story Story, Monday July 23, 2018

[The Old Hack 2,448]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Why not?  Creating a calendar is actually pretty easy.

Yes, it is dead simple. All you need is something to write with, write on and THE INVENTION OF ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS AND SOME FORM OF WRITING.

...right. I know whom I am talking to. I am just saying that you of all people ought to have a little respect for how much damn effort it took to come up with the first one. *muttermuttergrumble*

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

Yes, it is dead simple. All you need is something to write with, write on and THE INVENTION OF ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS AND SOME FORM OF WRITING.

You don't actually need most of that.  You can make a calendar with little more than counting.  The other stuff just makes it more likely to be used by other people.

Or were you specifically talking about calendars that would be useful to people who must do things in the real world?

Well then yes, that is rather difficult.  For that, find a culture that already made a pretty good calendar.  Then find out the mistakes in that calendar.  Then let your own astrologers and accountants play with the numbers.  Next, change the names.   Then use your military to force everyone you can to use your new calendar.

[hkmaly 490]

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... I don't think Dan is the type of author who would try to create his own calendar.

He kinda did get int that position though when he put dates to moments in comic and people were able to match them with 2002's calendar year.

2002, 2013 and 2019 have same dates. Like, all have March 29th.

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

2 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Yes, it is dead simple. All you need is something to write with, write on and THE INVENTION OF ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS AND SOME FORM OF WRITING.

You don't actually need most of that.  You can make a calendar with little more than counting.  The other stuff just makes it more likely to be used by other people.

Or were you specifically talking about calendars that would be useful to people who must do things in the real world?

Well then yes, that is rather difficult.  For that, find a culture that already made a pretty good calendar.  Then find out the mistakes in that calendar.  Then let your own astrologers and accountants play with the numbers.  Next, change the names.   Then use your military to force everyone you can to use your new calendar.

Based on experience, the chance of multiple people agreeing on calendar not based on astronomy is minimal.

But hey, is easy with astronomy, right? You just makes months start every full moon, then after the correct number of them declare new year ... hey, wait, why is the solstice several days later every year?

There are authors who consider this fun. Not Dan. Dan prefers playing with magic and relationships.

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Well then yes, that is rather difficult.  For that, find a culture that already made a pretty good calendar.  Then find out the mistakes in that calendar.  Then let your own astrologers and accountants play with the numbers.  Next, change the names.   Then use your military to force everyone you can to use your new calendar.

The one important part that I can't believe you omitted is that it also has to correctly predict when the Nile floods. Farmers resent having crocodiles all over their harvest.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

14 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

it also has to correctly predict when the Nile floods

That was important, at one time.

But then Rasputin insisted that we should be able to predict floods on the Nile and explosions on the Tunguska river with the same calendar.
Things fell apart after that.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

But then Rasputin insisted that we should be able to predict floods on the Nile and explosions on the Tunguska river with the same calendar.
Things fell apart after that.

It was still a damned good try. And to be fair, not a single Tunguska meteorite fell on the Nile in all the time you used that calendar.

[Scotty 1,061]

44 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

2002, 2013 and 2019 have same dates. Like, all have March 29th.

Like I said before, Dan would prefer the comic to take place before The Force Awakens was released, so 2013 would be the best fit, and we're talking about February 29th which if Dan mentions it in Comic then of course this current comic year would no longer match up with 2014, but Alternate Reality logic could still allow it.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

Like I said before, Dan would prefer the comic to take place before The Force Awakens was released, so 2013 would be the best fit, and we're talking about February 29th which if Dan mentions it in Comic then of course this current comic year would no longer match up with 2014, but Alternate Reality logic could still allow it.

Look, the comic was released in 20XX, where XX represents a number between the minus square root of pi and E=MC².

[hkmaly 490]

14 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

17 hours ago, Scotty said:

Like I said before, Dan would prefer the comic to take place before The Force Awakens was released, so 2013 would be the best fit, and we're talking about February 29th which if Dan mentions it in Comic then of course this current comic year would no longer match up with 2014, but Alternate Reality logic could still allow it.

Look, the comic was released in 20XX, where XX represents a number between the minus square root of pi and E=MC².

Is e^iπ involved?

[hkmaly 490]

On 7/27/2018 at 0:34 AM, Scotty said:

Well Dan did say that while the comic would possibly take place sometime after Star Trek 2009, but before The Force Awakens, if there was a point where a date doesn't match up, like February 29th happening in 2014, then "alternate universe" logic could be applied.

BTW, do you know WHERE he said it? Like, reference?

[Scotty 1,061]

33 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

BTW, do you know WHERE he said it? Like, reference?

I had posted it in the "word of Dan discussion"  thread back when he first tweeted it, but here is it:

So yeah, before The Force Awakens, but after 2009 Star Trek, and "different universe" to explain why their calendar might no longer match up with ours.

You mentioned 2019 as a possible year as well, of course, that's well outside Dan's parameters there, but one possible in canon explanation would be that The Force Awakens doesn't release in theaters until much later. The thing that would make this possible is if Dan makes the current comic year a leap year which is what 2020 is, if it's not a leap year than 2014 is more likely, but then 2014 could still work as a leap year if the EGS universe developed their calendar slightly different and their leap years are 2 years out of alignment with ours.

Forgot there was this bit added as well:

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Look, the comic took place in the year of the phone revolution. That is to say, the year where most everyone still used land lines early in the year, then started to carry early cell phones with expensive plans, then went to smartphones mere months later. That should be easy to pinpoint.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Theories about cosmic inflation usually are referring to space.

I suppose they could apply to time as well.

[hkmaly 490]

59 minutes ago, Scotty said:

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

BTW, do you know WHERE he said it? Like, reference?

I had posted it in the "word of Dan discussion"  thread back when he first tweeted it, but here is it:

I guess I should look there sometimes and copy the stuff into wiki ... but frankly, there is LOT of stuff I should add to wiki and I definitely don't have time for everything.

(I've added this, however.)

36 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Look, the comic took place in the year of the phone revolution. That is to say, the year where most everyone still used land lines early in the year, then started to carry early cell phones with expensive plans, then went to smartphones mere months later. That should be easy to pinpoint.

That is already on wiki.