The Long Now

Last week, I was cooped up in a hotel up north with work.
Little bits of news reached me like Chris Huhne and Ken Clarke's respective difficulties (UK politics for those not in the know). And that the route of the Olympic torch relay may or may not include Norwich. (Relax East Anglia, it does)

It wasn't until I was back home that I learnt that there was a belief that the Rapture was about to happen (an hour from now apparently as I write this).
Now I'm not going to comment on this too much (other than it reminds me somewhat of the start of Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth when a similar prediction fails to come off).
Though it did cause me to think back to the millennium and the fact that the generation growing up now doesn't really have a huge cultural date to look forward to, like the year 2000. Nowadays we just have people who cite specific dates based on bible-driven numerology or Mayan prophecies.
And those don't begin to have the symbolism of the year 2000. (I remember at the age of 9 being asked what I thought I would be up to. My prediction of being on an African desert island beach resort didn't quite come to pass. Instead I had a pleasant evening with my family in rural-ish Netherlands. )
2000 AD, Australia's science program Beyond 2000, Pulp's Disco 2000 - all eloquent reminders of how that year would signify the future.
And in early January of that year, I first heard of The Long Now. The idea that we had hit this landmark date but now we need to think what we should do for the rest of this new millennium. It resonated with me at the time as I was about to start my final year at uni and have my own Long Now.
One of their pet projects, supported by Brian Eno no less, was to have a clock that could carry on for centuries. Potentially long after humanity.
It was going to be made out of cheap materials that future generations won't want to salvage.
A location has been chosen (Mount Washington) and prototypes are on display in the Science Museum in London as well as in San Francisco.
It just seems a shame that, for whatever reason, such an elegant idea seems to have slipped from the public consciousness. And that notion of popularising long-term thinking seems to have faded with it......