The base measurement of metric time is the second, and it functions much like liter or meter in the metric system.
1 Cycle is 1 second
1 Decacycle = 10 seconds
1 Hectocycle = 100 seconds, the 'minute' of the Cosmic Era. Outside of research and scientific circles, the term is almost never used, and the term minute is almost default. This does cause some confusion when dealing with things from the Petroleum Era given that there is a 40 second difference in the length of their respective minutes.
1 Kilocycle = 1000 seconds, or 10 CE minutes, or about 16.5 Petroleum Era minutes.
1 Megacycle = 1 million seconds, or 278 PE hours. This is not a very efficient method of telling time, as it forces people to either use a very large number of kiloseconds, or resort to telling time in decimals of megaseconds. Very mechanical, but people are not machines.
1 Gigacycle = 1 billion seconds, or 277,777 PE hours or 11,574 days, or just over 31 and a half years. A rather useless measurement of time.
Informal Measures:
The Hour. A relic of the minkukel base 60 time telling system, the hour divided a day into 24 sections, rather than 86 kiloseconds. Handy, that. The hour remains in casual use, but instead of 24 hours in a day, there are 10 metric hours in a day. Each hour is 8640 seconds long (Petrol: 144 minutes/hr) (Cosmic: 86 minutes/hr)
The Shift. Another relic of the petrol era, the shift represented a typical working period for an employed person, prior to mass automation and the advent of labor saving devices like polyforges and autons. Consisting of 28,800 seconds, a shift covers 8 PE hours, or 3.33 CE hours
The Calendar:
Following the metric system, the calendar was likewise adjusted down to 10 months to the year, with the year remaining tied to the orbit of the earth around the sun. Each month is 35 days long, with holidays being stand alone days and not counted as part of the week. Each month there is a minimum of one holiday, and the seasons are no longer recognized, partly from the environmental damage done by the Resource Wars (climate and biome destruction) and partly from humanity now living in the confines of megastructures. Outside of the Arco-cities, the older Petroleum Era calendar and time systems are still followed. Agricultural communities such as the neo-amish follow even older Lunar based calendars.
1. Monober
Sportsday - formerly Superbowl Sunday, Sportsday is the culmination of several major sports seasons, most prominently, football (international futbol).
2. Bitober
Romanceday - born from Valentines Day, Romanceday is a economic holiday around selling candy, jewelry, and is the high point of the sex and sex novelty industries.
3. Tritober
Ethnicday - Given the metro-cosmopolitan Cosmic Era, it was simply infeasible to celebrate every potential ethnic holiday, so they were amalgamated together into Ethnicday. Blending St. Patricks Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mardi Gras, and a variety of other holidays together created the mishmash of Ethnicday.
Brackets is a gambling holiday and tied to a variety of sportsball leagues, notably basketball, volleyball, tennis, and polo and its variations. It is similar to Sportsday, but less family oriented.
4. Quadrober
Easterday - A remnant religious holiday marked by giving candy, housewarming gifts, as well as being when pregnancies are announced (having been conceived on or near Romanceday).
Beachday - A secular holiday celebrating drinking, sexual relations, and going to the beach. Not family oriented.
5. Quintimber
Federationday - A secular patriotic holiday celebrating the founding of the Atlantic Federation, and the ideals it stands for.
6. Sextober
Soldierday - A secular military holiday celebrating the armed forces, those in active service, the retired veterans, and the deceased. Marked by military parades and demonstrations of new hardware and the veneration of cult of personality war heroes.
7. September
Explorerday - A secular holiday celebrating explorers and their accomplishments, ranging from Columbus through the Cosmic Era colonists and trailblazers settling other worlds.
8. October
Halloween - A quasi-religious quasi-secular holiday centered around candy, licensed costumes and franchises, and adult themed parties. Given the large latin population of the Federation, there is a strong Day of the Dead undercurrent to the Cosmic Era Halloween. More modern sensible people refer to it as Horrorday, rather than the archaic Halloween.
9. November
Cyberday - An entertainment holiday that is marked by the kick off of new media franchises, new game and MMO releases, as well as the Festival of Teasers for upcoming products for the next year.
Feastday - A secular holiday that combines the consumption of large amounts of food with remembrances of the previous age. Bloated with food, many contemplate the crude gluttony and greed of the Petroleum Era.
10. December
Blackfriday - An economic holiday kicking off the new product year, marked by large sales, and economic incentives for people to make large durable purchases.
Giftday - A relict religious holiday, a day where gifts are exchanged with friends and family, an important segment of the annual economy. It is the only double day holiday, with many people using the second day as a free vacation day to do with as they please. It is fairly common for this day to be a high usage day for CogNet simulators.
Days of the Week
Keeping with the widespread adaptation of the metric system, the seven day week has been disposed of. In it's place is the tenday, the metric week of the Cosmic Era. Each day of the new week corresponds with a planet in the Solar System (*Ceres being a large asteroid, Pluto being a dwarf planet).
Merceday, Vensday, Teraday, Marsday, Cereday, Jovesday, Saturday, Oranday, Nepday, Plutoday
The concept of the 'weekend' has vanished. With the widespread adoption of automation, AI, polyforges, and such, manual labor and menial labor are largely relics of the past. There is no need for a weekend since there is not really a work week left. Instead, most people work short shifts everyday, 2-6 hours generally, or if their job is physical in nature (in contrast to a CogNet based job which is done from home, or a data center) they will have a fixed number of days that they will engage in labor, and a fixed number of days where they are free to do as they please.
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? Responses (3)
As usual, a well thought-out divination of the future that perfectly fits the Cosmic Era setting.
Great detail piece for this world.
My only problem with this is that the term cycle is already strongly tied to technology in the form of CPU cycles, and are vastly smaller than a second. They are also not fixed and keep getting shorter as technology advances.
I have two thoughts for that, one is that the Transformers counted time in cycles and megacycles, but I am not sure if they ever explained just long 4 megacycles was, and if that was actually a long time for the transformers. The other thought is that the modern nomenclature for computers and computer technology are going to be so obsolete it is going to be comparing tying knots and fixing sails, and then using the terminology and trying to launch a space shuttle with it.
