When I went to school I learned that I was born in 1945 AD. "AD" stood for "Anno Domini" which is Latin for "year of our Lord." In other words, I was born 1,944 years after the supposed birth of Jesus.

Later I learned that Caesar invaded Britain for the first time in 55 BC where "BC" was an acronym for "Before Christ."

Some time during the 1980s the use of AD and BC was deemed politically incorrect. This is the year 2007 CE (Current Era). We in the West still regard the birth of Jesus as heralding in the "current era."

Jews and Muslims both dissent. In the Hebrew calendar this is the year 5767 being 5,767 years since the creation of the world. For Jews the "current era" started with the Biblical date for the creation of the world.

For Muslims this is 1428 AH. "AH" stands for "Anno Hegeira" or "Years of the Hegeira." Hegeira is a Latinised form of the Arabic word hijra meaning "immigration." In the year 1 AH, corresponding to 622 CE, Muhammed fled Mecca for Medina. It is this event that ushers in the "current era" for Muslims.

Which current era should we adopt? Given the growing power of Islam perhaps we should switch to the Muslim calendar. We could argue that this is year 1428 ME (Muslim Era.)

I would like to offer two better candidates from which to measure the current era. The first is the year Galileo invented the astronomical telescope. I'm hard put to think of anything that has changed our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it more than the telescope. By that reckoning this 398 TE (Telescope Era).

Another possible starting point is the publication of Darwin's "The Origin of the Species" which revolutionised our understanding of our place in nature. This would then be year 148 DE (Darwinian Era)

Anyone else got any candidates for the start of the current era.

Oops.

Heading should be:

What defines the current era?

Actually, historical research indicates that Jesus was born around 4BC: otherwise he could not have encountered Herod who died in that year.

Curiously enough, whilst stopped at lights today I was gazing into the rear vision mirror and musing on whether it was in fact the past I was looking at(seeing as how I was looking at where I had been). Fortunately for me, my Inti-mate set me straight in no time flat by a) informing me that the light was now green, and b)explaining that a mirror is not a portal.....
AA130-years since the first Ashes test
AB-years since whatever it is that came B-fore
AC96-years since widewpread electricity systems
AD44-years since Bob Dylans first recording
AEIOU1744-years since the 5 vowels were first mined
AF44- years since the future arrived with.....etc

This is also the year 43 SMWTGF (Since Melbourne Won The Grand Final)

I'm not sure you guys are taking this seriously.

All the date systems that exist are religious in nature.

So it follows that if we need a new system, the only valid suggestion so far is 43 SMWTGF

actually, we are in the era of homo sapiens dominance, which began about 150,000 years ago, when eve first said: "not tonight, i've got a headache".

Pericles

The problem with SMWTGF is that we have to reset the date every time Melbourne wins.

Come to think of it, is that really a problem?

DEMOS

Maybe we should call this year 13,600,000,000 ABB (After Big Bang)

If I recall, it was last year that they arrived at the conclusion that the Big Bang was 13.6 billion years ago.

So this year must be 13,600,000,001 ABB

Naturally, our calender must start from Sept. 1966. That, of course, is the time when Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" first premiered.
So, I guess that puts us at 40 GR.

But Aime shouldn't we rather call this:

Stardate -300 . (give or take a few star years)

Pericles,

I stand corrected.

The advantage of ABB is that, for practical purposes, there is no BBB.

I must admit I was surprised to find an interesting topic so full of irrelavent comments. Is that what defines the present era? lack of meaningful content or is there something really inspirational in politics, sport or life that should be the centre of the collective intelligence of the people that frequent this forum.

Can I suggest several 'era defining' headliners.

In world politics - The lack of respect of national leaders for the value of human life.

In Australian politics - The ongoing power of perception and the liklihood that it will bring Australia undone once more

I think what can be learned by this is that the point from which we measure the date is so arbitrary. The fact currently the norm is to measure it from the birth of a profit named Jesus believed to be the son of god by christians is a quaint reminder of the past. Two millennia ago there was a profit with followers that got became quite popular.

The length of a year is one orbit of the sun, one day is one rotation of the earth, these are entirely reasonable and scientific. I don't know how months work so maybe these need changing too. The big bang is the ideal reference point since as far as we know it was the beginning of time. The problem with a number of this magnitude is it's cumbersome and most of the years of existence were uneventful from the perspective of human history.

It would be nice to have a scientific measure like Celsius being the formed having 0 and 100 being state change temperature of pure water at sea level; fitting in nicely with our decimal numbering system.

The reasoning for changing is that our dating system is dependent one of many religions which is entirely fair. Realistically converting from one system to another is difficult and should only be done when the need arises. If you can remember the near crisis situation of the Y2K bug. Changing all the banks and other businesses to another date system could potentially be catastrophic, all in the name of a more tasteful dating system.

I have no problems with your reasoning however i think it's unneeded risk for little reward. I will say that it would be nice to have one universal system for all units of measure. Convert those backward Americans from their imperial measures; measuring space travel in feet is primitive and beyond all reason in my opinion. If this were done i would say it would be worth including a change in our date system.

-Petroz

come to think of it, the hiroshima explosion is better than eve's headache.

that was when the world was confronted with the possibility that mankind's destructive power surpassed nature's power to restore.

What will define the current era? In my opinion, the decline and eventual death of the Western world (Australia included).

"Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century. And much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries.. We are living through a remarkable period: the self-extinction of the races who, for good or ill, shaped the modern world." - Canadian author Mark Steyn

If Asia is the world's new economic powerhouse and demography is destiny, then the West is finished. Western people are a global minority. There are more citizens of either India and China than all the people of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand put together. There are as many people in Bangladesh and Pakistan together as in the US. Moreover, below replacement fertility rates combined with mass immigration from non-Western countries is already having a gradual neutron bomb effect.

It is the end of our civilisation that will define our lifetimes.