Daniel Kahneman is the world’s most influential psychologist because he has, based on empirical research, figured out how we can notice when we are not thinking rationally.  That knowledge gives us the choice to think “slow”---ignore brisk intuition and notional risks---when we decide we really need to get something right.

His book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", is an international best-seller in part because the reader (or listener of his lecture) is invited to make cognitive experiments while reading (or listening).  You catch your mind in the act of opting for illusion.  To engage Kahneman’s work is to experience a delightful carnival ride of one “Busted!” after another.  Your own brain becomes a co-instructor in how to use it better.

Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 02002 for his work (with Amos Tversky) in “prospect theory” that founded the new discipline of behavioral economics.

"Thinking Fast and Slow" was given on August 13, 02013 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

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Seminars About Long-term Thinking

Support this Series

Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow

How has time been imagined, politicized, and weaponized over the centuries—and how it might bring peace?

Horologist David Rooney tells the hidden story of timekeeping and how it continues to shape our modern world. From medieval water clocks to monumental sundials, and from coastal time signals to satellites in earth's orbit, Rooney takes us on a global journey that showcases the ingenuity and craftsmanship humans have used to track and measure time. His in-depth research illustrates the very real effects clocks and timekeeping have on everything from navigation, to capitalism, to politics, to our very identity.

An expert storyteller, Rooney brings pivotal moments from the past vividly to life and shows us how a history of clocks is a history of civilization.

David Rooney, is a historian of technology and expert on clocks and timekeeping practices. As a curator at the Science Museum, London, Rooney was the lead caretaker of Long Now's Prototype 1 of The 10,000 Year Clock which is on display there in the Making of the Modern World exhibit.

Rooney is also author of several books including his most recent, About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks.

"A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks" was given on September 9, 02021 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
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David Rooney - A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks

The map of humanity isn’t settled -- not now, not ever.

In the 60,000 years since people began spreading across the continents, a recurring feature of human civilization has been mobility—the ever-constant search for resources, stability and opportunity. Driven by global events from conflicts, famine, repression and changing climates - to opportunities for trade, social advancement and freedom of thought - humans have relocated around the globe for millennia.

But what happens when billions of people are on the move? As climate change tips toward full-blown crisis, economies collapse, governments destabilize, and technology disrupts, we’re entering a new age of mass migrations. Futurist Parag Khanna uncovers the deep trends that are shaping the most likely scenarios for our future and asks what map of human geography will emerge.

"Why Mobility is Destiny" was given on October 20, 02021 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/longnow

Parag Khanna - Why Mobility is Destiny

Artist and writer Jenny Odell brings her acutely insightful observations to the dominant framework of time, based on industrial and colonial worldviews, that is embedded within our societies. Addressing the inability to reconcile the artificially constructed time pressures of modern culture with planetary-scale crisis, she offers a series of histories, concepts, and places as "provocations that can defamiliarize an old language of time, while pointing in the direction of something else."

Odell's newest book is Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock (March 02023) and her first book is the widely-read How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (02019). Her visual work is exhibited internationally, and she's been artist in residence at Recology SF (the dump), the San Francisco Planning Department, the Internet Archive, and the Montalvo Arts Center. Previously, Odell taught digital art at Stanford University.

"Saving Time: Discovering A Life Beyond the Clock" was given on March 07, 02023 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
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Jenny Odell - Saving Time: Discovering A Life Beyond the Clock

How can we turn the tide on species loss and help biodiversity and bioabundance flourish for millennia to come?

Ryan Phelan is Executive Director of Revive & Restore; the leading wildlife conservation organization promoting the incorporation of biotechnologies into standard conservation practice. Phelan will share the new Genetic Rescue Toolkit for conservation – a suite of biotechnology tools and conservation applications that offer hope and a path to recovery for threatened species. In this talk, Phelan will present examples of the toolkit in action, including corals that better withstand rising ocean temperatures, trees that withstand a fungal blight, and the genetic rescue of the black-footed ferret, once thought to be extinct.

Revive & Restore brings biotechnologies to conservation in responsible ways; from engaging local communities where ecological restorations are underway, to connecting stakeholders in disciplines like biotech, bioethics, conservation organizations and government agencies. Together, they are forging new paths to bioabundance in our changing world.

Ryan Phelan is joined by forecaster and Long Now Board Member Paul Saffo for the Q&A to discuss long-term outcomes and the Intended Consequences framing used by Revive & Restore.

"Bringing Biotech to Wildlife Conservation" was given on April 04, 02023 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/longnow

Bringing Biotech to Wildlife Conservation - Ryan Phelan

"What really interests me is how long-lived plants allow humans to think about—and emotionally relate to—long units of time. They provide a bridge between human time and geological time."  
-- Jared Farmer

Join us for an evening with geohumanist and historian Jared Farmer, who will share his multi-faceted approach to understanding our human relationship with trees over millennia. From ancient stories, as objects of reverence, named individuals and clonal organisms, sources of wealth in ancient and modern times, the lungs of the planet and the wood wide web - trees are deeply interwoven with our histories, cultures and growing scientific understanding of our complex global ecosystem. Farmer reflects on our long-term relationships with long-lived trees, and considers the future of oldness on a rapidly changing planet.

Jared Farmer is a geohumanist and place-based historian. Farmer is a Professor of History at Penn, studying landscapes and environments from the hyperlocal to the planetary, with emphasis on the nineteenth century in the American West. His book include Trees in Paradise: A California History (02013), and Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees (02022).

"Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time with Trees" was given on November 14, 02023 as part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: theinterval.org/salon-talks
More ideas on long-term thinking: blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: www.youtube.com/longnow

Jared Farmer - Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time with Trees

Economic policy can seem abstract and distant, but it manifests the physical world – affecting us all. Our economic stories shape our systems, and they in turn shape us. What myths continue to constrain us, and how might new stories emerge to scaffold the future? This talk will explore concepts we often take as gospel: profits, competition, economic value, efficiency, and others -- and asks how we might reshape them to better serve planetary flourishing –today, and well into the future.

Denise Hearn is a writer, applied researcher, and advisor focused on how economic power and paradigms shape our world. Hearn holds an MBA from Oxford Saïd Business School and advises governments, financial institutions, companies, and nonprofits on antitrust, economic policy, and new economic thinking. Hearn is currently a Resident Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and co-authored The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition (02018) with Jonathan Tepper.

Hearn's work is published in The Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post and she currently writes the Embodied Economics newsletter. Hearn is also Advisory Board Chair of The Predistribution Initiative — a multi-stakeholder project to improve investment structures and practices to address systemic risks like inequality, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

This event is part of the Long Now Talks series, started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's most interesting thinkers.

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. Our work began with The Clock of the Long Now, an immense mechanical monument, installed in a mountain, designed to keep accurate time for the next 10,000 years.

Each month our Talks series invite a speaker to explore their work in the context of the next and last 10,000 years. The Talks are recorded live in San Francisco, many of them at The Interval,  our public gathering space. Featuring craft cocktails, artisan coffee and tea, a library that stretches from floor to ceiling, and prototypes of The Clock of the Long Now, our space aims to inspire curiosity and wonder.

You can support these Talks by becoming a Long Now member:
www.longnow.org/join

Our global membership program connects over 11,000 individuals across more than 65 countries to a whole world of long-term thinking. Members hear about upcoming speakers first and can reserve two free tickets to attend in-person.

We also release each Talk as a carefully produced video and podcast:

Subscribe to Long Now on YouTube

Subscribe to the Long Now Talks podcast

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Explore all of our Talks on longnow.org

Long Now Talks

Denise Hearn - Embodied Economies: How our Economic Stories Shape the World

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is a participatory artwork facilitated by artist Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante which collaborates with the public to create new words for feelings and experiences for which no words yet exist. Recognizing the climate crisis is causing new feelings and experiences that have yet to be named, the project was created with a deep focus on these and other Anthropocenic phenomena. The Bureau views the words created in this process as also serving as points of connectivity: advancing understanding, dialogue, and conversations about the greater concepts these words seek to codify.

This evening will include an intimate sharing of our findings from our decade long social art practice as well as a Word Making Field Session where Escott and Quante will collaborate with participants to collectively coin a term together.

Participants are encouraged to consider in advance their personal unnamed experience(s) of our changing world as well as their unique feelings for which they wish there was a word. Participants are encouraged to bring the diversity of their linguistic backgrounds to this conversation as the Bureau creates neologisms in all languages.

Alicia Escott is an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses how we are negotiating our immediate day-to-day realities and responsibilities amid an awareness of the overarching specter of climate change, mass extinction and other Anthropocenic events. Escott's work has been exhibited widely in galleries, museums, at residencies and alternative spaces. She is a founding member of 100 Days Action, and co-founded The Bureau of Linguistical Reality.

Heidi Quante is an interdisciplinary artist working in the areas of environmental and human rights, both in personal practice and in larger participatory public artworks. Quante is a co-founder of The Bureau of Linguistical Reality and also founded the non-profit Creative Catalysts, which works to find innovative approaches to the pressing social and environmental challenges of our time though projects, workshops and strategic advice for artists and organizations.

This event is part of Long Now Talks, a series launched in 02003 by Stewart Brand to explore compelling ideas about long-term thinking from speakers around the world.

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. Our work began with The Clock of the Long Now, an immense mechanical monument, installed in a mountain, designed to keep accurate time for the next ten millennia.

For the last two decades, Long Now Talks has invited speakers to explore their work in the context of the next and last 10,000 years for a live audience and for millions online around the globe.  Long Now Talks are recorded live in San Francisco, many of them at The Interval, our public gathering space. Featuring craft cocktails, artisan coffee and tea, a library that stretches from floor to ceiling, and prototypes of The Clock of the Long Now, our space aims to inspire curiosity and wonder.

You can support these Talks by becoming a Long Now member:
https://longnow.org/join

Our global membership program connects over 11,000 people across more than 65 countries to our library of long-term thinking. Long Now members actively support long-term thinking and help us deliver Long Now Talks as videos and podcasts to over 19 million people and counting around the world. 

Subscribe to Long Now on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@longnow

Subscribe to the Long Now podcast & newsletter
https://longnow.org/subscribe

Explore all of our Talks on longnow.org
https://longnow.org/talks

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality Performance Lecture - Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante

Social philosopher Roman Krznaric and renegade economist Kate Raworth explore how we can survive and thrive by looking to the past for clues on how to build more regenerative economic frameworks. Doughnut economics describes the social and planetary boundaries needed for all people to prosper within the means of the living planet. Studying historic examples through the lens of doughnut economics, Krznaric and Raworth find the environmentally safe and socially just space in which humanity and all other living things can flourish.

Roman Krznaric is a social philosopher and bestselling author whose books include History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, and The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking. He founded the Empathy Museum and co-founded The School of Life. Named one of Britain’s leading popular philosophers, he studied at Oxford and Essex and holds a PhD in political sociology.

Kate Raworth is a British economist known for her Doughnut Economics model, which rethinks economic growth within ecological limits. A senior associate at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, she advocates for sustainable development. Her work has influenced policymakers, educators, and activists globally. Raworth is author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.

This event is part of Long Now Talks, a series launched in 02003 by Stewart Brand to explore compelling ideas about long-term thinking from speakers around the world.

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. Our work began with The Clock of the Long Now, an immense mechanical monument, installed in a mountain, designed to keep accurate time for the next ten millennia.

For the last two decades, Long Now Talks has invited speakers to explore their work in the context of the next and last 10,000 years for a live audience and for millions online around the globe.  Long Now Talks are recorded live in San Francisco, many of them at The Interval, our public gathering space. Featuring craft cocktails, artisan coffee and tea, a library that stretches from floor to ceiling, and prototypes of The Clock of the Long Now, our space aims to inspire curiosity and wonder.

You can support these Talks by becoming a Long Now member:
https://longnow.org/join

Our global membership program connects over 11,000 people across more than 65 countries to our library of long-term thinking. Long Now members actively support long-term thinking and help us deliver Long Now Talks as videos and podcasts to over 19 million people and counting around the world. 

Subscribe to Long Now on YouTube
www.youtube.com/@longnow

Subscribe to the Long Now podcast & newsletter
https://longnow.org/subscribe

Explore all of our Talks on longnow.org
https://longnow.org/talks

Roman Krznaric & Kate Raworth - What Doughnut Economics Can Learn From History

We find ourselves in a pre-paradigmatic moment in which our technology has outpaced our theories of what to do with it. 

The task of philosophy today is to catch up.

Benjamin Bratton is a Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at University of California, San Diego and the Director of Antikythera, an cross-disciplinary think tank researching the philosophy of computation supported by Berggruen Institute. In his Long Now Talk, Bratton takes us on a whirlwind philosophical journey into the concept of Planetary Computation — a journey that began in classical Greece with the story of the Antikythera mechanism, the analog computer that gave his think-tank its name. But his inquiry stretches far beyond antiquity —  back to the very origins of biological life itself and forward to a present and future where we must increasingly grapple with artificial life and intelligence.

This talk was presented January 29, 02025 at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco.

To learn more about Benjamin Bratton’s Long Now Talk, go to 
https://longnow.org/ideas/a-philosophy-of-planetary-computation/ 

To learn more about Antikythera’s work, go to 
https://antikythera.org/ 

This Talk is part of Long Now Talks.

Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, Long Now Talks has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our podcast and videos. Long Now Talks are brought to you by The Long Now Foundation, which has spent the last 25 years igniting cultural imagination around long-term thinking.

By inspiring thought and conversation about how we've been shaped by the last 10,000 years and what might be in store for us over the next 10,000 years, Long Now Talks seek to expand our collective sense of the present moment. Long Now Talks cover futurism and speculative fiction; time, nature, and contemplative practices; the intersection of the humanities and sciences; the evolution of counterculture to cyberculture; cultural imagination, land art and public monuments; and of course, long-term thinking and being a good ancestor.

In our age of compounding crises, The Long Now Foundation is a counterweight — our community of 12,000 strong across 65 countries over our first quarter century. We are a force that imagines new possibilities, thinks critically, and takes action over the long term. We believe that when we all come together, bound by commitment and curiosity, audacious things become possible. Will you join us?  https://longnow.org/join

Benjamin Bratton - A Philosophy of Planetary Computation

When you feel the future, how do you share that feeling in order to build community?

Over the past quarter-century, Best — first as an actor, musician, and performer, and later as an Afrofuturist scholar and lecturer — has worked to answer that question. Drawing on his experiences as a cast member on the award-winning percussion performance Stomp, as Jar-Jar Binks, the ground-breaking first major CGI character actor in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and as a lecturer at the Stanford d.school and one of the leaders of the AfroRithms Futures Group.

By bringing people together through electrifying performance and thought-provoking conversation, Best’s work has been able to make the future not just an abstract, intellectual consideration but something that can be felt in collective experience.

The core of Ahmed’s argument? Feeling is a form of communication in itself, beyond words — and only by taking action and sharing our feelings of the future with each other in our communities can we create the futures we want for ourselves. Using a diverse range of creative and imaginative tactics, Best incorporates play and motion in order to help audiences Feel The Future.

This talk was presented February 14, 02025 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. 

Episode notes: https://longnow.org/ideas/feel-the-future/   

To learn more about the AfroRithms Futures Group’s work, visit https://www.afrorithms.com/ 

This Talk is part of Long Now Talks.

Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, Long Now Talks has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our podcast and videos. Long Now Talks are brought to you by The Long Now Foundation, which has spent the last 25 years igniting cultural imagination around long-term thinking.

By inspiring thought and conversation about how we've been shaped by the last 10,000 years and what might be in store for us over the next 10,000 years, Long Now Talks seek to expand our collective sense of the present moment. Long Now Talks cover futurism and speculative fiction; time, nature, and contemplative practices; the intersection of the humanities and sciences; the evolution of counterculture to cyberculture; cultural imagination, land art and public monuments; and of course, long-term thinking and being a good ancestor.

In our age of compounding crises, The Long Now Foundation is a counterweight — our community of 12,000 strong across 65 countries over our first quarter century. We are a force that imagines new possibilities, thinks critically, and takes action over the long term. We believe that when we all come together, bound by commitment and curiosity, audacious things become possible. Will you join us?  https://longnow.org/join

Ahmed Best - Feel The Future: A Valentine's Evening

How will AI shape our understanding of our creativity and ourselves? 

In February, artist and technologist K Allado-McDowell delivered a fascinating Long Now Talk that explored the dimensions of Neural Media — their term for an emerging set of creative forms that use artificial neural networks inspired by the connective design of the human brain.

Their Long Now Talk is a journey through the strange valleys and outcroppings of this age of neural media, telling a story involving statistical distributions, anti-aging influencers at war with death itself, and vast quantities of “AI Slop,” the low-quality, faintly surreal output of cheap, rapidly proliferating image models. 

Yet even in this morass of slop Allado-McDowell sees reason for optimism. Referring to the title of their 02020 book Pharmako-AI, which was co-written with GPT-3, Allado-McDowell notes that the Greek word pharmakon could mean both drug and cure. What may seem poisonous or dangerous in this new paradigm of neural media could also unlock for us new and deeper ways of understanding ourselves, our planet, and all of the intelligent networks that live within it.   

This talk was presented February 25, 02025 at the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco. The event livestream is here: https://www.youtube.com/live/AsCGRjl3zac?si=KBfIfkqatLwdMr8M  

Episode notes: https://longnow.org/ideas/neural-media/   

To learn more about K Allado-McDowell’s work, visit https://www.kalladomcdowell.com/  

This talk is part of Long Now Talks.

Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, Long Now Talks has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our podcast and videos. Long Now Talks are brought to you by The Long Now Foundation, which has spent the last 25 years igniting cultural imagination around long-term thinking.

By inspiring thought and conversation about how we've been shaped by the last 10,000 years and what might be in store for us over the next 10,000 years, Long Now Talks seek to expand our collective sense of the present moment. Long Now Talks cover futurism and speculative fiction; time, nature, and contemplative practices; the intersection of the humanities and sciences; the evolution of counterculture to cyberculture; cultural imagination, land art and public monuments; and of course, long-term thinking and being a good ancestor.

In our age of compounding crises, The Long Now Foundation is a counterweight — our community of 12,000 strong across 65 countries over our first quarter century. We are a force that imagines new possibilities, thinks critically, and takes action over the long term. We believe that when we all come together, bound by commitment and curiosity, audacious things become possible. Will you join us?  https://longnow.org/join

K Allado-McDowell - On Neural Media

Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson say we live in an “Age of Turbulence.”

Looking around our geopolitical situation, it’s easy to see what they mean. Faced with the ever-growing threat of climate change, the looming potential breakdown of the post-01945 international order, and the ambiguous prospects of rapid technological changes in fields like AI, biotechnology, and geoengineering, it is clear that we need new answers to new challenges. 

Stephen Heintz, a Public policy expert and president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), and Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the most acclaimed science fiction authors writing today, work in very different fields. But each of them in his own way has sketched out a vision of what we must do to face down the intersecting crises of our time: While their methods may differ, they align on their conclusions. 

In their Long Now Talk, Heintz and Robinson propose what they refer to as “A Logic For The Future” — a new path for international relations in the face of the chaos of our current age. 

Episode Notes:  https://longnow.org/ideas/a-logic-for-the-future/

Stephen Heintz & Kim Stanley Robinson - A Logic For The Future

As they look upon the United States of America in 02025, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson see a country wrought by a half-century of failed governance. They see states and cities theoretically committed to progressive futures instead bogged down in labyrinthine mires of process and deliberation — a society stuck in low gear. Yet they also see opportunity to turn those failures on their heads, and to build a better society based around more responsive, efficient governance.

This is the vision that animates Abundance, Klein and Thompson’s new book and the focus of their Long Now Talk, hosted by Michael Pollan and co-sponsored with Manny’s and City Arts & Lectures. Despite Long Now’s focus on long-term thinking — of counterbalancing civilization’s pathologically short attention span  — there was much to appreciate in Klein and Thompson’s call for American governance  to “rediscover speed as a progressive value.” In their wide-ranging discussion, the two authors made the case for a vision of liberalism that builds, both for its own sake and as a bulwark against reactionary right-wing movements that have capitalized on the shortcomings of contemporary progressive politics.

Episode notes: https://longnow.org/ideas/abundance/

Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, Michael Pollan - Abundance

Sara Imari Walker - An Informational Theory of Life

Kim Carson - Inspired by Intelligence: Purpose and Creativity in the AI Era

Blaise Agüera y Arcas - What is Intelligence?

In her Long Now Talk, NASA researcher Dr. Lynn Rothschild explores how the extreme constraints of space travel can enable radical sustainability on Earth.

Hear how her teams have used mycelium, the root structure of fungi, to grow off-planet construction materials, and programmed bacteria to print new biological materials on demand.

Cells, Rothschild explains, are micromachines with a 3.8-billion-year R&D history. Her research harnesses these ancient biological processes to engineer living systems that make tools, materials, and medicines that could sustain astronauts and settlements beyond Earth.

This talk was presented October 14, 02025 at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco. 

Episode notes: https://longnow.org/talks/02025-rothschild/

The event livestream is here: https://youtu.be/caKccZHa7E4
    
This talk is part of Long Now Talks.

Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, Long Now Talks has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our podcast and videos. Long Now Talks are brought to you by The Long Now Foundation, which has spent the last 25 years igniting cultural imagination around long-term thinking.

By inspiring thought and conversation about how we've been shaped by the last 10,000 years and what might be in store for us over the next 10,000 years, Long Now Talks seek to expand our collective sense of the present moment. Long Now Talks cover futurism and speculative fiction; time, nature, and contemplative practices; the intersection of the humanities and sciences; the evolution of counterculture to cyberculture; cultural imagination, land art and public monuments; and of course, long-term thinking and being a good ancestor.

In our age of compounding crises, The Long Now Foundation is a counterweight. We are a force that imagines new possibilities, thinks critically, and takes action over the long term. We believe that when we all come together, bound by commitment and curiosity, audacious things become possible. 

Will you join us?  https://longnow.org/join

Lynn Rothschild - Nature’s Hardware Store: Building the Future with Biology

Kate Crawford - Mapping Empires

Code for America was founded in 02009 by Jennifer Pahlka “to make government work better for the people and by the people in the 21st century.”  

The organization started a movement to modernize government for a digital age which has now spread from cities to counties to states, and now, most visibly, to the federal government, where Jennifer served at the White House as US Deputy Chief Technology Officer.  There she helped start the United States Digital Service, known as "Obama's stealth startup."

Now that thousands of people from "metaphysical Silicon Valley" are working for and with government, what have we learned?  Can government actually be fixed to serve citizens better—especially the neediest?  Why does change in government happen so slowly?

Before founding Code for America, Jennifer Pahlka co-created the Web 2.0 and Gov. 2.0 conferences, building on her prior experience organizing computer game developer conferences. She continues to serve as executive director of Code for America, which is based in San Francisco.

"Fixing Government: Bottom Up and Outside In" was given on February 01, 02017 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

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Support This Series

Jennifer Pahlka - Fixing Government: Bottom Up and Outside In

This is not a concert. Brian Eno will be speaking about "The Long Now."  His talk will be the first of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking, sponsored by The Long Now Foundation. His talks are usually as amazing as his music.

The on-going lectures in this new series will be every second Friday at Fort Mason. Future speakers include Peter Schwartz, George Dyson, Laurie Anderson, Rusty Schweickart, Paul Hawken, Daniel Janzen, and Danny Hillis.

"The Long Now" was given on November 14, 02003 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/longnow

Brian Eno - The Long Now


Daniel Janzen

Wikipedia
Home Page
Mega gardening

Big as life and twice as opinionated, the renowned preservation biologist Daniel Janzen spoke for The Long Now on Friday, April 9, 2005. His perspective on preservation may be jarring to some: “It’s ALL Gardening”.

Dan Janzen is most widely known for his heroic efforts helping set all of Costa Rica on a preservation path, ensuring that the mega-diverse nation continues indefinitely as a haven for science and eco-tourism. His particular focus, Guanacaste Conservation Area, was recently declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. His ongoing work there in field taxonomy and innovative preservation practices led to his receiving the Crafoord Prize (1984), the Kyoto Prize (1997), and the Albert Einstein Science Prize (2002). Professor Janzen teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Janzen - Third World Conservation: It's ALL Gardening

Skeptical empiricist Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, has bracing things to say about the future. It is inevitable that we will be massively blindsided by events, because our understanding is misled by an array of beguiling illusions about reality. Some lessons: Events are not predictable, but consequences are, so focus on preparedness. Pay attention to elders, because they've experienced more Black Swans. Check Wikipedia's bio of Taleb for more on the vividness of his ideas and exposition.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought

Edward O. Wilson has revolutionized science and inspired the public more often than any other living biologist. Now he is blending his pioneer work on ants with a new perspective on human development to propose a radical reframing of how evolution works.

First the social insects ruled, from 60 million years ago. Then a species of social mammals took over, from 10 thousand years ago. Both sets of “eusocial” animals mastered the supremely delicate art of encouraging altruism, so that individuals in the groups would act as if they value the goal of the group over their own goals. They would specialize for the group and die for the group. In recent decades the idea of “kin selection” seemed to explain how such an astonishing phenomenon could evolve. Wilson replaces kin selection with “multi-level selection,” which incorporates both individual selection (long well understood) and group selection (long considered taboo). Every human and every human society has to learn how to manage adroitly the perpetual ambiguity and conflict between individual needs and group needs. What I need is never the same as what we need.

Edward O. Wilson - The Social Conquest of Earth

Revelations about the Book of Revelation

Probably the most consequential vision of the future ever written is the Bible’s "Book of Revelation".  If God didn’t write it (through the sainted instrument of someone named John), then who did, and why?

Elaine Pagels has a persuasive answer, spectacularly illustrated.  The author of "The Gnostic Gospels"; "Beyond Belief"; and "Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation", Pagels analyzes other revelations of the time (they were common) and examines how John’s particular version of apocalypse made it into the world’s most popular book.  John had his own agenda.  It wasn’t Christian.

"The Truth About the Book of Revelations" was given on August 20, 02012 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

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Elaine Pagels - The Truth About the Book of Revelations

The war against computer freedom will just keep escalating, Doctorow contends.  The copyright wars, net neutrality, and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) were early samples of what is to come.  Victories in those battles were temporary.  Conflict in the decades ahead will feature ever higher stakes, more convoluted issues, and far more powerful technology.  The debate is about how civilization decides to conduct itself and in whose interests.

“Cory Doctorow is one of the great context-setters of our generation,” says Tim O’Reilly.  Co-editor of the acclaimed blog “Boing Boing,” Doctorow writes contemporary science fiction blending contextual insight with journalistic depth.  His recent books include " For the Win"; " Makers"; and " Little Brother".

Long Now and the Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/ bring Cory Doctorow to San Francisco for a glimpse into the future of computing and the increasing fight for control over our freedom both online and offline.

"The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer" was given on July 31, 02012 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
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Cory Doctorow - The Coming Century of War Against Your Computer

Democracy began in cities and works best in cities.  Mayors are the most pragmatic and effective of all political leaders because they have to get things done.  “The paramount aims of city-dwellers,” says Barber, “concern collecting garbage and collecting art rather than collecting votes or collecting foreign allies, the supply of water rather than the supply of arms, promoting cooperation rather than promoting exceptionalism, fostering education and culture rather than fostering national defense and patriotism.“

Most of humanity now lives in cities, and cities worldwide connect with each other more readily than any other political entity.  By expanding on that capability, Barber suggests, “Cities can make themselves global guarantors of social justice and equality against the depredations of fractious states. And they can become, as the polis once was, new incubators of democracy, this time in a global form.“

A much-honored political theorist, Barber is author of "Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age" and of " Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World".

"If Mayors Ruled the World" was given on June 05, 02012 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: http://longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/longnow
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Benjamin Barber - If Mayors Ruled the World

At the intersection of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food scarcity lies an unexpected and abundant resource: insects. Brian Fisher has spent three decades documenting biodiversity in Madagascar, a nation off East Africa that's estimated to contain 5% of the world's total plant and animal life. Across the island, harsh economic realities force local people to choose between preserving their unique ecological heritage and clearing the landscape to make way for sustenance farming. To address the twin issues of malnutrition and habitat loss, Fisher with the California Academy of Sciences founded a Malagasy-based organization that manufactures protein-packed cricket powder. The edible insects alleviate pressure on endangered habitat while supplementing local diets, providing a model that can be replicated in other food-stressed areas around the world. Fisher is an unparalleled storyteller with updates from the cutting edge of conservation science—and the future of food.

Dr. Brian Fisher is curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences and a world-renowned ant expert. Nicknamed the "Ant Man," Fisher has spent three decades documenting the island of Madagascar's beautiful biodiversity. Along the way, he's discovered over 1,000 new ant species. As he witnessed the biodiversity crisis unfold in Madagascar, Fisher began researching traditional insect-eating practices.

"Edible Insects: Where Land Conservation and Protein Meet" was given on June 9, 02020 as part of The Long Now Foundation's “Conversations at The Interval” Salon Talks. These hour long talks are recorded live at The Interval, our bar, cafe, & museum in San Francisco. Since 02014 this series has presented artists, authors, entrepreneurs, scientists (and more) taking a long-term perspective on subjects like art, design, history, nature, technology, and time. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: https://theinterval.org/salon-talks
More ideas on long-term thinking: http://blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions. 

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: http://longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longnow
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Conversations at The Interval

Brian Fisher - Edible Insects: Where Land Conservation and Protein Meet

Humans have consumed psychedelics for at least the last 10,000 years. The outlawing of psychedelics in most of the world in the 20th century didn’t stop that, but it did put an end to promising research into their psychotherapeutic applications to treat depression, addiction, PTSD, anxiety, and trauma.

Today, we’re in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance, with some psychedelics fast on their way to becoming legal medicines. One of the key players behind this movement is Rick Doblin, Ph.D.. In 01986, he founded the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization that has developed the medical and legal framework for the use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions. MAPS has distributed over $20 million to fund psychedelic research and education, and in 02017 won fast-tracked “Breakthrough Therapy” designation from the FDA for using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With legalization now in sight, what is the future of psychedelic medicine?

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. His life’s work is to develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics.

"Transformational Psychedelics" was given on May 13, 02020 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: www.youtube.com/longnow

Rick Doblin - Transformational Psychedelics

In May 02020, during the COVID19 pandemic, we screened Ostaseski's 02017 Seminar along with a new live Q&A with Frank Ostaseski and Alexander Rose addressing death during these uncertain and challenging times.

It’s a lot more than “Seize the day.” We learn from the dying to push away nothing; to lose the habit of postponing things; to show up entirely; to find rest amid whatever; to go ahead and be surprised. You can look death right in the eye, tough as it is, and life lights up.

Frank Ostaseski, one of the world’s great end-of-life counselors, has attended over a thousand dyings. He was a cofounder of the renowned Zen Hospice in San Francisco and is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.

"What the Dying Teach the Living: Death During a Pandemic" was given on May 28, 02020 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: www.youtube.com/longnow

Frank Ostaseski - What the Dying Teach the Living: Death During a Pandemic

Craig Childs chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans chances for survival.

With the cadence of his narrative moving from scientific observation to poetry, he reveals how much has changed since the time of mammoth hunters, and how little. Across unexplored landscapes yet to be peopled, readers will see the Ice Age, and their own age, in a whole new light.

Craig Childs is a writer, wanderer and contributing editor at High Country News, commentator for NPR's Morning Edition, and teaches writing at University of Alaska and the Mountainview MFA at Southern New Hampshire University. His books include Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America (02019), Apocalyptic Planet (02013) and House of Rain (02008).

"Tracking the First People into Ice Age North America" was given on August 4, 02020 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

Subscribe to our podcasts: longnow.org/seminars/podcast
Explore the full series: longnow.org/seminars
More ideas on long-term thinking: blog.longnow.org

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

Become a Long Now member to support this series, join our community, and connect with our ongoing work to explore and deepen long-term thinking: longnow.org/membership

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/longnow
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/longnow
Subscribe to our channel: www.youtube.com/longnow

Craig Childs - Tracking the First People into Ice Age North America

Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, Long Now Talks has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our podcast and videos. Long Now Talks are brought to you by The Long Now Foundation, which has spent the last 25 years igniting cultural imagination around long-term thinking.

By inspiring thought and conversation about how we've been shaped by the last 10,000 years and what might be in store for us over the next 10,000 years, Long Now Talks seek to expand our collective sense of the present moment. Long Now Talks cover futurism and speculative fiction; time, nature, and contemplative practices; the intersection of the humanities and sciences; the evolution of counterculture to cyberculture; cultural imagination, land art and public monuments; and of course, long-term thinking and being a good ancestor.

The Long Now Foundation

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