Would you support changing the CE/BCE calendar to something else?

do you care that it's the year 2018? would you be opposed to changing it to something new and exciting, like one that exponentially increases, or just reset everything to year 10. 'hey, happy 10 everyone'. it mildly bugs me that ancient history takes place in a mirrored timeline that is essentially a countdown to jesus (and even that is off by a few years). but i don't have a suggestion for a better method (though i do have a good idea about changing the gregorian annual calendar that i like to bring up on my birthday). and let's not forget about how it would change the way we listen to songs like 1999.

The only real value in the CE/BCE scheme is that so many people agree to recognize it. That's plenty enough, since that is the sine qua non of all such arbitrary entities. Once everyone agrees a "telephone" is called a "telephone", the whole job is done. The same for a calendar. Once everyone agrees to use it, that's the whole point of the exercise.

After the French Revolution, when the metric system was first adopted, there was an attempt to establish a new 'rationalized' calendar, too, restarting the numbering of the years and making up a lot of new names for months and days. It was as popular as a dead cat.

i think i would have been a big fighter for that new calendar, if nothing else, back in those french revolution days. definitely part of the new calendar clique

no

also i dislike sci-fi/fantasy books that labor too heavily over their made-up calendar systems

renumbering everything is a pain in the ass. i'm a big fan of HE dating. just stick a "1" in front of that shit and call it a new dating system.

Yeah, I have no great tie to the current calendar system and if there was a widespread call for change I wouldn't mind, it just seems like too much hassle.

It would mess with history books, I'm not culturally bothered otherwise but when you read about, say, Chinese annals using years of Emperor's reigns and so forth the system we've got now feels reasonably convenient

French Revolutionary Calendar or gtfo.

Countdown to Jesus sounds like the name of a Christian metal band.

The 10-day décade was unpopular with laborers because they received only one full day of rest out of ten, instead of one in seven, although they also got a half-day off on the fifth day.

Wow, the French Revolution sucked.

No it didn't, 1.5 days off in 10 is more time off than 1 day in 7.

Yeah, 15% time off vs 14,29% time off. I'd kinda prefer the full day off every seven days though.

Aren't we already in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment?

It was ten years ago, iirc.

Or twelve years ago in octal.

Also in that 1 day off in 7, they'd have to waste part of that in church and lots of places would be shut - vive la revolution!

To be clear, the dating system “we” use is just an overlay at this point. When I started writing this is was 1529157775. Also, the world will end on January 19, 2038.

I’ve been on Unix time for several months now. The current time is 1529133043 seconds since Jan 01 1970

1439 Sana Hijriyya

dammit tomboto, i really f'd that up on multiple levels

can't even use leap seconds as an excuse there

no

also i dislike sci-fi/fantasy books that labor too heavily over their made-up calendar systems

― mookieproof, Saturday, 16 June 2018 00:56 (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep this

the main thing that annoys me about the calendar is that the current year, as numbered, doesn't reflect even a little how long humans have been keeping track of the year. it'd be a lot cooler if the year was 5778 or higher

it is exactly that year in certain venues, as you know

The Romans counted up from the founding of Rome. Except they were totally guessing which year that was and, of course, claimed an antiquity that would be flattering to their sense of importance.

filling out paperwork here have to remember it's year 30 of heisei and harder to remember i was born in year 60something of the showa.

while we're doing thought experiments: what about a global clock? Same time all over the world. people could be going to work from 2 to 10 in the USA and from 15 to 23 in japan for instance.

We already have that; nobody uses it for day to day life because there’s no good reason to.

it is exactly that year in certain venues, as you know

― El Tomboto, Saturday, June 16, 2018 11:40 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

almost as if i chose that number deliberately

I just hate the mimsy use of BCE/CE, whereby they keep on using the BC/AD system, but try to pretend there's no Christian connection by making use of an utterly dull and basically meaningless new phrase.

i do too.

It's a Christian connection, but it's also an undeniable cultural connection for Western Civ.

i would like the year count to start at around 10000 years ago so we wouldn't have to bother with two systems within recorded history. the hebrew calendar, while having a silly starting date, at least gets this right.

easy solution, just add a 1 before the current ce year. happy 12018 everyone

I just hate the mimsy use of BCE/CE, whereby they keep on using the BC/AD system, but try to pretend there's no Christian connection by making use of an utterly dull and basically meaningless new phrase.

Never used BCE/CE in my life tbh. Never heard it used in conversation either.

Whatever system we're changing it to can we make sure it starts at year 0 so we don't have to have the tedious conversation about whether centuries, millennia etc start in xxxx0 or xxxx1?

^^^^

as a teen my wiccan friend was a stickler for it. I mostly see it used by muslims and in academia

I think, slightly bizarrely, Julian Cope was the first person I ever heard use it!

don't care, seems like changing everything would be a massive waste of time.

if it's arbitrary anyways, who's to say that once you change everything people wouldn't think oh let's change it again to something better.

put your energy into something useful.

what i want to know is when are we going to rename the 'early modern' and 'modern' eras. that was shortsighted.

I love "Modernism" as an ever-receding historical era. Except NP eras are really located on history tbf.

no eras, fucking autocorrect

all years should just be given as number of years + or - relative to the present one

so 2017 would be -1 but next year it would be -2

just work out when the universe began and count from there. welcome to 13799131678 everyone.

let's not forget about how it would change the way we listen to songs like 1999.

let's just roll it back thirty years or so so we can listen to 1999 with the same kind of anticipation we used to

I just hate the mimsy use of BCE/CE, whereby they keep on using the BC/AD system, but try to pretend there's no Christian connection by making use of an utterly dull and basically meaningless new phrase.

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison)

I understand this if you take the point of view that they ("they") are trying to maintain a Christocentric calendar but hiding that fact so there's no pushback. However, seeing as the calendar isn't going to change any time soon, isn't it better to change the terminology so you're not forcing non-Christians to talk about years in very overtly Christian terms?

Also it's not that new, Common Era phraseology stems from around the 18th century.

just work out when the universe began and count from there. welcome to 13799131678 everyone.

years are too solar-centric, we should be planning for when we've gone intergalactic.

there are some really good ideas in this thread