Timefulism 

Days of Contemplation

Timefulism

A Calendar of Days of Contemplation. This is based on Alain de Botton’s observation that churches are vastly better than atheism at promoting community and togetherness through shared rituals, gatherings, and holidays.

1. • Timefulism uses the algorithm 2032 – (1.06605715821^365-n + 365 – n) to map each day of the year to a specific time in the history of the universe, where the long number starting with 1.066 is just the 365th root of 13.8 billion. Thus, the New Year starts with the Big Bang, at which point a day represents nearly a billion years. By the summer, early humans have come on the scene with days mapping to just a few thousand years, and by the fall we are well into recorded history, with days mapping to the hundreds, then tens, of years. The final days of the year map to just over a year each. The formula assumes that the end of human history will occur in 2030, as that is as good a guess as any for when Artificial Intelligence will wipe us out, take over nearly all of our tasks, or integrate with us. If human history goes beyond 2030, we’ll recalculate the formula with a new end date.

1. • Thus, for any given day of the year, there is a period of historical time that all of humanity can ponder together on that day. Every day is therefore a potential “holiday” or at least a day of contemplation.

1. • Because Timefulism is a decentralized religion, we do not expect there to be an “official” selection of holidays or days of contemplation. Adherents are free to celebrate and contemplate every day of the year; Timefulism just provides a framework for deciding what to celebrate or contemplate on any given day, so that at least some of us may be thinking about the same thing.

1. • We hope that Timefulism will bring people together in person. Perhaps they would come together as study groups to hear each other’s perspectives on the meaning and significance of whatever it is we have to contemplate on a given day. Or perhaps people will gather as a congregation, to hear a “sermon” by someone who has thought deeply about a particular event from the corresponding historical period and what meaning it should have for us.

1. • Our Calendar of Contemplation gives a pretty good sense of what some of Timefulism’s holidays could be. Of course, some of the dates will shift as new geological, archaeological, and/or historical findings are made, but as with everything else in this religion, nothing is set in stone. The segment of the Calendar of Contemplation that covers 100,000 BC to 1 BC, and maps to July 5 to September 4, is reproduced at the end of this newsletter.

1. • We’ve now put up videos on the domestication of dogs (7/28), the invention of baked bread and the sandwich (short form and long form) (8/4), and the first metal mining and use of cattle for dairy (8/12). The video department is on hold for the time being in favor of text posts.

4. • Again, the Calendar of Contemplation is just one of four current “systems” within Timefulism. Considerable work has to be done to develop it as well as the other systems, and to figure out how to combine them (and other ideas and systems) into an integrated whole.

4. • The ultimate goal, as always, will be to use the systems to help people identify as historically-grounded, socially-conscious, caring human beings, and to create groups and/or communities of people that hold similar values and share similar beliefs.

4. • Here is the current draft of the segment of the Calendar that covers about 100,000 BC to 1 BC, and maps onto July 5 to September 4. If any reader of this post feels like making a video about any event on the calendar (or any other event in the history of the Universe), go for it! (And please let us know, so that we can promote it.)

PS A version of the full calendar is available at Humanity64.com, Some of that stuff needs to be improved and moved to the Timefulism website.

PPS As noted on Humanity64.com, the vast majority of the event dates and events on this table are borrowed from Professor C. Patrick Doncaster’s wonderful “timeline of the human condition,” for which we intend to thank him some day, perhaps after Timefulism is a bit more established. Note that his timeline includes much more information than ours, and repays close reading and clicking around.