Re:The 10,000 Year Clock
by kijin on Monday January 22, 2018 @11:47PM
(#16211077)
Is there broad consensus on exactly when the Holocene Era began?
The best that I can tell is "approximately 11700 years before 1950", which means we're approximately in the year 11768. But approximate years are not enough for people who actually need to type them into calendar apps.
It doesn't even have to be measured from any real event as long as everyone is on the same page. Jesus wasn't born on December 25, 1 AD, either; but nobody cares.
Re:The 10,000 Year Clock
by coldacid on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @08:17AM
(#16213311)
That's why the epoch was arbitrarily set at 10,000 years before the BC/AD epoch. A rough approximation that lines up with the current calendar works a lot better for everyone than a more accurate approximation.
The best that I can tell is "approximately 11700 years before 1950", which means we're approximately in the year 11768. But approximate years are not enough for people who actually need to type them into calendar apps.
It doesn't even have to be measured from any real event as long as everyone is on the same page. Jesus wasn't born on December 25, 1 AD, either; but nobody cares.