psychoceramics: FWD [Ron Bijok: Befre Now]

[Peter Hipwell <petehip @ cogsci.ed.ac.uk>]

I just found this lying in my mailbox. I have absolutely no idea why
it was sent to me, but I thought you might like a peek.

I haven't checked out the website yet.

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> From d--@s--.bc.ca Sun Jan 19 00:55:18 1997
> Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 16:57:21 -0800
> From: Ron Bijok <d--@s--.bc.ca>
> Organization: Division Zero
> X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> To: p--@c--.ed.ac.uk
> Subject: Befre Now
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Status: RO
> 
> On replacing the Julian calendar.
> 
> I am amused by the Extropist suggection that it was time to replace the
> archoiaic Julian calandar for something a litlle more progresssive.  But
> I found the suggestion to supplant the birth of Jesus with a more
> Extropicaly correct refferent (Galileo, etc.) to byso a remarabaly
> myopic solution to a well-stated problem.  I was puzxzled by the similar
> qu4estions about the implication of our culturally based notions of
> calandar nad tyhe inherent baises and cconceptual blinders it emb0odies 
> while in high school some twenty ytears ago.  
> 
> My problem at the time was the noted difference between our individual
> nad separate existences in space - generic to the notoion of individual,
> compared to the univeraal acceptance of absolute time zonces.  Though we
> each exist in individual time zones, we share our time frames.  The fact
> that there are at least a couple dozen time zones and a variety of
> cuyltures which do not participate in the notions of time with which we
> take for granted doesw not undermine the observation tyhat we share our
> time frames with innumerable other souls.
> 
> My solution at the time was simple - divide the twenty four hours
> availablke to the day into not a couple dozen, but into millions,
> billions of individual time zones - enough, in fact, so that each of
> would live in a unique, personal time frame.  I envisioned myself ek=ing
> out a living by managing the company that would administer the
> allocation of the zones for the billions of individuals to which they
> would apply.  But high school ended and I shelved the idea in favour of
> more important thimngs.  The only tangible effect was that I reset my
> watch back half an hour, encouraged my friends to do the same (tto a
> different zone of course) and for a year or so actually put my notions
> of tome into practice.
> 
> But returning to the immediate problem put forth by Extropic thought, I
> would like to propose a solution that at once addresse sthe concern of
> those upset by ethnocentric Julianism, elides the problems generated by
> the comventional? Extroopic suggestions, and adiitionally depends on
> technology that is only now becoming universally available enough to
> make the solution feasible.  The idea, once again, is simple — the
> refferent baseline becomes now.  It is now always 0:00:00 on the firstr
> of (fill in the blank). 
> 
> Of course, such a redefinition is not without consquense.  Firstly,
> historical dates are no longer fixed, but refer, of course, to now. 
> Jesus was born in BN.1994, almost 2000 years ago.  World War II came to
> a close in BN.49 years ago.  I left the house thius morning at 3:00:00,
> or three hours ago.  The result is a radically new (literal)
> perspefctive on history.  Just what such changes would mean would feul
> many debates.  
> 
> Secondly, since historical dates are no longer static, and are
> incountinual flux as now moves forward, history itself must now be
> maintained.  Every date becomes a clock, measuring its distance to
> today.  Difficult to implement in paper media, but a breeze in any
> electronic format.
> 
> Abd thirdly, such a conceptual shift does not conflict, at least in
> princial, though it does complicate matters, with my naive high school
> notion of allocating unique time zones to each individual.  Everyone
> could be assigned a unique random number between one and , say, 50
> million. That would then become a personal reference.  Of course there
> exists the danger that a kind of chono-elitism would arise, with those
> possessing lower baselinbe refferents being envied by those further douw
> the line.
> 
> Copyright, 1994 by Ron Bijok (+/- 2.5 yrs BN)
> 
> See http://www.islandnet.com/~agold/bn/
> 
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