Alexander Rose

Alexander Rose has been finding ways to merge art, engineering and culture for most of his life. He grew up in a junkyard on the Sausalito California waterfront where he began building and designing at a young age. Alexander is the Director of Long-term Futures at Automattic and is the Director Emeritus at The Long Now Foundation. He is currently researching and writing a book to uncover the stories and lessons behind the world’s oldest companies and organizations.

Alexander was originally trained in industrial design, and began working with The Long Now Foundation in 1997 on the monument scale, all mechanical 10,000 Year Clock of the Long Now. Alexander speaks about his work all over the world at venues ranging from the TED conference to corporations, and government agencies.

As the director of Long Now, Alexander founded The Interval, The Manual for Civilization, The Organizational Continuity Project, and has facilitated a range of projects including The Rosetta Project, Long Bets, Seminars About Long Term Thinking, Long Server and others. Alexander has several design patents on the 10,000 Year Clock, the early prototypes of which are in the Science Museum of London, The Smithsonian, and The Interval SF.

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Alexander writes about the future, and building artifacts and institutions that last. He co-curated the Long Now Seminars, as well as founded and curated The Conversations at The Interval, and continues to curate talks with other organizations such as Automattic and The Battery SF. Alexander is also an advisor to the METI project .

Alexander graduated with a bachelor of arts honors degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Industrial Design in 1995, as well as attended the Art Center College of Design. He was an artist in residence at Silicon Graphics Inc., and a founding partner of the robotics company Inertia Labs.

Alexander’s combat robots have won over six world championship titles appearing in the hit TV show BattleBots . He has built large pyrotechnic displays for the Burning Man festival, robotic bartenders and other dangerous machines. Alexander was a world champion paintball player holding multiple world titles with his team the Ironmen from 1990 through 1995. At Carnegie Mellon University Alexander was the lead designer for a record setting human powered vehicle team.

Alexander lives in California in Sonoma County and enjoys mountain biking, adventuring and other backcountry activities whenever he can get out.

Forthcoming Book

Keeper of the Fabric

What makes an institution last a thousand years? A new book exploring the world’s longest-lived organizations — from a 1,300-year-old Japanese inn to the oldest fire on Earth.

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