Long Now

Neal Stephenson author of _Fall, or Dodge in Hell_ in conversation with Long Now Board Member, Kevin Kelly. Tickets included a signed copy of _Fall, or Dodge in Hell_. [_Fall, or Dodge in Hell_](https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062458711/fall-or-dodge-in-hell/) is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.nealstephenson.com) is the bestselling author of the novels _Reamde_ , _Anathem_ , _The System of the World_ , _The Confusion_ , _Quicksilver_ , _Cryptonomicon_ , _The Diamond Age_ , _Snow Crash_ , and _Zodiac_ , and the groundbreaking nonfiction work "In the Beginning...Was the Command Line." He lives in Seattle, Washington.

We need a poly-temporal worldview to embrace the overlapping rates of change that our world runs on, especially the huge, powerful changes that are mostly invisible to us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud teaches that kind of time literacy. With it, we become at home in the deep past and engaged with the deep future. We learn to “think like a planet.” As for climate change... “Dazzled by our own creations,” Bjornerud writes, “we have forgotten that we are wholly embedded in a much older, more powerful world whose constancy we take for granted…. Averse to even the smallest changes, we have now set the stage for environmental deviations that will be larger and less predictable than any we have faced before.” A professor of geology and environmental studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Marcia Bjornerud is author of [_Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World_](https://smile.amazon.com/Timefulness-Thinking-Like-Geologist-World/dp/0691181209/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1) (2018) and [_Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth_](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JAH7RE/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1) (2005).

The legacy of [Ursula K Le Guin](http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) lives beyond the page in generations of writers who have learned from her. She used fantastic fiction to imagine ideals for the real world. Kim Stanley Robinson, her student 40 years ago and now a celebrated science fiction writer himself, reflects on Le Guin the teacher, her impact on his work, and how she changed the world. [Kim Stanley Robinson](http://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/) is an American novelist, widely recognized as one of the foremost living writers of science fiction. His work has been described as "humanist science fiction" and "literary science fiction." He has published more than 20 novels including his much honored "[Mars trilogy](http://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/mars-trilogy)", [_New York 2140_](https://www.amazon.com/New-York-2140-Stanley-Robinson/dp/031626234X) (02017), and [_Red Moon_](https://www.amazon.com/Red-Moon-Kim-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0316262374/) due out in October 02018. Robinson has a B.A. in Literature from UC San Diego and an M.A. in English from Boston University. He earned a Ph.D. in literature from UCSD with a dissertation on the works of Philip K. Dick. [Ursula K Le Guin](http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) was one of the greatest imaginative writers of all time. Her science fiction and fantasy stories (as well as children's books, poetry, essays, and many other genres & forms) have sold millions of copies, earned dozens of awards, and stayed constantly in print. Her honors include six Nebula awards, seven Hugos, and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 02003 she became the 20th writer ever to receive the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Grand Master award. She passed away in January 02018. Le Guin's book of essays [_No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters_](https://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Spare-Thinking-Matters/dp/1328661598) won a 02018 Hugo award and the 02017 collected edition of her [_Hainish Novels and Stories_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1598535374/) recently won a Locus award. A documentary entitled [_Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin_](https://worldsofukl.com) will debut in 02018.

What happens when we confuse price with value? We end up undervaluing care. We pollute more. And the financial sector is allowed to brag about how productive it is—while often just moving around existing value, created by others. Most importantly we end up with a form of capitalism that rewards value extraction activities over value creation, increasing inequality in the process. Economist Mariana Mazzucato: “I will argue that the way the word ‘value’ is used in modern economics has made it easier for value-extracting activities to masquerade as value-creating activities. And in the process rents (unearned income) gets confused with profits (earned income); inequality rises, and investment in the real economy falls.” Markets have always been shaped, Mazzucato notes. They can be reshaped now to better reflect and foster real value—creating a more sustainable and inclusive economy. A professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she founded and directs the [Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/home), [Mariana Mazzucato](https://marianamazzucato.com/) is the author of [_The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy_](https://marianamazzucato.com/publications/books/value-of-everything/) (2018) and of [_The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths_](https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/) (2013).

David Byrne has become a scholar and promoter of new good ideas that work in the world. He finds them in health, education, culture, economics, climate, science & technology, transportation, and civic engagement. He has great examples and great slides--as you might expect from an acclaimed visual as well as musical artist. His goal is to spread the word that there are a LOT of new things that work surprisingly well, and they can be applied far and wide. He has also delved into history for “sleeping beauties”—brilliant ideas that got overlooked or forgotten but can be revived. He’s interested in how that rediscovery process works and can be made better. Now 67, David Byrne’s prolific artistic career has earned honors including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards. Most famed for his new-wave band “Talking Heads” (1975-1991), Byrne continues to perform on the road and has made numerous films, books, and graphic art works. He frequently collaborates with Long Now board member Brian Eno.

An Open Source pioneer, [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) now leads the effort to build the infrastructure for trust as a service. In the past he helped build the foundations of the Web with [the Apache Foundation](http://www.apache.org/) and brought Open Source to the enterprise with Collab.net. At The Interval he’ll discuss his current work leading [Hyperledger](https://www.hyperledger.org/) at the [Linux Foundation](http://linuxfoundation.org/) to unlock blockchain’s potential beyond cryptocurrency. [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) is Executive Director for [Hyperledger](https://hyperledger.org), a project of the Linux Foundation. Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. Previously he was the primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software on the Internet, and a founding member of the Apache Software Foundation. He was the founding CTO of CollabNet and CTO of the World Economic Forum. Most recently, Behlendorf was a managing director at Mithril Capital Management LLC, a global technology investment firm. He is a long-serving board member of the Mozilla Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Technology’s promise is to “save” time. Its track record in real and psychological terms is often the opposite. A sociologist of science and technology, Judy Wajcman continues her examinations of time pressure and acceleration in the digital age. Her latest work considers how calendar software interacts with the existing anxieties of our digitally driven lives. Judy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Professor Wajcman was one of the founding contributors to the field of the social study of Science and Technology, as well as to studies of gender, work and organizations. Her latest books, _Pressed for Time_ and _The Sociology of Speed_ , argue for a sociomaterial approach to the study of time. She was a 02017-18 fellow at the [Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences](https://casbs.stanford.edu) (CASBS) at Stanford, co-sponsors of this talk.

In his new novel, _[_Machines Like Me_](https://smile.amazon.com/Machines-Like-Me-Ian-McEwan/dp/0385545118/ref=sr_1_1)_, Ian McEwan uses science fiction and counter-factual history to speculate about the coming of artificial intelligence and its effect on human relations. The opening page introduces a pivotal character, "Sir Alan Turing, war hero and presiding genius of the digital age.” The evening with McEwan featured conversation with Stewart Brand, based on written questions from the audience, along with some readings. [Ian McEwan](http://www.ianmcewan.com) is the author of _Enduring Love_ (1997), _Amsterdam_ (1998; Booker Prize), _Atonement_ (2001), _Saturday_ (2005), _The Children Act_ (2014), and others. Twelve movies have been made from his novels and short stories, five of them with screenplays by McEwan.

Studying primates offers insight into human evolution and behavior. Primatologist Elizabeth Lonsdorf shares her ongoing work with wild chimpanzees and gorillas: a unique long-term project that extends the seminal research by Jane Goodall and colleagues into the 21st century. Modern humans wean years earlier than African apes, a fact that is associated with several unique behaviors of being human (involving fertility, brain development, and life span). But our understanding of weaning in apes is actually quite limited. Dr Lonsdorf uses new technology and tools to better understand chimpanzee and gorilla development, and in the process learn more about us. [Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf](https://www.elizabeth-lonsdorf.com/) is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Biological Foundations of Behavior Program at Franklin & Marshall College. She began studying primates as an undergraduate at Duke University where she conducted research on percussive foraging in the endangered aye-aye. She completed her Ph.D. at the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota, and was founding director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. She directs Franklin & Marshall’s primate research laboratory, is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and serves on the board of directors for Chimp Haven and the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary. She returns annually to Gombe to maintain a research program focused on chimpanzee health and infant development in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute and other collaborators. She is a 02018-19 fellow at the [Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences](http://casbs.stanford.edu/) (CASBS) at Stanford University.

A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using countries like India and Myanmar to illustrate that some kinds of nationalism can be an essential resource for protecting democracy. Maya Tudor is a comparative political scientist whose research focuses on democracy, nationalist movements, and party competition. She is an associate professor of politics and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in politics and public policy and an MPA in development studies from Princeton and a BA in economics from Stanford University. Previously she was Special Assistant to Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz at the World Bank, at UNICEF, in the United States Senate, and at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. A dual citizen of Germany and the United States, she has lived and worked in Bangladesh, Germany, France, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States. Dr. Tudor has held fellowships at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy. She is a 02018-19 fellow at the [Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences](https://casbs.stanford.edu) (CASBS) at Stanford, co-sponsors of this talk.