A Community Service

The publication reference date is 2 January 2006. Reference dates for releases are discussed in the Current Release section. (The date shown was recovered from old backups where that date is the oldest available.)

I do attest that the protocol is entirely my intellectual property. I do hereby offer this protocol as a gift for public use free and clear of copyright and without reservation, requirement, or encumberance of any kind so that it may be used, copied, and distributed by anyone and by everyone and for any purpose.

The gift of this protocol is specific and does not include any other intellectual property. I do retain the copyright to all else unless specifically and explicitly stated otherwise.

John E. Ragan

The protocol is designed for the universal expression of date-time values to ease communication between systems of values that are easily read and understood by people and by systems. It is intended to provide a standard, logical, and simplistic means of expression and communication of date-times.

It is not intended to replace standard date-time systems. It is also not intended to be a time-keeper, a time calculator, or any horological mechanism for the generation of data.

Identifier: 81203

Purpose Of Release: Clarification of the environment specification.

Previous Release: 70203 Provided an expansion and refinement of the protocol. No changes are made to the specification as previously published.

The release number identifies the current release of the protocol. Release numbers are sequential, but not necessarily consecutive. Although they are derived from dates, they do not necessarily reflect the date of the release. Release number 70203 may or may not have been published on 2007020300000000, but upon publication, that date most appropriately suggested the number.

( The coredate protocol has been used in system development and communication since the nineties.)

This is the specification for the expression and communication of temporal values. A value which complies with this specification may be generically described as a coredate and this specification will be identified as the coredate protocol.

A coredate is a unit instance expression or communication of a specific temporal position. It includes both a date and a time as parts of the unit. As the specification of a temporal position, the terms "date" and "time" are not necessary and are used here to ease communication.

The protocol is irrespective of the current technology, science, and philosophy. The protocol recognizes the fact that all of it is approximate and philosophical and that those factors must be ignored in daily affairs and operational systems. The expression of a coredate is always an absolute value; i.e., it is a given.

All characters are significant in the coredate. Some may be zero, but no character position may be blank and none may be null. All characters contribute to the expression and/or designation of a date-time instance.

( Since there is no null value, a precision is always implied that may frequently be unrealistic. However, that same extraordinary precision is implied but unsaid in most human endeavors, and is only made manifest in the coredate protocol. )

Characters are Arabic ten-based digits. (Except for an expressed redirector as defined below.)

A date may be presented as a standard value or as a standard extended value. Standard dates consist of sixteen (16) characters. Standard extended date values consist of twenty one (21) characters.

All characters are always digits except the final character. The final character may be a value which is a digit, or it may be a redirector which is a minus sign. (A plus sign is implied when the character is a digit.)

Locality is respected. The expression of a Terran coredate without a remote environment prefix for a locally Martian event is invalid unless the event is explicitly being perceived from within the expressing locality.

Implicit in the value is always the assumption that the value includes published error adjustments such as leap year, leap seconds, etc. (See the previous comment on technology, science, and philosophy). Time zone may be excluded. (See the time zone section.)

The prime Terran coredate standard is Gregorian. (See the directives for synchronization of all published standards.)

The prime Terran coredate month values are always in a range of one through twelve inclusive after the zero base. Day values are always in a range of one through thirty-one inclusive after the zero base. The hours value is always in a range of zero through twenty-four inclusive. Second and minute values are each in a range of zero through sixty inclusive.

If all characters are digits, then the value specifies a date A.D. If the final character is a minus sign, then the value specifies a date B.C. The minus sign is referred to as the redirector. (The specification thus stipulates that a value which consists of all zeros is A.D.)

The base for any date-time unit instance is zero. Dates A.D progress forward from the Gregorian zero as positive values. Dates B.C progress backwards from the Gregorian zero as negative values.

Values will always present the prescribed characters. A coredate value cannot be communicated in a tokenized, compressed, encrypted, or abbreviated form except as part of a tokenized, compressed, or encrypted transmission.

A symbolic representation: YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNNNNN

Example:
2010012410230400
or 201001241023040062384
Read by many people as January 24, 2010 at 10 23 04 AM or perhaps as 24 January 10, 10 23 04 AM.

Example:
90100000000000000000-
Read by people as nine thousand and ten BC.

A time zone is not required by the coredate protocol. A time zone identifier is allowed and is optional.

If a time zone identifier is used, the time zone will be identified by a two character string which will be appended to the standard string. Neither character may be blank or null.

When the time zone is included in the standard date, the string will be eighteen (18) characters long. When the time zone is included in the extended date, the string will be twenty three (23) characters long.

Inclusion of the time zone characters in a string does not modify the previous character functions and behaviors. Specifically, the redirector character position and function remain the same.

The currently recognized prime Terran coredate time zone character string identifiers are the digits 01 through 24, but other identifiers are not thereby precluded.

The string 00 may be used in the time zone position as a special case which expresses an unknown factor; it is the null value. Where provision is needed for a time zone, but the zone is unknown for the specified time, the time zone may be expressed as 00 which is the null string.

A symbolic representation: YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNNNNNZZ

Example:
201001241023040006
or 20100124102304006238406
In both cases, the previously given examples have now been re-specified within time zone number six; i.e., central standard time.

Example:
201001241023040000
The previously given example has been re-specified with a time zone number and the time zone is a null value.

A date-time environment is one which requires a local specification of the character attributes of the protocol to maintain local validity and viability. Terra is a date-time environment to which the preceeding specification is applicable.

The coredate protocol may be extended to any other environment by respecification of the character attributes by the defining authority. The defining authority will specify the characters that identify the temporal environment.

The identification of the temporal environment will be effected by prefixing the date-time string with the environment identifier. The prefix is separated from the body by a greater-than symbol (>). The first character of the prefix is a less-than symbol (<). Thus, the prefix is delimited by those symbols. Those symbols are not permitted elsewhere in the coredate.

The protocol assumes no taxonomic responsibility although that function will become pragmatically necessary during the protocol's use.

The local expression of a date-time within a foreign environment may include the specification of a preffix to uniquely identify that environment. Transmission of date-time values between environments may include the environment identifiers.

When used, none of the prefix characters may be blank or null. Neither blanks nor nulls are permitted within the prefix and are not permitted after it.

The universal zero base is that of the prime Terran definition. All environments are thereby synchronized.

All environments use the same method of absolute value positioning that is used by the Terran definition. Each environment may employ its own time slicing conventions which includes embedded locally significant constructs. (See the Unit Basis section.)

All environments use the same number of character positions in the strings. All character positions use the same digits and the same expressed redirector.

All characters remain significant and required although local temporal constructs may not require them. Redefinition for the local environment may designate certain characters as unused and deprecated to always return values of zero (0).

Characters one through four continue to be defined as a unit and continue to be the major value. A local redefine of the first four characters is optional. If that option is exercised, the locally recognized most prominent physical cycles are the recommended, but not required, standard for it. (See the Unit Basis section.)

Characters five through fourteen continue to derive their value relative to the characters to their left. Characters fifteen through twenty-one retain their function as decimal parts of character number fourteen.

Local time zones may be defined. If local time zones are defined, their identifiers may use any alpha-numeric characters, but the string may not exceed two characters. The null zone value of 00 is used by all environments.

Error correction is the responsibility of the defining authority. Error correction that is accomplished through explicit specification, such as leap years, will be published as part of the definition.

Relativistic effects are accounted for through locally simplistic absolute values, and relativistic redefines and relativistic temporal positioning are disallowed. The zero base is synchronized throughout all systems. The local expression of any remote date will be expected to be synchronous throughout all systems.

Non-uniform local relativistic slippage relative to the Terran environment will be published by those using the local standard so that all remote systems can remain sychronized to local events. The use of embedded locally significant constructs to obviate slippage is permitted only where the constructs are first published to any remote systems which may use a local value so that all remote expressions of local values are synchronous.

A defined environment standard will be recognized when the definer publishes formulae which specify its expression in and from the prime Terran coredate.

A symbolic representation: <ENV>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNNNNNZZ

Example:
<MAR>201001241023040-
The date is 2010 BC as expressed in the Martian environment and may be converted to the local date in another environment. (This example is illustrative only, and neither the environment symbol nor the environment specification is intended. )

It is recognized that a cyclic and astronomical basis for time is not strictly necessary. The number of revolutions of the electron in a hydrogen atom since the beginning might be the basis. But that would have its own problems; e.g. the precise specification of the universal ionization termination. Any basis will have its own problems. But we know that, regardless of their problems, astronomical cycles are inherently meaningful to humans and to their systems. Therefore, the expression of any time within the standard will be cycle-based unless manifestly stated otherwise by the defining authority.

The choice of cycles will be made when the local time is defined. Those cycles will be used to zero the expression base. (See the Date-Time Environments section.)

Times within the solar system are assumed to be helio-centric, although that is not required. Helio-centric times will usually be easier to synchronize than others. An example of a non helio-centric cycle-type might be the revolutions around a more local body.

Times within the local galaxy are assumed to be galactic-centric unless manifestly stated otherwise by the defining authority.

Cycle expansion and contraction are permitted. For example, it would be permissible to define a local cycle that spans a thousand Terran cycles as ten major time units.

Each environment is permited multiple specifications. All redefines meet all protocol requirements and specifically those of the Temporal Environments section.

End Of CoreDate Protocol

The range is not a part of the protocol, and is only noted here.

The range afforded to the prime Terran date-time as a natural and unencumbered protocol is twenty thousand years minus ten millionths of a second.

The ranges of other environment specifications will be dependent upon each specification. For example, that for a galactic environment can easily exceed the current age of the universe.

Supported accuracy is one ten-millionth of a second.

Caution: It is an easy mistake to confuse the accuracy that is allowed by a construct with generated accuracy. The use of the protocol should not be construed to indicate the accuracy of the delivered data.

End Of CoreDate Protocol

There is no such thing as time.

Time is a social construct which has become so ingrained in our consideration of the external that it has been actualized through institutionalization. What appears to be time is nothing more than the forced synchronization of mechanical contrivances. That synchronization is then generalized to encompass all observed changes in our universe.

The fact that mankind finds it so useful and then universally complies with that synchronization is what makes it appear real. We have become so proficient at it that we can synchronize actions on opposite sides of the planet to within a single vibration of an atom. That universal objectification and institutionalization produces a universal illusion of reality, but it is only an illusion despite its efficacy.

One physicist quit speaking to me after hearing this anathema because the physicists have built their world around the concept of time. Theoretical physics may be unable to exist as we know it without time, so the theoretical physicists must be especially adamant in this area. But they are merely reasoning in circles to support their particular religion.

Some theorists believe that they have found bedrock at the planck level. That is because they have not yet realized that their time concept becomes meaningless within that context and thereby universally nullifies their concept.

      The French have announced that the meter is precisely how far light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Impressive precision!
      And it proves experimentally that the length of a second is from now until light traverses precisely 299,792,458 meters.
      And it proves experimentally anthropology's claim that Man's brain has been shrinking since the stone age.

Increased sophistication of method technology enhances the concept in our minds, but the reality is that how it is measured and how it is defined are irrelevant. Defining a picosecond as the vibration of a particular atom, or a second as the transit of a photon over one hundred and eighty six thousand miles, or an hour as a man's walk to the corner store are meaningful only as a means of synchronizing human activities and thoughts.

Simply said, time is only a concept, but it is one of the most powerful concepts created by the mind of Man. The observance of the mechanical synchronization that we call time is imminently useful to those of us in the practical world, so this is certainly not an attempt to upset the applecart; it is merely an observation of reality. Therefore, those who are uncomfortable with this subject may just ignore these observations on reality. Date, time, and the coredate protocol work well and that is enough in the practical world of people and systems.

Copyright 1999 - 2012 John Ragan

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