Time for the Future

"Imagine a clock that keeps time for thousands of years. It ticks every 10 seconds, chimes once a millennium, and self-corrects for variations in Earth’s rotation. Such a clock is inventor Danny Hillis’s dream, and it’s coming alive inside a mountain in West Texas. “I got tired of only working on projects that were rush rush rush to get something done quickly. I wanted to work on something that mattered over the longer term,” says Hillis, cofounder of the research and development company Applied Minds. He says the clock is like a time capsule, in that it reaches out to connect with the future."