A Perfect Post-Apocalyptic Library That Offers Books and Booze

The folks at the Long Now Foundation are building a clock that’ll keep time for 10,000 years. But in the meantime they’ve built something more practical: A very nice bar.

Martin Venezky

The folks at the Long Now Foundation think deep thoughts about humanity’s future—their to-do list includes building a clock that’ll keep time for 10,000 years. But in the meantime they’ve built something more practical: a very nice bar. Located at San Francisco’s Fort Mason, the new lounge, called the Interval, will host events and discussions, and it’ll feature plenty of steampunk treats: custom-designed bottles of spirits stored in overhead racks, a robot that writes specials on a chalkboard, and another that dispenses the botanicals for your gin. But the real attraction will be the library. The Long Now crew calls it the Manual for Civilization---thousands of books recommended by foundation members and more than a dozen celebrity thinkers. So no matter what happens, from climate change to killer asteroids, whoever’s left can rebuild. Or at least have something to read while sipping house-aged whiskey.

STEWART BRAND

Founder: Long Now Foun­dation, Whole Earth Catalog


Highlights

The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer (trans. Robert Fagles)

The Prince by Machiavelli

The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, et al.

Approach

“I’m particu­larly interested in the continu­ity of civiliza­tion and how it gets bet­ter and more refined. It’s better to keep civilization going than to count on it stopping and starting in an interest­ing way.”

VIOLET BLUE

Journalist, sex educator


Highlights

Guide to Getting It On by Paul Joannides

X: The Erotic Treasury by Susie Bright

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

Love and Sex With Robots by David Levy

Approach

“I wanted time­ less books that would help people with a topic that’s been one of the most divi­sive, political, scary, thrill­ing, empower­ing, intimate, shunned, exploited, and smile­ inducing aspects of being human.”

DANNY HILLIS

Inventor, engineer


Highlights

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Principia Mathematica

by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman

SR-71 Blackbird Pilot’s Flight Manual

Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Approach

“I tried to avoid just putting in my favorite books. The question I asked myself is, what books have information in them that took humanity a while to figure out?”