Alexander Rose

Executive Director and Clock Project Manager

Alexander was hired in 01997 to build the 10,000 Year Clock with computer scientist Danny Hillis. Alexander speaks about the work of The Long Now Foundation all over the world at events ranging from the TED conference to NASA. He was an artist in residence at Silicon Graphics Inc., and a founding partner of the robotics company Inertia Labs.

As the director of Long Now, Alexander has facilitated projects such as the 10,000 Year Clock, The Rosetta Project, The Long Now Salon, Long Bets, Seminars About Long Term Thinking, Long Server and others. Alexander shares several design patents on the 10,000 Year Clock with Danny Hillis, the first prototype of which is in the Science Museum of London, and the monument scale version is now under construction in West Texas.

Alexander's combat robots have won over six world championship titles appearing in the TV show BattleBots. Alexander has also built large pyrotechnic displays for the Burning Man festival, robotic bartenders and other dangerous machines. Alexander is part of the Theil Fellowship Network, and founded the Robot Fighting League.

Alexander graduated with a bachelor of arts honors degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Industrial Design in 01995, as well as attended the Art Center College of Design.

In his past Alexander was also a world champion paintball player holding multiple world titles with his team the Ironmen from 1990 through 1995. At Carnegie Mellon University Alexander was the lead designer for a record setting human power vehicle team.

Alexander lives in California on the Sausalito waterfront and enjoys mountain biking, climbing and mountaineering whenever he can get out.

Speaking engagements:

• Catalyst Week at Downtown Project, Las Vegas NV, July 25, 02014
• KA Connect keynote, San Francisco CA, June 3, 02014
• Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland CA, March 21, 02014
• Reinvent Longpath Thinking, Google Hangout, Nov 20, 02013
• International Conference on Accelerator & Large Experimental Physics Control Systems keynote, San Francisco CA, April 9th, 02013
• Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium of the Berkeley Center for New Media , Berkeley CA, April 22, 02013
• Keynote for the COFES 2013 - Congress On the Future of Engineering Software, Scottsdale AZ, April 12, 02013
• US Naval Observatory, Washington DC, March 14, 02013
• Maine College of Art, Portland Maine, October 24, 02012
• OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory Across Generations workshop, Paris, France, September 12-14, 02012
• Dorkbot, San Francisco CA, July 25th, 02012
• Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA, March 02012
• Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland CA, March 02012
• The Art + Environment Conference, Reno, NV, Sep 29th, 02011
• Manifest - Tech Week, Chicago, IL, July 27th, 02011
• Singularity University, NASA Ames in Mountain View CA, July 12th, 02011
• IAEA Conference on Fusion, Keynote w/ Stewart Brand, CA, June 23rd, 02011
• 6th Momentum Biennial, Moss, Norway, Jun 19th, 02011
• Maker Faire, San Mateo, CA, Center Stage, May 22nd, 02011
• SETI Institute, May 18th, noon-1pm, 02011
• Sustain Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery, April 9th, 02011
• Long Now Salon Talk "Millennial Precedent", San Francisco, Apr 5th, 02011
• Keynote for Dolby Labs, San Francisco, February, 02011
• Now & When Discussion, San Francisco, August, 02010
• Stimulus TV, Webinar, June, 02010
• Transmediale, Berlin, Feb 2-7, 02010
• Long Finance Conference, London, Feb 1st 02010
• Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA, October 02009
• NASA JPL, Pasadena CA, October 02009
• CalTech University, Pasadena CA, October 02009
• The Commonwealth Club, on The Rosetta Project with Dr. Laura Welcher, April 02009
• Stanford University, Rising Tide: The Arts and Environmental Ethics, April 02009
• IDSA Digging Deeper, July 22nd, 02008
• Hewlett Foundation Conversation, Why Time with Carlo Petrini, May 02008
• Stanford Graduate Product Design Lecture, February 02007
• UC Berkeley, Archiving the Avant-Garde, January 02007
• Royal Observatory at Greenwich, Speed of Time Conference, (keynote) January 02007
• American Institute of Architechts Future Perfect Conference (keynote) 02006
• Received the Erdman Campbell Award, Altanta 02006
• Digits Fugit! Preserving Knowledge into the Future (keynote), Boston, Nov 3rd 02005
• Plan B Democracy Conference in Helsinki, Finland, January 26th 02005
• Stanford Lecture Series in Design October 28th 02004
• TimeIn Design Conference in Eindhoven Holland, October 16-17, 02003
• Time Symposium (NAWCC) in St. Louis MO, October 22-25, 02003
• Long Term Preservation Conference, in Florence Italy, December 14th 02002.
• Xerox PARC forum, in Palo Alto CA, December 6th, 02001
• TED conference in Monterey CA, February 22, 02001
• Open Minds Masterclass in Glasgow Scotland, January 30, 02001
• Doors of Perception Conference in Amsterdam, November 11, 02000
• Viper Conference in Basel Switzerland, October 28, 02000
• 10,000 Year Library Conference, June 30, 02000
• University of San Francisco, October 7, 01999 & May 3, 02000
• SETI Institute, September 25, 01999
• Long Island University, Turning 2000 conference, October 15th, 01999
• Stanford Graduate Product Design Lecture, March, 01998

Writing and media appearances:

• Author of Works In Progress A book about the projects of The Long Now Foundation
• Editor and contributor to the SALT Summaries A book on the Seminars About Long-term Thinking (also in Kindle form)
• Interview for The Conversation on May 30th 02012.
• Interview in Wired for How to Make a Clock Run for 10,000 Years in June of 02011.
• Interview on Discovery Network for Through the Wormhole aired on July 27th 02011
• Interviewed for Big Picture Science on June 3th 02011
• Interviewed for The Story on NPR on May 19th 02011
• Interviewed for Here & Now on NPR on May 12th 02011
• Editor and co-author of Clock of the Long Now - Mechanical Drawings, Prototype One
• Article in State of the World 2010 by the World Watch Institute.
• Multiple product reviews in Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools
• Regular contribitor to the Long Now web log
• Interviewed on To The Best of Our Knowledge PRI radio show in March of 09
• Interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning News episode in March of 09
• Appeared on History Channel pilot episode The ArchiTechs November 02006
• Winner on the Discovery Channel show Power Tool Drag Races (Feb-Apr 02005)
• Winner of the 02004 Popular Science design contest (July 02004 issue)
• Several reviews in The Whole Earth Magazine 02003 Winter Edition
• Listed in Richard Saul Wurman's "The most creative individuals in the USA"
• Review in the March 02002 Wired Magazine of Icosa Structures
• Review in the July 02001 Wired Magazine of the AFS Trinity Flywheel
• Review in the April 02001 Wired Magazine of a Honda Generator.
• Review in February 02001 Wired Magazine of Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio.
• Several reviews in The Whole Earth Magazine 02001 Tool Edition.
• Appeared on over 20 episodes of BattleBots