If you are interested in issues of preservation and technology you might get a kick out of this chat between inventor Danny Hillis and musician/artist Brian Eno. It’s the latest seminar in long-term thinking from the Long Now Foundation. The backdrop to the conversation is their work over the last 10 years designing the 10,000 year clock. It’s a subtle, and (appropriately) long talk, that was a real pleasure to listen to over the course of three evening dog walks.

A theme they explored was how difficult (and rewarding) it is to think over really long time frames. The further they tried to look into the future, the more they found themselves looking into the past, and getting in touch with the present. They considered the therapeutic value of considering our small parts to play in the sweep of history, the need to surrender to it…to embrace complexity, and work with the muddle of everything, rather than trying to bend it to our will, and our plans.

Plus there are lots of humorous moments along the way about Microsoft Excel’s Y10K bug, white on white paintings, the singularity that already happened, and more.