The Next 'Year 1' ...?

[SteveGuzzi]

No I'm not talking about a sequel to that goofy Jack Black / Michael Cera movie.

There's been many different calendar systems devised and used throughout history -- and even though there are actually several in simultaneous use even today, it's pretty much established that "the modern civilized world" still counts their years using one man's life (Jesus') as their origin reference point. Changing the terms B.C. and A.D. ("Before Christ" and "Anno Domini") to B.C.E. and C.E. ("Before Common Era" and "Common Era") may please the desire for a secularist expression of time but it still doesn't alter the fact of how that particular reference point was decided.

. . .

So anyway here's where we guess what person and/or event will be SO SIGNIFICANT that the entire world will feel compelled to count their years for millenia to come as an approximate relation to when THAT person existed and/or event occurred.

e.g. Gary Busey will die and be revered as a God causing all years from 1944 and forward to be renumbered starting at 1 AB ("Anno Busey" or "in the year of our Busey") orrrrr uhhhhh McDonald's Corp. will buy-out the U.N. and start a new era of global colonialism in the year 1 BE ("Burger Era") orrrrr uhhhhh something serious if you can actually think of something serious.

[AlphaCentauri]

Honestly, at this point, I don't see anything restarting the calendar.

But, I suppose something like alien contact and maybe learning about how they measure time and such could maybe cause us to change to their system or something strange.

[Proottalfain]

Perhaps the said event already happened, but only later will people realize its importance.

[Keyahnee]

I think if this happened for anyone it would either be Gary Busey, Tom Hanks or Morgan Freeman just cause of his voice

[yurgenburgen]

At 10/27/09 10:36 PM, Proottalfain wrote: Perhaps the said event already happened, but only later will people realize its importance.

Nah mate. Nah.

At 10/27/09 10:33 PM, SteveGuzzi wrote: something serious if you can actually think of something serious.

The only thing I could imagine would be some kind of incredibly important scientific discovery that affects the way every human on the planet sees the universe. Like someone successfully travelling through time, for example.

[spartan100]

At 10/27/09 10:35 PM, AlphaCentauri wrote: Honestly, at this point, I don't see anything restarting the calendar.

But, I suppose something like alien contact and maybe learning about how they measure time and such could maybe cause us to change to their system or something strange.

the mayan [ people who made the calender that has EVERY day day on it and it ends on 2012 ] said wed learn something every 500 years and i think something like that may happen

[Gustavos]

A.E.

After Extinction.

The human race will become desecrated during the war between Microsoft and Disney in 2012. The only surviving organisms are of course plants and bacteria in the ground, but the only animals will be seahorses. Where the males become the female's bitch. As they carry the eggs.

[Chumbawamba]

Zombie apocalypse, knocking out 99% of the population.

[SteveGuzzi]

At 10/27/09 10:35 PM, AlphaCentauri wrote: But, I suppose something like alien contact and maybe learning about how they measure time and such could maybe cause us to change to their system or something strange.

Oooh this is a good one.

At 10/27/09 10:40 PM, yurgenburgen wrote:

At 10/27/09 10:36 PM, Proottalfain wrote: Perhaps the said event already happened, but only later will people realize its importance.

Nah mate. Nah.

Well... it's already gone down like that at least once. I mean, it's not like people were counting from 1 AD and on exactly at 1 AD. Sooo hmmmm if it's possibly already happened then who or what might we have overlooked?

The only thing I could imagine would be some kind of incredibly important scientific discovery that affects the way every human on the planet sees the universe. Like someone successfully travelling through time, for example.

Oooh this is a good one too. I wonder how we might change the way we count time given the ability to go forwards AND backwards in it. Like, would the linear concept of seconds/minutes/hours/etc still apply or would a new new model and scheme have to be adapted? Wouldn't time travel have to include teleportation also being that the Earth is constantly changing its position?

---
unrelated: I kinda figure time is like a slinky -- it's a line, sure, but it also coils around in a circle in a manner such that events which don't correspond horizontally ("year-to-year") might then be said to correspond vertically ("cycle-to-cycle").
---

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Soooo is it more likely that it would take a complete change in how we actually reason-out time rather than being just another marker point set from a specific event?

[MonkeyV]

At 10/27/09 10:35 PM, AlphaCentauri wrote: Honestly, at this point, I don't see anything restarting the calendar.

But, I suppose something like alien contact and maybe learning about how they measure time and such could maybe cause us to change to their system or something strange.

Something like this, but probably more of aliens conquering and reestablishing the calendar.

[GiantDouche]

B.C.E calendar-Goes back billions of years
C.E calendar-Goes 2009 years

I think we have a while before we have to worry about that.

[SteveGuzzi]

At 10/27/09 11:25 PM, GiantDouche wrote: B.C.E calendar-Goes back billions of years
C.E calendar-Goes 2009 years

I think we have a while before we have to worry about that.

The Julian/Gregorian calendar isn't the be-all end-all of how people label time, and the point at which 1 B.C.E. turns to 1 C.E. is based only on a quasi-historical event (the birth of a person that some people don't even believe existed).

So... either you didn't read the thread at all, or, I dunno, you're kinda dumb.

[GiantDouche]

At 10/27/09 11:39 PM, SteveGuzzi wrote: The Julian/Gregorian calendar isn't the be-all end-all of how people label time, and the point at which 1 B.C.E. turns to 1 C.E. is based only on a quasi-historical event (the birth of a person that some people don't even believe existed).

So... either you didn't read the thread at all, or, I dunno, you're kinda dumb.

I'm well aware. Did you ever consider that probably wasn't going to happen?

[I-RULE-OVER-ALL]

lets just leave it alone, then we will need to go thought everything, and reprint a load of textbooks just to be more politically correct, frankly a waste of money to fix a problem that isn't much of a problem, and it will create confusion.

[GiantDouche]

I meant to say that The birth of Jesus is hardly considered a pivotal event in lieu of the history that followed.

[WritersBlock]

At 10/27/09 10:35 PM, AlphaCentauri wrote: Honestly, at this point, I don't see anything restarting the calendar.

If anything, I'd put my money on nuclear war.