: Re: How can I convey dates (with ordering) for events happening under different dating systems, e.g. a Sci-Fi story spread over the galaxy? So I want to write a Sci-Fi where humans have spread

@BetL639

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Dates and times are internationally standardized in ISO 8601. The ISO 8601 dates use the Gregorian calendar and 24-hour time, i.e. “March 15, 2015 at 23:11:01."

Your readers will potentially include the entire population of Earth, and as such, ISO 8601 dates are appropriate. People who use some other kind of date system in their region will know how to convert back and forth from ISO 8601.

In the future, people on Pluto may use ISO 8601 or they may use some kind of Pluto time, but in that case they will also know how to convert back and forth from ISO 8601.

Of course, in the future, ISO 8601 may be updated in some way, and you may want to tackle that creatively. But in that case, your readers may not know what you are talking about. In theory, English may not exist in the future you are creating, or may be very different (it’s not that long ago that English and German were the same language) so if you are writing in English, you might also want to just write dates and times in ISO 8601.

Generally speaking, writers and editors and publishers should follow ISO standards these days because your audience is potentially anyone, anywhere in the world, and exchanging data internationally is why these ISO standards exist. Again, your readers will either already follow the ISO standard, or they will know how to convert the ISO standard to their regional standard.

Just Google “ISO 8601” for more information.

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