Báyò Akómoláfé — The Untimely
Philosopher explores postactivism, deep time, and why 'the times are urgent — let us slow down' in a talk that challenges Western notions of agency.
Why we picked this
The most challenging and original thinker on this season's Long Now calendar. His motto: 'the times are urgent — let us slow down.'
Báyò Akómoláfé is not easy to categorize, and that’s the point. A philosopher, poet, and executive director of The Emergence Network, he draws on Yoruba cosmology, postcolonial thought, and complexity science to challenge the assumptions embedded in Western activism — particularly the idea that the right response to crisis is always faster, louder, more urgent action.
His counterproposal: “The times are urgent — let us slow down.” It sounds paradoxical, but Akómoláfé builds a rigorous case that speed and urgency often reproduce the very systems they claim to resist. Real transformation, he argues, requires a different relationship with time itself.
At the Long Now Foundation — an institution dedicated to long-term thinking — this talk should feel like it’s in exactly the right place. Expect to leave thinking differently about what “doing something” actually means.