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View Full Version : Holocene Calendar - More appropriate, and more accurate?



Yazman
12th January 2008, 14:27
First of all, here's the link. I know some of you are rabidly anti-wikipedia and justifiably so in a science forum, but the article in question is actually well referenced and supported.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_calendar

Now onto my point:

I feel the BC/AD notion is both inaccurate, inappropriate, and obsolete. I have seen discussions on calendar reform on RL before and I believe many of the points were seen as either without merit or without purpose, this surprises me since many here are usually willing to challenge the status quo rather than agree with it.

However - this is a well-thought out system and dates from the old Gregorian calendar can be translated easily. Basically it puts the "start" of the calendar at a year 0 which would essentially denote the start of the Holocene epoch - in Gregorian dates this would be 10,000BC. The current year would be 12008HE (Holocene Epoch). Any dates before that can be referenced negatively using BHE, or "Before Holocene Epoch."

It makes things easier when recording and referencing human history as well. Since there is no longer a BC/AD boundary we can simply refer to World War 2 occurring in 11945HE, or Rome being built in 9248HE. It all occurs within the Holocene era and it makes things a lot easier for us. If you're translating from Gregorian, simply add 10,000 when talking about AD dates or subtracting the BC year from 10,001 and there you have it - HE dates.

This system does not actually require a re-organisation of months/days/weeks, nor does it require a metrication of seconds, minutes, or hours. It is just a change of the dating system used in years and it would make things a lot easier for science in general as well as introducing a dating system that does not have an origin in religion.

Thoughts?

Dimentio
12th January 2008, 14:51
I am critical. I think it is better to install a decimal system, for example from a start date.

Yazman
12th January 2008, 15:28
This is really more of a change to a dating system in regards to how we consider years.

It could easily be utilised in conjunction with a metrication of time, though.

Dimentio
12th January 2008, 15:37
Yep.

I think the Holocene calendar is as random as the Christian calendar.

I think we should start a new calendar.

Yazman
12th January 2008, 15:47
I fail to see how it is random, considering it's start is at a commonly accepted time in archaeology.

RedAnarchist
12th January 2008, 16:13
The Holocene one seems much better than the current one, IMO.

Dimentio
12th January 2008, 16:43
I fail to see how it is random, considering it's start is at a commonly accepted time in archaeology.

Because history did not start at one point, it was a gradual process of increasing awareness.

Yazman
13th January 2008, 11:23
Nobody said the start of the Holocene epoch was the start of history itself..