A brief matter of time..

Namaste fellow Jedi,

It occured to me whilst reading over The Way of Jediism that the force is as old as the universe (probably older if we were to get into that, but let's go with as old as the universe) and yet we still use a calendar that starts 2016 years ago..
I know from research that the Freemasons use roughly a 6000 year old calendar, which starts at either Sumeria or Babylon..

As follows of the force, does it make sence for us to developed and use a calendar that is perhaps based on our Suns rotation around the galactic centre (which would be similar to the Mayans long-count)?
Or is it far too early for our civilization seeing as we havnt been round one full rotation yet?

I look forward to your thoughts!
X

I like the idea. Its neat. However, there isn't really any need to change the system we are on. The world isn't interested, and if just the Jedi did it, it would only serve to be an unnecessary break down in communication.

Also, try to get all the Jedi to do anything at the same time.

It's like herding drunk, philosophical cats.

I don't feel any particular significance when I write "2016" down as part of the date. It doesn't carry with it a meaning of "the two-thousand sixteenth year of human life and civilization" or anything like that.

The year is a system of communication more than it as an acknowledgement of the existence of the universe. It's why people who aren't Jews (and plenty of people who are) have a hard time figuring out when Jewish holidays are--the greater part of the world uses the Gregorian calendar, so when you're converting over from a lunar calendar the dates are all over the place.

Using a different calendar system than the greater part of the world would just be confusing. At best, it would give you an opportunity to acknowledge just how old things really are. But even that effect would quickly dissipate and it would just be another collection of numbers you write down sometimes.

And don't even get me started on having to recalculate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, appointments...

Huh? I thought we already had a new one , i am in year 39 now

edit : and 50 on my Trekkie calender :laugh:

I am reminded of our recalcitrance here in the US to convert to the metric system, used by almost all the other nations of the world. Imagine a new calendar system not used anywhere yet.

And this?

rugadd wrote: Also, try to get all the Jedi to do anything at the same time.

It's like herding drunk, philosophical cats.

Points.

I don't really see a need for a different calendar. I have enough difficulty converting UTC when trying to attend Temple functions. :laugh:

We should switch to Swatch Internet Time , because it is obviously THE FUTURE now and THE FUTURE calls for a new method of telling time.

(For dates, ISO 8601 reigns supreme.)

Practically, I have to say No. There is nothing to be gained by such a change. Our current system measures our moon's orbit of us, our orbit of the sun, and our planetary rotation. It is very useful, that's why it hasn't been replaced.

Additionally, why would it be our Sun? Why our galaxy or local group or Virgo or Laniakea? It seems arbitrary to assign our galactic center as a basis. The Universe is much much larger and that is what we supposed to be honoring no? Just wondering how you came to the galactic center is all.

In the future, if we ever establish settlements outside of the solar system we will probably have to a different system, but it would probably be based on something observable of long distances and short periods, like quasars, atomic decay, or entangled particles or whatever. How knows.

r3dleader wrote: Practically, I have to say No. There is nothing to be gained by such a change.

'if it aint broke, dont fix it.' that said, once humans have colonized other planets, then we can talk.

MartaLina wrote: Huh? I thought we already had a new one , i am in year 39 now

Mic drop :lol:

Epoch Alderaan Time - EAT :dry:



But seriously this is something of interest to me. Ms Adder strangely expressed a desire to learn astrology of all things recently, and so we are planning on doing a course in it in a year or 2..... and I love astronomy and space stuff, plus there is lots of different calendars used by different cultures like Chinese, Tibetan, Indian, Islamic cultures. And while I don't think we'd ever need our own one, it would be good if it were aligned to movement of the Moon and planets. I'm not sure if we'd need to go beyond our own system though. But if we could travel beyond our system to other systems, then I guess an argument could be raised for some 'universal universe time'!!! What about other standards, what is a foot or metre, and why use them - or what else!