• @[email protected]
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    686 months ago

    This is based on a cool, but ultimately incorrect historical theory called “phantom time.” The general premise being that European history (and world history) was mostly fabricated as propaganda by royalty. It wouldn’t be so crazy except, a) archeology exist and validates certain medieval records and b) non European Nations exist, and record their own interactions with Western Nations.

    • Flying SquidOP
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      336 months ago

      Right. And even leaving radiocarbon dating aside, you can’t really cheat dendrochronology unless you make a gargantuan effort with the specific point of doing so.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology

      Any piece of wood can potentially be dated if it is large enough. Pieces of wood like roof beams in buildings.

  • SSTF
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    526 months ago

    The Gregorian calendar didn’t go into effect until 1582. Because it’s a modification of the Julian calender. Which replaced the Roman calender.

    Almost like there’s a continuity or something.

    • athos77
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      166 months ago

      The Gregorian calendar didn’t go into effect until 1582.

      And 1583. And 1589. And 1587 and 1610 and 1700. And also 1752, 1873/74, 1916, 1918, 1923, and 1926/27.

    • @TexasDrunk
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      176 months ago

      Until we invented it everything was happening at once. It was chaos!

        • @stoly
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          26 months ago

          look at the username and this context

    • mechoman444
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      16 months ago

      Time is the curvature of space or the 4th dimension or both.

      The way humans keep track of future events is indeed made up but is also grounded in celestial movements of the sun moon and earth.

  • @whotookkarl
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    336 months ago

    Easy, it’s 1715894564 after Jan 1 1970 00:00:00.

      • @[email protected]
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        36 months ago

        Out of curiosity, is there a “time limit” for this epoch value, or can it go on indefinitely?

        • @[email protected]
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          216 months ago

          Sort of. There’s one coming up in 2038 where the number overflows a signed 32 bit integer. Anything using 32 bits for timestamps is going to get a wee bit confused.

          This should be the last time that happens though as a 64 bit signed int can carry us to something like the year 290 billion

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          You count up 1 second for each second from midnight on Jan 1st, 1970. The Unix epoch.

          It can go on as long as we go on counting. Interestingly, it does ignore leap seconds.

      • @Sorgan71
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        26 months ago

        Guys, I fucked up, its actually 1716002297. Apologies for the inconvenience

  • Cyrus Draegur
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    6 months ago

    it has been approximately 12000 years since our ancestors constructed what are now the ruins at Gobekli Tepe. But saying it’s been exactly 12,000 years would be silly, so let’s toss in some variation and call it the present 12,024 years since then. I like this because it puts the history we presently call “ancient” into perspective. By this measure, the bronze age began around the year 6,800 and its collapse happened around the year 8,800. Two thousand years, our species toiled at working bronze. Yes, a lot of explosive progress (some of it literal) happened in the 11,900s, but it took us over eleven thousand years to get there in the first place. We’re really not so far from the 11,500s when we were just getting used to connecting the whole globe with transoceanic trade. It seriously stunts our achievements to write off everything that happened prior to year 10,000 as if it were irrelevant.

    • @grue
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      116 months ago

      And humanity existed for hundreds of thousands of years before that.

      • Cyrus Draegur
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        126 months ago

        oh yes! Anatomically modern humans have been around for like 200,000 years before we developed agriculture and started to develop permanent settlements!

        • @[email protected]
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          66 months ago

          I think the number is 600,000 years for how long we’ve been around in total.

          I completely agree with you. If you actually think about it seriously our history as a species is amazing. Things like the discovery channel with the “Aliens” guy piss me off. It’s a fundamental disrespect of what real people have done, and what we’re capable of.

          The long ramp up to what we have right now today is fascinating. No other animal has ever done anything like we have. From loin clothes to fire to farming is mind blowing. Hell, just one of those things is already way past every other species to ever live.

          • @[email protected]
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            26 months ago

            They kinda seem like jerks. My 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘰s tended to get along best in groups of a dozen dozen, enjoyed gossip, killing Neanderthals, and their fave: magical thinking.

    • Flying SquidOP
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      86 months ago

      Why Gobekli Tepe? Karahan Tepe is likely significantly older. We may find something older still.

      • @AWistfulNihilist
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        76 months ago

        Just the fact that we’ve pushed back the point where early hominids were controlling and cooking with fire to some 2 million years in the past. Burying dead to 250,000 years.

        I’m totally willing to believe there are much earlier signs of what we would call complex societal behavior like those temples and the infrastructure required to build them. We’re just going to get better at detecting and dating it as time passes imo.

        It’s sad that we will likely never know why they did any of this stuff. It’s probably all very familiar to us even now, but wouldn’t it be fascinating to know how far back our “modern” behaviors go.

  • @OutsizedWalrus
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    196 months ago

    The reality is that it doesn’t matter. It’s all arbitrary.

    What matters is we all agree on it.

    • @BoxerDevil
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      26 months ago

      But we don’t all agree. I can think 3 different year systems that are still used today in other countries

  • @reattach
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    106 months ago

    My son struggled with the similar concept of daylight saving time this year.

    He’s 6 though - I’m sure he’ll grow out it by the time he’s on Twitter.

  • @[email protected]
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    6 months ago

    I could actually get behind this conspiracy theory if it wasn’t so easily debunked. Think about it, wouldn’t it be beneficial for some rulers to pretend that the glorious battle victory everyone has heard about happened relatively recently, as opposed to centuries ago?

    • @Starbuck
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      26 months ago

      There’s also a fun “lost time” theory were they rearrange Egyptian history to better align with the Bible. Interesting read on Wikipedia until you get to the debunking.

  • mechoman444
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    86 months ago

    It’s amazing how many people don’t know what time is and think it’s something that’s kept track of on a man made calendar.

  • @[email protected]
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    56 months ago

    It’s only a surprising observation if you never thought about the not so distant past, when each town had its own time. Even now, if you spend a week or a month hiking or living off the grid out in nature, although your watch or cell phone might have a clock on it, you learn quite soon that what really matters is when the sun goes up and goes down.

  • @profdc9
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    46 months ago

    I thought the calendar was based on the event when Xenu exploded all of the body thetans on volcanoes with hydrogen bombs.

  • burgermeister
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    6 months ago

    Jimmy is insane. Still waiting for his video on semen retention though.

  • @Mostly_Harmless_Variant
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    26 months ago

    TIL I don’t have to involve religion with timekepeping. How have I not heard BCE and CE before (or more probably how did I forget hearing it)?

    • @stoly
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      46 months ago

      You have to study history at a university to see it for the most part. I’m talking into classes here. It’s probably getting out there now though.

    • Ricky Rigatoni
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      26 months ago

      Sniff for the smell of the subway. That is near the entrance and your freedom.