Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has a lot of money. Which means that he has a lot of money to waste on strange ventures, like building a giant grandfather clock that will keep ticking for the next thousand years.
David Risher, a former Amazon executive, told the Wall Street Journal that Bezos “thinks in decades and centuries…Unlike most of us, Jeff is hard-wired for the very long term.”
So it’s not too surprising that Bezos would decide to build a $42 million clock. The WSJ reports that the thousand year clock will chime an elaborate song at the start of every new year, decade, and century.
Bezos said:
“The reason I’m doing it is that it is a symbol of long-term thinking, and the idea of long-term responsibility… 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.”
According to Forbes, Bezos has a net worth of over $18 billion. So spending $42 million on a timeless clock isn’t out of his reach. Besides, this isn’t the first time that Bezos has used his money for a crazy venture. Earlier this year he dragged the engines from the Apollo 11 back up from the bottom of the ocean. He’s also started Blue Origins, a space travel company,
What do you think of Jeff Bezos and his $42 million clock?
