W. Daniel Hillis

William Danny Hillis is Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Applied Minds, Inc located in Glendale, CA. [1]

He is one of the founders of the Long Now Foundation, whose purpose is to promote long-term thinking. The Long Now Foundation numbers years in five digits—it refers to the present year as 02007. Hillis is the designer of one of its projects, the Clock of the Long Now. This is a serious attempt to build a purely mechanical clock, on a monumental scale, that will last and keep time for ten thousand years. The Foundation has purchased land in Nevada for that purpose. Plans for the clock involve not only mechanical engineering, but societal considerations, since the clock must resist vandalism, cannot require continuous funding or maintenance, and, if need be, must outlast the civilization that built it.