The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility
Worth buying if: You enjoy big ideas about civilization, technology, and humanity’s distant future.
Skip it if: You want a conventional narrative with characters, plot, or a fictional world.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780465007806. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
The Clock of the Long Now examines how civilization might think beyond short-term horizons, using the idea of a clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years as a provocation.
Why this book now
In an era shaped by immediate pressures, Brand’s case for long-term responsibility remains sharply relevant.
30-second preview
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You enjoy big ideas about civilization, technology, and humanity’s distant future.
- You like short works that use one striking concept—the Long Now clock—to challenge everyday assumptions.
- You want a conventional narrative with characters, plot, or a fictional world.
- You prefer tightly bounded arguments over speculative thinking about civilization’s long horizon.
- You are specifically hunting for the newest framing rather than a backlist perspective.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780465007806
Worth buying if: You enjoy big ideas about civilization, technology, and humanity’s distant future.
Skip it if: You want a conventional narrative with characters, plot, or a fictional world.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Light Short sit-downs
At 208 pages, this is a focused nonfiction read, though its questions about time and responsibility invite reflection beyond the final page.
What stands out here
This 2000 Perseus Books Group record presents Stewart Brand’s 208-page study of the Long Now and long-term responsibility.
Best way to approach it
Read it as a sequence of provocations about timescales, then test Brand’s long-view questions against present-day decisions.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780465007806
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.