Time too short at Long Now

Today is my last day in San Francisco. After two and a half months of life in the Bay Area, on summer break from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I'm flying back to Honolulu this afternoon, to prepare for the "Hawaii 2050" event we're planning for next month, and to resume my studies of alternative futures.

I have immensely enjoyed working with the Long Now Foundation, which during the short time I've been here has somehow turned a musty warehouse into a gleaming public exhibition space at Fort Mason; staged a group visit to the intended 10,000-year Clock site in the desert in Nevada; and hosted no fewer than three intriguing Seminars About Long-term Thinking (Chris Anderson & Will Hearst, Will Wright & Brian Eno, and, last Friday, John Rendon). Working on renovating Long Bets has been an educational and stimulating experience, and encouragingly, looks likely to bear fruit, in the form of an improved, deeper and more subtle design, before long. There are some other interesting projects in the pipeline which shall make an appearance here as their time comes. That mountain in Nevada has an uncanny track record of eliciting big ideas from visitors.

It has also been a very great pleasure to work, and socialise, with the exceptional Long Now posse led by Alexander Rose: Ben Keating, Chas Warner, Laura Buszard-Welcher, JD Ross Leahy, Simone Davalos, and others who have favoured the office with their presence from time to time. Presenting to the Board of LNF in mid-June was one of the very few official agenda-driven meetings that I have ever actually enjoyed. Their energy, alertness to connections, and quickness to alight on and explore new ideas was stunning. Some of the Board members I met in other settings, but they struck me in the same way. I look forward to interacting with these remarkable people again.

And so, while I'll continue to be involved with Long Now's work, and contribute from a distance across the Pacific, it's with mixed feelings that I leave these fine people to their 10,000-year devices. I'll be back to San Francisco at the first opportunity.

Meanwhile, thanks to all who made this the exceptional experience it has been, professionally as well as personally -- you know who you are.

Carpe Millennium, my friends.