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Elaboration 13.1
Just as it is almost impossible to read the time from a model, an
analog, that runs twice as fast, is it almost impossible to make a
working model of the earth's revolution when there are two different
parts of the earth, one part has it Monday, the other part has it
Tuesday. What waste of energy and effort is this, all over the
world! Let H. K. Oram speak: "A fortnight after leaving harbour we
crossed the International (!!!!) Date Line. Throughout our voyage
from west to east round the world the ship's clocks had been put
forward day by day and now, on reaching 180 degrees East longitude,
we had to adjust by adding an extra day to our calendar. This, of
course, was normal practice when making easting across the Pacific".
('Ready for Sea', Future books, 1974) This was in the last days of
sail and one would expect for the days of nuclear bombs, we could do
better. We could keep the hands off the clocks and calendars, just
as we keep away from the standard meter or kilogram. Where are we
when we have to change our standard when traveling? Even in 1940, it
was possible to have a powerful transmitter on roughly zero longit.
-latit. bleeping away happily the world-time, 24 hours a day.
Because time determination is calendar and clock, why not have BOTH
in one system like 1985. 08. 09. 03. 20., etc. Why, there is a huge
university computer that informs the operator of the time of day AND
of the time of year. Due to normal stupidity, unfortunately, the
system (structure, organization) is somewhat lost. The h, min, sec,
first, followed by month (!), day, year. What intelligence! With a
little organization we need not print and calculate new calendars
every year. Without date line then, it would be easy to compile a
table of sunrise-sunset for all longitudes per latitude. Longitude
calculation, then, would be as easy as latitude calculation, nay,
even less so, because we would not need a sextant. Shooting the sun
at midday, and looking at the sun at set or rise would give one the
longitude and latitude. Of course we should incalculate the
deviations for north and south for the calendar days. In this way we
could easily check our compass needle. (On all latitudes the sun
sets or rises pure east and west, only on two days per year
(equinoxes) for the rest, dependable on the latitude, the positions
move north or south every day.) Indeed, today, we have navigation
satellites that enable us to just read off the position by the push
of a button, but ... the stupid date-line still remains. What
stupidity, in science-fictional language, would be revealed to an
alien being who gets hold of a digital watch (blown into space from
an exploded capsule) ? He, she, it, would study it, watch it (after
all it is a watch), and observe soon that the most active window
(the seconds) is on a decimal basis. But the next one, the
deca-seconds, uses the same symbols: 0,1,2, etc. but only up to 5,
i.e. a six digital system. Then, 'its madness but there's method
in't', the following again is on a ten digital system followed by a
six digital one. The next then, the single hours, is very peculiar.
It moves twice in a row according to a decimal system, 10 digits,
follows it with a 4 digital spell after which the 10 digital
resumes, etc. The very first one, then, uses only a 3 digital
system. They would wonder why a range of six windows, capable of
counting 999,999 bits, (11 days in seconds) is used to count only up
to 86,400, less than 10 %. The reader might think (wrongly) that
they would soon hit on a 60 digital system. No way. First, when
using such a system, one uses 60 symbols, a sort of improved
alphabet. Secondly, the very first pair does not fit (as 24 digital)
in a 60 digit system. The 24 is not even a whole part of 60, is less
than a half, more than one quarter. With a 60 digital system, only 3
windows would be sufficient to count more than twice the 86,400. Six
of them would count more than 46 billion, i.e. 9 times the earth's
population, or 500,000 days in seconds, 1400 years. Suppose now,
that these aliens would push a button which gives them the calendar.
They would become 'really' betwattled by this. The use of a twelve
digital system, it is true, would be an improvement over a decimal
one, (though they themselves would use a 16-digit system, this
being, like our compass-rose, excellently convertible into the
scientific binary one), but why use three different digits (28 days,
30, and 31) none of which dividable by 12 and in obviously a random
order? They would be familiar with the leap-year though since it is
to be expected that the seasons do not fit in a whole and useful
number. But why not having all months the same, and put
'intercalaries' in, like the Egyptians used to do (Herodotus) ? They
would not be able to see that our new years do NOT start at all at
significant points in the seasons, solstices, equinoxes, but at a
random point after such a solstice. We certainly would soon be the
laughing stock of the galaxy. They would come crowding over here in
their UFO's to see how stupid we are. They would find that it
surpasses their most exorbitant expectations. All this from alphabet
and geometry, via self-preservation up till the very governmenting
and rights & duties of man.
Next: Elaboration 14
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Ven
2007-09-11