Caring for an object for the purpose of passing down to a future generation helps people think long term. Being and heirloom means it can’t be consumed or depleted and it instills a sense of duty to grow or preserve for successive generations. This helps to combat a tragedy of the commons. As good example of a shared heirloom that promotes long term environmental conservation is the US National Parks.
See also:
- The Long Now podcast episode with Bina Venkataraman
Links to this note
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Stone fish traps in use over the last 40,000 years located in the Barwon River that some believe are the earliest human construction in the world. It’s an example of a man made system that has endured for thousands of years and is still in use today—a model for how one might approach building new systems.
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The big orange cones with steam coming out of them in Manhattan are from the leaking network of steam pipes that heat commercial buildings. The 142 year old system of pipes sometimes breaks and the steam shoots up from underground. The stacks help direct the steam up rather than fogging the streets and sidewalks.
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Inter-Generational Partnership
Long term work on inter-generational problems (e.g. climate change) requires inter-generational partnership. Fostering these relationships is difficult because thinking long term is undervalued compared to solving short term problems and those in positions of power tend to be from the previous generation (Planck’s principle) which tends to favor themselves (i.e. in-group favoritism).
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Three things lead me to believe that websites will soon become an heirloom passed down generation to generation: 1) the ubiquity of the web generally (which is still only 59% of the world’s population) 2) the scarcity of web domains 3) the value of search engine ranking.
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Things I Use That Are 10+ Years Old
I was thinking the other day that there are few objects that I use somewhat regularly that are more than 10 years old.
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Time Horizons as a Competitive Advantage
A company can use time horizons as a competitive advantage by being willing to wait longer for returns on investment than competitors. The set of ideas possible with a longer time horizon is inclusive of the set of ideas in shorter time horizon, but also includes more ideas that are not available in the shorter. Assuming some of those ideas are fruitful, there is a fundamental advantage to having a longer time horizon than the competition.