Seminars About Long-term Thinking


A Monthly Seminar Series, Hosted by Stewart Brand.   + About this Series  |  Subscribe to the Podcast  |  Get them on DVD


The Long Now Foundation's monthly Seminars were started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking; to help nudge civilization toward our goal of making long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare.

Neal Stephenson

“ANATHEM Book Launch Event”

+ Read Stewart Brand's Introduction

At an event hosted by the Long Now Foundation, science fiction author Neal Stephenson reads from his latest novel ANATHEM.

This talk was given at The Regency Center in San Francisco, California on Tuesday September 9, 02008

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Anathem book launch

With over 900 Long Now members and sci-fi appreciators in the audience, we celebrated the release of Neal Stephenson's new book Anathem on Tuesday September 9, 02008 in San Francisco. With the book drawing heavily on Long Now's ideas for a 10,000 Year Clock , and our explorations of long-term thinking; we were invited to create this most unusual book release event, which was a wonderful honor for us.

Some highlights of the evening were hearing Neal Stephenson read the opening pages of the book for us, seeing the performance of the elaborate math based chanting (by monks in robes!) created for the book in collaboration with composer David Stutz, listening to an onstage conversation between Stewart Brand, Danny Hillis and Neal Stephenson talking about the book and it's inspirations, and seeing a live performance of "shovel-fu" a new martial arts from the book! The audience was very graciously patient during some difficulties we had with the sound.

We'd like to thank The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for making this unique event possible through their Performing Arts Grant to The Long Now Foundation. Neal Stephenson signed 500 copies of Anathem that day, then stayed to personalize a copy for everyone who asked - a wonderful opportunity for his many fans.

You can read more about the connections between Anathem and Long Now on our site and through the publisher Harper Collins .

-- by Long Now
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