On 29 October 2010 03:00, Marshall Eubanks <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Oct 28, 2010, at 9:30 AM, jimlux wrote: > >> Steve Rooke wrote: >>> One thing we should bear in mind that our tombstone timestamp should >>> have things like the timezone, and calendar in use, references, such >>> that future people can determine the exact point in time of our death. >>> In fact, basing the timestamp on some true reference point would >>> better than about 2000 years after some event happened on earth as >>> archaeologists from other words coming to the Earth in the future >>> would be left to figure out this arbitrary time event. I would propose >>> that we relate the year portion (which is the LSB and most important) >>> to some celestial event thereby making it possible to document this >>> easily for future life-forms to determine. The whole year/date thing >>> really should be made secular as there is no place for religion in the >>> governance of society. >>> Steve >> >> >> Is this not the same problem we all face when specifying an absolute time? >> Is it TAI? GPS? UTC? etc. >> >> And, then, if you are moving, the local time offsettime relative to some >> reference might be different at different times. >> >> I think this is a sort of relativity question, isn't it? That is, you just >> have to pick some place/time, and reference everything else to that. So >> which astronomical event do you want use as your reference (e.g. a T=0 >> epoch)and is it sufficiently well determined that you can figure it out >> later? It's all well and good, for instance, to use noon on January 1st, >> 1900 or something as your time zero, but that's hardly a universally >> available reference point. > > Pulsar timing. List 20 or so millisecond pulsars with their current period > (don't forget to include information on the definition of the second!) and > their spin down rate, and you should be able to time things for some millions > of years (to some level). This was the technique used in the Voyager Golden > Record, except we didn't know about millisecond pulsars back then. > > I would also include the spin axis offsets and rotational period of the Earth > and Mars, which would also be useful and would make future > geophysicists happy.
Or how about the alignment of a large number of the planets/sun/moon that would only occur once in a blue moon but has occurred at some point in the, hopefully, near lifetime of this planet. It would then be possible to depict this event symbolically on the tombstone. Steve > Regards > Marshall > > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Steve Rooke - ZL3TUV & G8KVD The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. - Einstein _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
