Historian Jared Farmer illuminates ways in which trees are living symbols for long-term thinking.

From the Long Now Talk, “Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time with Trees” by Jared Farmer.
Watch the full talk here:    • Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time ...  

"What really interests me is how long-lived plants allow humans to think about—and emotionally relate to—long units of time. They provide a bridge between human time and geological time."
-- Jared Farmer

Join us for an evening with geohumanist and historian Jared Farmer, who will share his multi-faceted approach to understanding our human relationship with trees over millennia. From ancient stories, as objects of reverence, named individuals and clonal organisms, sources of wealth in ancient and modern times, the lungs of the planet and the wood wide web - trees are deeply interwoven with our histories, cultures and growing scientific understanding of our complex global ecosystem. Farmer reflects on our long-term relationships with long-lived trees, and considers the future of oldness on a rapidly changing planet.

Jared Farmer is a geohumanist and place-based historian. Farmer is a Professor of History at Penn, studying landscapes and environments from the hyperlocal to the planetary, with emphasis on the nineteenth century in the American West. His book include Trees in Paradise: A California History (02013), and Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees (02022).

"Chronodiversity: Thinking about Time with Trees" was given on November 14, 02023 as part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

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