How to unify nature’s experience of time and our perception of its passing — How do you measure a year? As straightforward as this seems, it is a truly personal question to each of us. What comes to mind? Life, weather or seismic events, loss or gains, political enterprises, a global pandemic? Or terms such as calendars, months, or dates? As a horologist, someone…

Challenging perceptions of time and place to enhance climate change engagement through museums — By Henry McGhie*, Sarah Mander**, Asher Minns*** Abstract This article proposes that applying time-related concepts in museum exhibitions and events can contribute constructively to people’s engagement with climate change. Climate change now and future presents particular challenges as it is perceived to be psychologically distant. The link between this distance and…

The story of which institutions have lasted the longest throughout history, and why — The following transcript of Alexander Rose’s Long Now talk has been edited for length and clarity. I want to lead you through some of the research that I’ve been doing on a meta-level around long-lived institutions, as well as some observations of the ways various systems have lasted for hundreds…

The Earth will keep changing. The nature of that change is up to us. — The Ancient Greeks had two different words for time. The first, chronos, is time as we think of it now: marching forward, ceaselessly creating our past, present, and future. The second, kairos, is time in the opportune sense: the ideal moment to act, as captured by the phrase, “It’s time.” …

Futurist Peter Schwartz distills the lessons learned from his work in scenario planning for organizations. — The following transcript of Peter Schwartz’s Long Now talk on scenario planning has been edited for length and clarity.

An interview with Vincent Ialenti, author of Deep Time Reckoning — With half-lives ranging from 30 to 24,000, or even 16 million years, the radioactive elements in nuclear waste defy our typical operating time frames. The questions around nuclear waste storage — how to keep it safe from those who might wish to weaponize it, where to store it, by what…