Long Now’s annual print journal explores the ancient past and distant future of the present moment through essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, and visual art. It takes its name and shape from Stewart Brand’s pace layers framework — a tool for thinking about how civilizations work. Whether you are new to our community or a long-time supporter, Pace Layers is an invitation and guide to making long-term thinking a deeper part of your life and work.
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What does long-term thinking look like in practice? One answer is maintenance. Not in the narrow sense of “brush the damn teeth,” but what Stewart Brand calls “the whole grand process of keeping a thing going.” Things kept going in this issue range from the human body to Xerox copiers to centuries-old water infrastructure to century-long artworks. What does that require? Attention. Knowledge. Transmission. Adaptation. And the judgment to know when something shouldn’t be kept going at all.
Featuring an excerpt from the next installment of Maintenance: Of Everything by Stewart Brand; Long Now Talks by Bayo Akomolafe, Nadia Asparouhova, Kate Crawford, Melody Jue, Indy Johar, Nina Miolane & Claire Isabel Webb, Eric Ries, and Lynn Rothschild; essays by Josh Berson, Samuel Butler, deepfates, Amitav Ghosh, Taras Grescoe, Emily Hill, and Jonathon Keats; fiction by Andrew Dana Hudson; poetry by Denise Hearn and Gary Snyder; art by Casey Cripe, Isabella Kirkland, Katie Paterson, and Stefan Sagmeister; and photography by Christopher Michel.
Issue 3 ships Nov 17, 02026. New annual subscribers will also receive a free copy of Issue 2, while supplies last.
Why make time for long-term thinking in a time of crisis? The second issue invites readers to drop out of crisis time and into the long now — a perspective spacious enough to hold memory, imagination, and responsibility across time. It moves from synthetic minds and human identity through new roadmaps for economic and geopolitical consensus to art, science and stewardship at 11,000 feet on Long Now’s Nevada Bristlecone Preserve. Through it all is a focus on honoring what endures without resisting what evolves.
Featuring an excerpt from Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One by Stewart Brand; Long Now Talks by Ahmed Best, Kim Carson, Alicia Escott & Heidi Quante, Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson, Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, Roman Krznaric & Kate Raworth, Mariana Mazzucato, Jennifer Pahlka, and Julia Watson; essays by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, K. Allado-McDowell, Josh Berson, Benjamin Bratton, Paul Constance, Taras Grescoe, Anne Heggli, Johanna Hoffman, John Last, Rick Prelinger, and Sara Imari Walker; poetry by Devon Balwit; art by Casey Cripe, Jonathon Keats, and Ian van Coller; and photography by Christopher Michel.
The Essential Art of Civilization
by Stewart Brand
Life, Intelligence, and Consciousness: A Functional Perspective
by Blaise Agüera y Arcas
by Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, & Michael Pollan
— Pete Seeger as quoted in "The Essential Art of Civilization"
Why Long Now, now? It is precisely in times of compounding crisis that investing in the long view offers the greatest leverage and insight. At a moment of generational transition for Long Now, the inaugural issue is a compendium of ideas, art, and insights from the remarkable community that has formed around our organization over the past quarter-century, as well as a glimpse into our plans for our second quarter-century.
Featuring a founder’s note by Stewart Brand; Long Now Talks by Benjamin Barber, Lera Boroditsky, Becky Chambers & Annalee Newitz, James Fallows, Denise Hearn, Kevin Kelly, Jenny Odell, and Michael Tubbs; essays by Forrest Brown, Paul Constance, Taras Grescoe, Johanna Hoffman, Vincent Ialenti, Ahmed Kabil, Leo Kim, Jacob Kuppermann, Allegra Rosenberg, A’liya Spinner, and Jamie Stantonian; interviews with Jonathan Blake & Nils Gilman, Danny Hillis, and Jonathon Keats; fiction by Xander Balwit and Andrew Dana Hudson; poetry by Eleonor Botoman; art by Casey Cripe, Alicia Eggert, and Brian Eno; and photography by Christopher Michel.
Elements of a Durable Civilization
by Stewart Brand
How Our Economic Stories Shape the World
by Denise Hearn
by Paul Constance
by Allegra Rosenberg
— Stewart Brand Elements of a Durable Civilization
Pace Layers carries forward a publishing lineage that began in 01968 with the Whole Earth Catalog and includes CoEvolution Quarterly and WIRED. Each issue is made in conversation with that legacy — and as a contribution to future generations.
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