Long Now was established in 01996 to encourage and foster long-term thinking and responsibility via a variety of projects including a clock designed to last 10,000 years (now being constructed in Texas), a monthly seminar series about long-term thinking, and the Rosetta Project which documents and preserves the diversity of human languages.

Long Now’s founders and board of directors include pioneering scientists, writers, technologists, artists and futurists such as Danny Hillis, Stewart Brand, Brian Eno, Kevin Kelly, Esther Dyson, Peter Schwartz, David Rumsey, Paul Saffo, Douglas Carlston, Kim Polese, Michael Keller, Ping Fu and David Eagleman. The Long Now Foundation is headquartered in San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center.

Long Now always uses five-digit dates, the extra zero in anticipation of the potential deca-millennium bug which may arise in about 8,000 years.