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BBtv: Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks – Long Now "Mechanicrawl" pt. 1


Boing Boing tv guest correspondent Todd Lappin (R) and cameraninja Eddie Codel (L) trek to the Long Now Foundation‘s first-ever Mechanicrawl event, and bring back tales of early analog computing, fantastic timepieces, and impossibly eccentric mechanical things.

First, Todd speaks with the Long Now Foundation‘s Alexander Rose about a 10,000-year mechanical clock dreamed up by supercomputer designer Danny Hillis.

Next, we listen to a prototype chime mechanism that will ring ten bells in a different sequence each day over the next 10,000 years. Brian Eno and Danny Hillis came up with the algorithm, and a team of tinkerers crafted the contraption to tap out time on a series of Tibetan bowl gongs.


Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on subscribing to the daily BBtv video podcast.


Todd has a photoset with snapshots from the Mechanicrawl adventures. See also this previous Laughing Squid post.

(Special thanks to Karen Marcelo for image shown in video still)

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