The date for this selection should be listed as January, 02000, in keeping with the long view of history, science, technology, and environment that the Long Now Foundation wants to foster. This book is a proposal to build a kind of clock-monument-library designed to provide focus for a philosophy that makes mankind's view of "now" extend, instead of over a few years or a single generation, to a period of about 10,000 years. The foundation proposes to construct a clock that would be large enough so that it could accomodate fairly sizable group of visitors inside and would maintain accurate time over thousands of years. It would be a sort of super-sized Big Ben for the world. The design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the device, which would also be a landmark and an attraction to visitors, would require commitment from a large group of people (which is perhaps the most important part of the project). This book must be the antithesis of my selection for October, 1999!