The Psychology of Jeff Bezos and the 10,000-Year Clock

A shift in perspective can come from unexpected sources. Just ask Homer Simpson, whose life was completely upended by a ghost pepper at the Springfield chili cookoff.

Fans of The Simpsons will know the episode instantly. Not one to back down from a challenge, Homer downs several of Chief Wigam’s ultra-hot chili peppers and goes into a deep, desert-themed hallucination. Here, he encounters his spirit animal, a wise, mysterious, talking coyote (voiced by Johnny Cash), who leads Homer on his quest for knowledge, clarity, and inner peace.

When Homer finally snaps out of it and returns to real life, he’s a changed person with a greater appreciation for his soulmate Marge. However, he finds difficulty conjuring up this wisdom to plan for the future. At one point, he tries to ask the coyote for their advice, but a voice returns in his head, “I am just your memory Homer, I can’t provide any new information.”

As Simone Weil recognized, our projection about the future is always limited by our current perspective

Source: Photo by Giorgio Parravicini via UnSplash

It’s a funny moment in a comical episode, but it holds a profound truth: Imagining the future is limited by our current state. Long before Homer Simpson, the French philosopher Simone Weil recognized these limitations, writing that “The future is empty and is filled by our imagination. Our imagination can only picture perfection on our own scale. It is just as imperfect as we are; it does not surpass us by a single hair’s breadth.” We can never really learn from the future since it exists nowhere else but as a projection within our own, present-day minds.

It’s difficult enough to empathize with our future selves. What about empathizing with future others? People years into the future who haven’t been born yet and whom we’ll never meet? People, who necessarily only exist in our imaginations?

If we are to design a more sustainable future, we must believe the future exists. An inability to connect with future generations provides a key obstacle to this. Like Johnny Cash, the spiritual fox, creatives across various mediums are trying to reshape how we think.

Often, this means creating artistic works that won’t be enjoyed until way into the future. The ultimate distillation of this might be Jeff Bezos' investment in the 10,000-Year Clock. Before we get there, however, let's take a deeper look at what future thinking looks like a little more near term.

The Psychology of Future Thinking at the Century Mark

Mark Twain specifically instructed his publisher to wait until 100 years after his death to publish his autobiography. Honoring his wishes, the publishers released the book in 2010. For Twain, only the people far-off in his imagination and who he had no hope of ever knowing would enjoy this work.

In a similar vein, artist Katie Paterson planted a forest in Norway in 2014, with which a special anthology of books will be written 100 years later. The anthology consists of a growing body of writing from Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Karl Ove Knausgård, and others. A new writer is selected to contribute each year, from now until 2114. The writing is held in secret, unseen and unread by the world, until it is printed on paper from the original trees.

The 100 Years Film is a testament to the power that comes from thinking long into the future

Source: Photo by Denise Jans via UnSplash

More recently, creative brands have approached future-mindedness as well by creating products and campaigns associated with timelessness. Again, the century mark proves enchanting. Consider French Cognac brand Louis XIII, which is renowned for craft, history, and patience. It’s a special blend of cognac that comes from aging their brandy in oak barrels, which takes 100 years to be coaxed into excellence. In tandem with the aging process, the brand created something special to coincide with its release: a movie.

This is how the film 100 Years was born. The production followed the high standards of the brand; they enlisted the support of a star-studded, creative team which included Director Robert Rodriguez and actor John Malkovich.

The filming finished in 2015 and was subsequently stored away under strict guidelines. The completed film is placed in a custom safe at the Sheats Goldstein Mansion in Hollywood. Anticipating that some restless fans may not be willing to wait, the team took no chances, bulletproofing the safe and equipping it with a high-tech timer. The only thing that can open the safe is patience; it’s set to pop open automatically in 2115.

In contrast to Twain’s autobiography, no one involved in the creation of the film will ever see it and enjoy it. Even Rodriguez, who sent his rough edit out for visual effects to be added never saw the final cut before it went in the vault. He’s stated, “I’m proud of it, even though nobody I know will ever see it.”

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The parallels with the crafting process are palpable. As Louis XIII’s Ludovic du Plessis told MediaMarketing, “Our cellar master is crafting Louis XIII today that will be ready in 2115...He will never see his baby. He is working on something for people who haven’t been born yet. This is impressive, and this is our source of inspiration. This was the creative source of inspiration for the movie 100 Years.”

One hope is that these creations in the present can inspire long-term thinking and a deeper connection with the future. Can long-term projects steer people away from short-term gains, such as doom tourism, and towards more sustainable consumer behavior?

Beyond Future Thinking: Jeff Bezos and the 10,000-Year Clock

What better product to symbolize a long-term future than a watch? Luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe distills this in their slogan perfectly. "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation."

The ultrarich buy Patek Philippe, a watch synonymous with timelessness and supreme status. But if you’re the richest person in the world, you make your own timepiece. Never to be outdone, Jeff Bezos broke ground on his own longevity project in 2018: a 200-foot tall clock which is programmed to keep perfect time for the next 10,000 years. Bezos’ way of saying, “I see your 100 years, and raise you 9,900 more.”

Time pieces like 10,000 Year Clock may be the ultimate symbol of a connection to the future

Source: Photo by Aron Visuals via UnSplash

Its construction is currently underway under a remote limestone mountain near Van Horn, Texas, and its estimated completion is not made public. Not only will the clock keep time on its own using thermal energy from the natural environment, but it will also play a brief melody from time to time, at random intervals. The 10,000-year clock is specifically programmed to never repeat the same melody for at least 10,000 years. No one knows exactly how many melodies the clock will play, or when.

The project is a collaboration between Bezos and The Long Now Foundation, a non-profit organization that, as its name suggests, aims to generate long-term thinking. According to the project’s website, the aim of the clock is to do exactly that, “If the clock keeps going after we are personally long dead, why not attempt other projects that require future generations to finish?”

Final Thoughts on the 10,000-Year Clock, Future Thinking, and Long-Term Empathy

Significant skepticism has been raised over the practical benefits of the 10,000-Year Clock, and others see it more as a “billionaire whim” than an ode to humanity. But the clock’s inventor, Danny Hills, feels differently. “I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me. I sense that I am alive at a time of important change, and I feel a responsibility to make sure that the change comes out well. I plant my acorns knowing that I will never live to harvest the oaks.”

In this perspective, the key is not only to empathize with the future but also to resist the immediate gratification of the present; being undeterred by the knowledge that there will be no reciprocity for one's actions.

As futurist Toby Ord describes in his book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, it may be exactly this kind of long-term connection to the future that is key to the maintenance of humanity on this planet. While, as Simone Weil teaches us, our imagination of the future is limited, we can think optimistically about what it might hold.

10,000 years was chosen as the clock time since that's roughly the current age of human civilization. The earliest humans couldn’t possibly imagine the incredible experiences of modern humans, and in a similar vein, we are unable in the current era to imagine how great humanity still could one day be.

According to Ord, humans are not so great because of our current accomplishments but because of our sheer potential. As he told The New Yorker, “How strange it would be if this single species of ape, equipped by evolution with this limited set of sensory and cognitive capacities, after only a few thousand years of civilization, ended up anywhere near the maximum possible quality of life... I think that we have barely begun the ascent.”

Will these change hearts and minds? That’s up for debate. But whether through art, reason, or a 200-foot clock, inspiring new ways of thinking will be key to developing a deeper connection, and stronger investment in the future. The shift in perspective will be crucial.

This post also appeared on the consumer psychology blog, MJISME