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.