Back in the 1970s both speakers got hooked by cellular automata such as Conway's 'Game of Life,' where just a few simple rules could unleash profoundly unpredictable and infinitely varied dynamic patterns. Cellular automata were the secret ingredient of Wright's genre-busting computer game 'SimCity' in 1989. Eno was additionally inspired by Steve Reich's 'It's Gonna Rain,' in which two identical 1.8 second tape loops beat against each other out of phase for a riveting 20 minutes. That idea led to Eno's 'Music for Airports' (1978), and the genre he named 'ambient music' was born.

he Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's 'faster/cheaper' mind set and promote 'slower/better' thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.