Personally, if I were to go after a new "universal" measure of length (and time) to avoid being classified as "an Earthist bigot". I'd set the fundamental length either as the Planck length, 1.61619926 × 10-35 meters, or to the wavelength of "Hydrogen light", which is about 21 centimeters. Of course, the basic unit of time would then be how long it would take light, in a vacuum, to travel that distance. The 21 cm measure seems more practical for every day use on Earth. Of course, we'd need some reasonable "mega multiple" for measuring distances in space. Of course, given the recent quantum revelation that time is a emergent effect of quantum entanglement, this definition may later need revision. ref: https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/d5d3dc850933 Curiously time only exists when viewing our Universe from the "inside". When viewed from the "outside", time does not exist and the Universe is "static and unchanging". My head now hurts.
I also vote for changing from the junky decimal system to hexadecimal. Binary is actually "fundamental", but it would be "too cumbersome" for real use. Base 16 is very good for humans because 16 == 2^4 and we have four fingers (and a thumb). I actually sometimes count in hex using my fingers with values of pinky==1, ring==2, middle=4, and index==8. Seems to me that using hex (or maybe octal for the "finger impared") would be more likely recognized by a an alien sophont. Along with the 21 cm measure. On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Baron Carter <[email protected]>wrote: > meter or metre (m)the metric and SI base unit of distance. Originally, the > meter was designed to be one ten-millionth of a quadrant, the distance > between the Equator and the North Pole. (The Earth is difficult to measure, > and a small error was made in correcting for the flattening caused by the > Earth's rotation. As a result, the meter is too short by a bit less than > 0.02%. That's not bad for a measurement made in the 1790's.) For a long > time, the meter was precisely defined as the length of an actual object, a > bar kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris. In > recent years, however, the SI base units (with one exception) have been > redefined in abstract terms so they can be reproduced to any desired level > of accuracy in a well-equipped laboratory. The 17th General Conference on > Weights and Measures in 1983 defined the meter as that distance that makes > the speed of light in a vacuum equal to exactly 299 792 458 meters per > second. The speed of light in a ! > vacuum, c, is one of the fundamental constants of nature. Since c defines > the meter now, experiments made to measure the speed of light are now > interpreted as measurements of the meter instead. The meter is equal to > approximately 1.093 613 3 yards, 3.280 840 feet, or 39.370 079 inches. Its > name comes from the Latin metrum and the Greek metron, both meaning > "measure." > > http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html > > > Baron Carter > Austin, TX > >
