Jeff Bezos and the $42 million immortal clock
Amazon founder and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has enlisted the Long Now Foundation to build a clock that will last thousands of years. Jeff Bezos estimates the device will cost $42 million.
In this file photo from 2011, Jeff Bezos, chairman and cheif executive officer of Amazon.com, introduces the Kindle Fire at a news conference in New York.
Mark Lennihan/AP/File
Jeff Bezos is spending $42 million to build a giant "10,000 Year" grandfather-ish clock that will chime every year, decade, century, millennium and 10 millennia.
Bezos is trying to ensure his legacy by building a clock that people can literally visit decades or centuries — or even 1,000 years — from now, according to a profile of Bezos in the Wall Street Journal.
"We humans have become so technologically sophisticated that in certain ways we're dangerous to ourselves. It's going to be increasingly important over time for humanity to take a longer-term view of its future," Bezos told the Wall Street Journal.
Bezos spends a ton of money on weird ventures like space travel, but this one is by far the coolest. Here are some of his other ventures:
- There's Blue Origin, his space travel company that looks to take astronauts to the International Space Station, while Elon Musk's SpaceX is already running missions to supply the ISS.
- He also invested in a glass-blowing company that makes handmade glass cups to hold candles. Bezos told his employees at that startup to go to Africa and use sand on the beach there.
- Last year Bezos also hired undersea experts to find the engines that sent the Apollo 11 rocket into space. In March this year, he said he was successful, according to the Wall Street Journal.