Metric Time (MT) is an attempt to create a decimalized time system for our modern base-10 using world:
Theorised by Wells' Time Traveller in Steven Baxter's The Time Ships?. Problem would be converting everyone's perceptions from 'old style' Babylonian time which has served us so well.
It also plays badly with SI units, where the second is king. Instead, decimal time, based on seconds, would be a much better idea; this is already in use by computers, and has been used in science and SF (by Vernor Vinge, i think).
| 100 000 000 seconds | three and a bit years |
|---|---|
| 10 000 000 seconds | a season |
| 1 000 000 seconds | eleven and a half days |
| 100 000 seconds | a day and a bit |
| 10 000 seconds | almost three hours |
| 100 second | a long minute |
| 1 second | a second |
These quantities are not all hugely convenient, due to the orbital parameters of the earth. Therefore, these must be changed: days should be 100 000 seconds long, and years, say, 25 000 000 seconds (289ish imperial days). We could also adjust the moon, so that a month was 2 000 000 seconds. Changing the year would mean moving to a closer orbit, but that makes it all the more convenient to get to Venus, and increases the amount of solar energy we can collect.
The Spacers in the Robot novels of Isaac Asimov had a form of metric time, too. Indeed they did, in addition to a tendency to talk in terms of decades instead of years. Months were uniformly thirty days long, and ten days was sometimes called a decimonth - at least, according to R. Daneel. Do we trust R. Daneel? He's got no reason to lie, has he? Giskard has more guile...
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