The clock is mostly stainless steel, and it will live in a cave in a rather remote location. If civilization collapses in the future, there will be much easier things to steal.
If they really wanted to prevent theft, the builders could alloy the metals with something poisonous or radioactive. But that's harder than it sounds. Not much stuff stays dangerous for 10,000 years. If I were in charge, I'd build some cool Indiana Jones-esque traps. :)
> If they really wanted to prevent theft, the builders could alloy the metals with something poisonous or radioactive. But that's harder than it sounds.
I'd also point out that such a technique would run opposite Long Now's goal of having visitors - I mean, it's hard to build a clock that lasts 10k years, hard to contain radioactive materials in casks buried underground in salt flats for 10k years, how much harder would it be to do both simultaneously?
They want people to come in and periodically wind the peripheral parts of the clock. That's kind of incompatible with building an Indiana Jones dungeon.
Actually, you know what? Forget about clocks. I want to know how we can make elaborate dungeon traps last thousands of years.
If they really wanted to prevent theft, the builders could alloy the metals with something poisonous or radioactive. But that's harder than it sounds. Not much stuff stays dangerous for 10,000 years. If I were in charge, I'd build some cool Indiana Jones-esque traps. :)