Editing 1340: Unique Date
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | In this comic [[Cueball]] | + | In this comic [[Cueball]] is excited about the current date and he states this date (the date the comic was released) as 2014-03-10, with the year first, then the month, then the day of the month. This follows the international standard as defined in the {{W|ISO 8601}} standard. He then continues to point out, to [[Megan]] and another Cueball that this date will never happen again. |
− | The | + | The {{W|Gregorian calendar}} is the current way to count time in years, months and days. Since time moves only forward,{{Citation needed}} dates will never repeat. Every date is thus equally unique, even when the digits aren't in a pattern. |
− | + | Many people do, however, make a big deal about dates when the digits follow an interesting pattern, such as 2000-01-01 or 2012-12-12. They might plan special events on these "unique" days. For instance, [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/08/nation/na-weddings8 2007-07-07] was considered a "lucky" day and had a record number of weddings. This is because humans, in general, are superstitious{{Citation needed}} and like (and recognize) patterns in everyday life, also including patterns in the numbers used for stating dates. But this does not make these dates more unique than any other dates. | |
− | + | Nevertheless, Cueball has made it into [[:Category:My Hobby|his hobby]] to point this daily uniqueness out, and having to listen to him, stating this fact every day, would be incredibly annoying to his friends. | |
− | The title text refers to the {{ | + | The title text refers to the {{W|Long Now Foundation}}, who uses [http://blog.longnow.org/02013/12/31/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ five-digit years] (e.g. this comic's date would be written "02014-03-10"). This is an effort to encourage people to think in terms of long-term benefits, rather than only the coming years or decades. The {{w|Y2K problem}} was due to using only two digits to store the year, which would have made dates ambiguous when it rolled from 99 back to 00. Similarly, the {{w|Maya calendar}} had a repeating cycle of 52 years, and even their "long count" rolled over after 7885 years. As we currently use four-digit years this may cause a {{w|Year 10,000 problem|Y10K problem}}. |
The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle, it could display every date up to 9999-12-31. 8000 years from the date of the comic would be 10014 AD — [[Randall]] jokes that by switching to 5-digit years, we'd prove the Long Now Foundation correct, although of course by this point there would be no other way to show years except by rebooting the calendar. | The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle, it could display every date up to 9999-12-31. 8000 years from the date of the comic would be 10014 AD — [[Randall]] jokes that by switching to 5-digit years, we'd prove the Long Now Foundation correct, although of course by this point there would be no other way to show years except by rebooting the calendar. |