Milliongenerations:Stone clock project

Project idea

Try building a stone clock, a line that slowly winds its way through the streets of the city. Or between cities, or...

Obtain some backing and means that make it likely that the project can continue for at least a couple of years. Convince whoever is responsible for the streets in the city of the plan, or who owns the land. Better: engage them in the project. It could become a tourist attraction as well as a reminder...

Plan a route. It should be likely that the route will still be walkable some time in the future.

A poet / writer / group could conceive a 'slow poem' or story to be published one letter per stone. Ask a group to keep it secret while ensuring it remains available, so it is actually published only with the time passing on the stones. Even ask for an endless poem. A never ending poem. The poets ask successors to carry the work on when the letters of the previous one are published. With potentially some 250 billion weeks to go - one long poem. (If one poet makes a contribution unduly long that risks disinterest and stopping - who would want to be responsible for that?)

Have a batch of cobblestones made of different color with the letters engraved. Make sure replacements for vandalism can be ordered later. Could ask local artists to contribute to the surfaces or the letters or embed something in the stones (makes vandalism and theft more likely, though...).

Replace a cobblestone with another one of similar size but different color/material. That can have its date engraved, or artists could have shaped it, letters or words engraved. (Or if there's no street with cobblestones, place a stone in the ground where none yet is, better know how to).

Every week, the same day of the week replace another cobblestone next to the previous one to create a line. Very slowly, a few meters or feet per year. If your backers have a lot of funds and enthousiasm you might be tempted to do one a day, but be sure you have a reasonable chance to keep it up.

Put a board next to the stones to tell people when this line is expected to go where. (e.g., 'If we continue, in xyz years this will reach xyz')

Ask e.g., local artists or businesses or politicians to sponsor, make or place a stone or a board. Communicate.

Keep doing it for as long as possible and make the project independent from any particular person as soon as possible. If the community around it doesn't want to continue, it will likely die.

Realize that the stone clock is very vulnerable to vandalism, as well as neglect. Repairs to the streets are complicated by the line, and stones wear and might have to be replaced. Broad support might give it a chance to continue.

Motivation

Why?

This was inspired by Danny Hillis' 10,000 year clock. Greg Blonder's TiWalkMe Ten Thousand Year Forest was found later but provides important inspiration and is much closer conceptually.

Obviously, this 'stone clock' line only tells the week rather than the time.

In contrast to Hillis' automatic clock, this 'stone clock' also requires people and their will and means to continue to tend to it. It requires continued determination and regular work to keep 'alive', and is thus more similar to the TiWalkMe Escapement, which consists of living plants, adding extra dimensions, but also expense.

To last, civilization, too, might need constant care and attention. It's for posterity that we strive, to pass on our genes, or just in the hope that someone will continue to be there and realize that life is wonderful. The continued effort becomes the monument: not only our effort but the continued effort of those after us. Worth a try.

Similar efforts, to support, build on, cooperate with or be inspired by

• Danny Hillis' 10,000 year clock built by the LongNow Foundation
• Greg Blonder's TiWalkMe Escapement, a Ten Thousand Year Forest - Timepiece
• John Cage planned his composition ORGAN2/ASLSP (as slow as possible) to last 639 years. A performance in Halberstadt Germany was begun in 2001.
• Longplayer is a one thousand year long musical composition conceived and composed by Jem Finer. It began playing at midnight on the 31st of December 1999 at the Lighthouse in Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, and intends to continue to play without repetition until the last moment of 2999, at which point it hopes to complete its cycle and begin again.
• TiWalkMe's site has links to related efforts

Ideas for implementation

• Checked with a local expert - with the right tool it actually is a matter of seconds to pull out a stone and little longer to replace it with one of the same size. --Michael 15:03, 26 May 2011 (UTC)
• In Utrecht, Netherlands, most cobblestones run in a way that gives a crooked line if one wants to follow the street. Not ideal for reading a slow poem.
• Could mark the passing of years with an extra stone next to it. Might already mark future years on the route to be taken.