Re Standard Chronolgy

Stephen, thank you for the lead regarding the Swatch beat system. So is this new trend, to establish a standardized world time that is hipper for the kids than GMT?

I recently read Arthur C. Clark's 3001, and there it is mentioned that the world, indeed the solar system by that point, had adopted GMT.

It's funny that technologies that reduce the concept of distance in an abstract way have these effects - standardized time zones emerged out of the rail systems in the 19th Century, and the need to schedule trips. And now the internet introduces the desire to have a standardized world time, so that we can tell when a message was sent from anywhere in the world.

But this is beside the point I wanted to make, that our calendars diverge the farther we go into the past. One of the things I find strange about Clark's novel is the idea that Christian chronology will survive another 1000 years! By then, with all of the cultural harmonization that is occurring because of things like the net, I can't imagine they'd continue to rely on this chronological system.

I cannot deny that people feel attached to this system. I am fond of it myself, and can't imagine using anything else in my daily life, but when it comes to historical research, to reading history, I hate BC. It cuts us off from a line of events in an unnatural way. I simply would like it if historians, anthropologists, and sociologists could get together and figure out a new system to date historical events with that eliminates BC. I agree with what Colin said, and I support his suggestion regarding the creation of a "separate listserv dedicated to analyzing alternative proposals".

What I'm proposing is rather simple isn't it? Just find a day in the past which academics can use as a starting point for an international chronology, that incorporates ancient history in a positive, rather than negative, scale of values. There is a time before civilization, and perhaps this pre-history belongs in a negative scale for simple psychological value, and to keep our date numbers low (no point in adopting a system where we'd have to write 13 Feb 6,987,089,976).

What's the farthest back that we can date with accuracy?