I am just back from vacation and brimming with big ideas.
Here is one big idea I stumbled on this week that I really like: The Clock of the Long Now. While some might find this project frivolous or even wasteful, I find it inspiring, hopeful and strangely relevant.
I have a lifelong fascination with mechanical clocks and mechanical computers. Perhaps the most interesting of all such devices that I know of is the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek computer recovered from a wreck discovered in 1900 from Symi island. If anyone reading this who has had their interest piqued by the linked article also has two hours to spare for further study, here is a link to an excellent lecture on the subject: The Antikythera Mechanism: A Shocking Discovery from Ancient Greece.
The Antikythera Mechanism is so remarkable that Swiss watchmaker Hublot was inspired to create a wristwatch based upon its design, the Hublot Masterpiece MP-08 Antikythera Sunmoon. It lists for $333,000. At the lower end of the scale, there is this museum replica that retails for 440 euros a piece, but I am uncertain if is a working replica or not. In any case, like the original, it is not a wearable device.
The there is this place, Opus 40, in New York’s Hudson Valley. Per Wikipedia, “Opus 40 is a large environmental sculpture in Saugerties, New York, created by sculptor and quarryman Harvey Fite (1903—1976). It comprises a sprawling series of dry-stone ramps, pedestals and platforms covering 6.5 acres (2.6 ha) of a bluestone quarry.” The Wikipedia article also says Brendan Gill, of Architectural Digest, called Opus 40 “one of the largest and most beguiling works of art on the entire continent,” and also “the greatest earthwork sculpture I have ever seen.”
Opus 40 is truly a work of art that took a lifetime of love and patience to create. I’d really like for my own life to be that, a work of art, even if I leave no trace, no footprints when I go.