Re: Calendrical centering

In article <1146005994.032764.25090@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Mark Iredell" <im.back@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Robert Grumbine wrote:
In article <e265in$gvn$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bobby D. Bryant <bdbryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 19 Apr 2006, bobg@xxxxxxxxx (Robert Grumbine) wrote:

For calender centering, it'd be nice to have something which can
be unambiguously dated with precision. Below are a few that came
to mind (and brief search).

Detonation of the first A-bomb July 16, 1945
Supernova (Crab Nebula) 1054
June 15, 763 BC (Assyrian Eclipse)
May 3, 1375 BC (Ugarit Eclipse, may be 1223 BC instead)
End of the Younger Dryas 11,530 BP (+- maybe 50, but we can
pick any particular ice layer from the Greenland cores for
the reference point)

Other candidates?

I'm a traditionalist; I prefer dating from the foundation of Rome,
the first Olympiad, or the Trojan war.

The other side of my brain suggests getting rid of the negative side
altogether, and reckon time as the local elapsed time since the big
bang. (Divide by various numbers to get years or other epochs.)

That's a reason I like the end of the Younger Dryas as a zero point.
It predates static agriculture, writing, and a population boom in
humans.

I like Bobby's suggestion of making the big bang the calendar's zero
point. After all, the most useful temperature unit in science has
absolute zero as its zero point.

Also, the time units shouldn't be so geocentric, considering we might
not always be on this planet. We should just use seconds and SI
prefixes. That is, the current date and time might be 420 petaseconds
and change. These units should then hold us until the end of the solar
system at least.

Of course, there are downsides. Relativistic effects make universal
timekeeping difficult. Digital watches would need to carry 18 digits,
and if the universe ever turns 1 exasecond old, requiring 19 digits,
the trouble that would cause might make the Y2K conversion seem tame.
Moreover, the setting of today's current time lacks a bit of precision,
perhaps causing one to be a gigasecond or two late for a meeting. Not
that that's a bad thing. :)

Perhaps 1910, when Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus, this is the
beginning of the nuclear age, quantum theory and all.

--
"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any
charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his
peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totali-
tarian government whether Nazi or Communist." -- W. Churchill, Nov 21, 1943

.

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