Danny Hillis—Inventor, Innovator, High Priest of the Long Now

Take a look around just about any American city and it’s pretty clear we’re a “culture of Now.” Here in Los Angeles, it’s more apparent than in most. From where I sit writing this, I see a 99-Cent store and half a dozen restaurants, coffee shops and tattoo parlors, none of which looks likely to survive even a moderately strong earthquake. Even outside our cities, we don’t build for the long term. Neither do other countries around the world. And by...