We are always delighted to welcome Long Now Members back who had previously canceled their membership. You do not need to setup a new membership from scratch, simply email us at membership@longnow.org and we will reactivate your previous membership. We can help with email changes, password resets and card updates so that you can reconnect with Long Now!
If the system says that your email is already in use, that indicates that you have a non-active or canceled membership. We are happy to work with you to re-activate your membership and update your information. Just email us at membership@longnow.org and we will help you.
Yes you can. We do appreciate your support and any feedback you can give to us about your decision not to continue your membership is valued. To let us know you’d like to cancel, send us comments, or if you need any help with your account, please contact us at membership@longnow.org.
With our new Bronze Membership you also have the option to drop down to this level (a frequent example is if a member is moving away from the San Francisco Bay Area) so that you can keep supporting Long Now's work.
In April 02019, Long Now started using Keeping.com for Membership customer support. Keeping.com is a Gmail plugin that creates support tickets for all inquiries coming into membership@longnow.org and helps the staff keep track of and answer all incoming emails in a timely manner.
The plug in also has an auto response that confirms that Long Now has received your question. Most responses will be handled on weekdays, from 10am-6pm PT, Monday through Friday.
You can make a donation via credit card through our website. You can also send in a check, or give via wire- or stock transfer (including restricted stock). In addition, we can accept donations on site at The Interval. Please visit our donations webpage to learn more, or email us at donate@longnow.org. Thank you for supporting Long Now!
Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, minus the fair market value of any gifts you may have received from us. For an estimate of the fair market value of your gifts, please email us at donate@longnow.org. For more detailed information about the tax deductibility of your donations, please consult your local tax laws, or speak with a tax professional. Our Federal Tax ID Number is 68-038 4748.
We do, and it’s a wonderful way to increase the impact of your gift! Your HR department will be able to tell you more about how to set up an employer match, and what information they’ll need. They’ll probably ask for our Federal Tax ID Number; it is 68-038 4748.
We accept donations of any amount via credit card, check, wire transfer, or stock (including restricted stock). Please visit our donations webpage to learn more, or email us at donate@longnow.org.
We accept certain types of planned gifts, or legacy gifts. Please email us at donate@longnow.org to learn more. Thank you for supporting Long Now!
Donations constitute an essential source of support for Long Now’s programs and projects, and help us further our mission of fostering long-term thinking. The specific benefits of your donation may vary; please email us at donate@longnow.org to learn more.
A donation is a one-time gift that may be designated to the Foundation as a whole or to any of its individual projects. A donations membership is a commitment to recurring gifts that support Long Now’s general operations and public programming. Members receive specific benefits, including complimentary tickets to our Seminars, access to the Seminar live stream, and our Monthly Email Newsletter.
Construction for Clock One began in western Texas at the end of 02010. The process of excavating the mountain caverns and then manufacturing and installing all the Clock components will take several years at least.
The Clock will store energy in weights. Those weights will be wound by a combination of human visitors and the change in air temperature between night and day.
The Clock has been in development, prototyping and testing for many years. Visit the Clock Principles page to see some of the ways it is designed to be so durable.
The Clock is being built inside a limestone mountain that is part of the Sierra Diablo range in Western Texas.
We can't accept visitors during construction.
The Seminars are held at various theaters in San Francisco. They’re often at SFJAZZ Center, but we also have used The Herbst Theater, The Novellus Theater, The Marines’ Memorial Theater and several others. The Seminar page specifies the location of each event.
Audio and video are available for most of our Seminars; you can find the full catalog under the Seminars tab. The public can subscribe to our podcast or watch the SD videos for free. Long Now Members can access and download HD quality videos of the talks.
Though there is a third party Long Now Seminar App for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, it is no longer supported as of 02017.
Tickets to the Seminars are $25 for the public. Long Now Members can reserve two complimentary tickets to most Seminars, pending availability. Members also receive first notice when tickets are available for the Seminars.
Our Seminar page will tell you.
Yes. Long Now Foundation Members now have a way to interact with our Seminars About Long-term Thinking from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Using time and bandwidth donated by Stream Guys (thanks!), we’re able to provide live streaming audio of the speaker’s talk. Additionally, a service called CoverItLive allows us to share the presentation slides and provide a forum to discuss the lecture in real-time with other Members. Through this interface, Members can also submit questions for the speaker and follow discussion of the event on Twitter.
To reserve complimentary tickets for an upcoming lecture, visit the Seminar page for the lecture you’d like to attend. Be sure you’re signed in to your Member account (there’s a ‘Sign In’ option on the right hand side of the site, under the main banner). Once signed in and on the Seminar page, you’ll see a ‘Member Discount Code’ under the green ‘Tickets/RSVP’ button. Look for the option to enter a coupon/discount code after you’ve clicked ‘Tickets/RSVP’ and are on the ticket vendor’s website.
We announce the availability of tickets to upcoming lectures and media from past lectures on our blog, Twitter and Facebook. You can automatically download the audio of our lectures via the Podcast. We also have an email list on which we announce upcoming talks and summarize previous ones. All media and information about Seminars are available on the Seminar pages.
Audio and SD video of the talks are publicly available. Members can access and download HD quality videos.
Video downloads are for Members only. Audio downloads are available for everyone.
Our president Stewart Brand writes summaries of each Seminar. They are emailed to the Seminar email list, posted to the Seminar pages, and are now available as Kindle and paperback books. You can also read and share the summaries through Long Now's chanel on Medium.
Suggestions for future Seminar speakers can be emailed to services@longnow.org. Please explain why you think they'd be a good speaker and include relevant links to their work and previous speaking appearances.
The Long Now Foundation • Fostering Long-term Responsibility • est. 01996
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