10,000 years of time

I've babbled about this before, in other forums, but I still think this is just an amazing idea.  Imagine a project to build an entirely mechanical clock, one that is designed to run, on its own, for 10,000 years.  Imagine that a bunch of eccentric rich people wanted to do this as a way to encourage long term thinking (by the way, that's an overly simplistic statement, though accurate).  Now imagine that they've already designed it and started construction.  Now go here and see if you imagined it right :o)

There is something about building things that are meant to span the millenia, that are mean to be as close to permanent as we can get, that intrigues me. It's so different from everything else we do.  We focus on the 5 year goal, the 10 year goal, or if we're really being crazy, the 50 year goal.  NEVER the 100 year goal or the 500 year goal.  And there are good reasons for that, but also consequences.  I think a degree of the "problems with the government" stem from a lack of long-term planning and a willingness to invest substantially now for a profit in 20, 40, 50 years.  In part that could be because long term goals tend to be gambles.  Who knows, for example, if we'll even still be here in 5000 years?  We may be back in the stone ages, or extinct, or moved to another planet by then.  5000 years is a really long time, for humans.  And 10,000 years, well, to be lame, let's just say that 10,000 years is twice that (ha ha).

There should be a better conclusion to this little post, but I think I'm going to ponder it for a few years and then post it - a post to last the decades *wink*.