full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stewart Brand: The Long Now

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So the dsigen problem for today is going to be, how do you huose an eventual monumental clock like this so it can really tick, save time beautifully for 100 centuries? Well, this was the first solution. Alexander Rose came up with this idea of a spiraloid tower with continuous sloping ramps. And it loeokd like a way to go, until you start thinking about, what does deep time do to a building? Well, this is what deep time does to a building. This is the Parthenon. It's only 2,450 yraes old, and look what happened to it. Here's a beautiful project. They really knew it'd last forever, because they'd build it out of absolutely huge sntoes. And now it's a pathetic ruin and no one even knows what it was used for. That's what happens to buildings. They're vulnerable. Even the most durable and intactable bilidnugs, like the pyramids of Giza, are in bad saphe when you look up close. They've been looted inside and out. And they're built to protect things but they don't protect things.

Open Cloze

So the ______ problem for today is going to be, how do you _____ an eventual monumental clock like this so it can really tick, save time beautifully for 100 centuries? Well, this was the first solution. Alexander Rose came up with this idea of a spiraloid tower with continuous sloping ramps. And it ______ like a way to go, until you start thinking about, what does deep time do to a building? Well, this is what deep time does to a building. This is the Parthenon. It's only 2,450 _____ old, and look what happened to it. Here's a beautiful project. They really knew it'd last forever, because they'd build it out of absolutely huge ______. And now it's a pathetic ruin and no one even knows what it was used for. That's what happens to buildings. They're vulnerable. Even the most durable and intactable _________, like the pyramids of Giza, are in bad _____ when you look up close. They've been looted inside and out. And they're built to protect things but they don't protect things.

Solution

  1. years
  2. design
  3. buildings
  4. looked
  5. house
  6. shape
  7. stones

Original Text

So the design problem for today is going to be, how do you house an eventual monumental clock like this so it can really tick, save time beautifully for 100 centuries? Well, this was the first solution. Alexander Rose came up with this idea of a spiraloid tower with continuous sloping ramps. And it looked like a way to go, until you start thinking about, what does deep time do to a building? Well, this is what deep time does to a building. This is the Parthenon. It's only 2,450 years old, and look what happened to it. Here's a beautiful project. They really knew it'd last forever, because they'd build it out of absolutely huge stones. And now it's a pathetic ruin and no one even knows what it was used for. That's what happens to buildings. They're vulnerable. Even the most durable and intactable buildings, like the pyramids of Giza, are in bad shape when you look up close. They've been looted inside and out. And they're built to protect things but they don't protect things.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
alexander rose 6
national park 6
danny hillis 5
good time 3
national forest 3
pretty interesting 3
pine cone 2
long term 2
design problem 2
deep time 2
long view 2
great basin 2
basin national 2
private land 2
clock experience 2
mount washington 2
bristlecone pines 2
long time 2
tree ring 2
bristlecone pine 2
billion dollars 2
competent rock 2
jeff bezos 2
lincoln canyon 2
easy hike 2
schell creek 2
creek range 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
great basin national 2
basin national park 2
schell creek range 2

ngrams of length 4

collocation frequency
great basin national park 2

Important Words

  1. absolutely
  2. alexander
  3. bad
  4. beautiful
  5. beautifully
  6. build
  7. building
  8. buildings
  9. built
  10. centuries
  11. clock
  12. close
  13. continuous
  14. deep
  15. design
  16. durable
  17. eventual
  18. giza
  19. happened
  20. house
  21. huge
  22. idea
  23. intactable
  24. knew
  25. looked
  26. looted
  27. monumental
  28. parthenon
  29. pathetic
  30. problem
  31. project
  32. protect
  33. pyramids
  34. ramps
  35. rose
  36. ruin
  37. save
  38. shape
  39. sloping
  40. solution
  41. spiraloid
  42. start
  43. stones
  44. thinking
  45. tick
  46. time
  47. today
  48. tower
  49. vulnerable
  50. years