Philotic Web

I thought I could make this thread for people who just see stuff that they want to note on in the books, but the topic isn't big enough to start a complete new thread.
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Like I was thinking, all the hundred worlds definitely have different yearly patterns, so, do you think they just have a universal calendar, and then individual ones for each planet, or do you think they just didn't bother with that, and they all go by different patterns?

I think they have a standard calendar and then planetary calendars. Most standard calendars (in science fiction novels) use earth time as their basis even if earth was long destroyed or something. I think that even in the Foundation series (where earth was destroyed and forgotten) they still used earth standard time tens of thousands of years later.

I thought I could make this thread for people who just see stuff that they want to note on in the books, but the topic isn't big enough to start a complete new thread.

Horsefeathers. Threads don't need to be "big".

Like I was thinking, all the hundred worlds definitely have different yearly patterns, so, do you think they just have a universal calendar, and then individual ones for each planet, or do you think they just didn't bother with that, and they all go by different patterns?

There may be several examples, but at least Qing-jao's report to Starways Congress implies the usage of a standard universal calendar:

For the present I have neutralized the program, allowing me to send this message and probably allowing you to send your orders to all worlds; but that cannot be guaranteed now and certainly cannot be expected to continue indefinitely, so you must act quickly. I suggest you set a date exactly forty standard weeks from today for all ansibles to go offline at once for a period of at least one standard day.

Well, I guess that only implies standard time periods of a day and a week, but it would follow that they'd have years and months, too.

I know that in speaker for the dead, there was an "SC" system in place based on the adoption of the starways code, something I forgot what it was. Throughout the book this was the standard timekeeping system. But then this to the best of my knowledge, this was abandoned in Xenocide and all subsequent books. One thing is certain though, they do measure time in "months" "years" etc.

What I really want to know from Card is, "what is the stasis and how come it hasn't been mentioned before Ender in Exile".

I think they have a standard calendar and then planetary calendars. Most standard calendars (in science fiction novels) use earth time as their basis even if earth was long destroyed or something. I think that even in the Foundation series (where earth was destroyed and forgotten) they still used earth standard time tens of thousands of years later.

So why isn't Foundation in your list of must-have-read sci-fi?

Just a q.


As for the question about stasis in EiE, it was my assumption that Card came up with this idea along the way. It is a theme he has explored before in Worthing Saga and as far as I remember, the Homecoming series, although it has been years since I read such so I may be wrong there. The point is, it is a common theme in his books and, afterthought or not, it made it into EiE and seems to make sense. It does not really do anything for continuity as there is no mention of sleeper ships in the Speaker series, but it really does make sense that on long distance journeys through space, even at relativistic speeds, that a journey might be too long and tedious to stay awake for the whole time. Afterthought, yes, bad idea, not really.