I've been thinking about how, at least the western world, operates a year counting system based on a religion not everyone follows, and less so year by year.
So, if we were to ditch the Christ was allegedly born numbering system, what scientific, rational system would we implement instead? This basically boils down to what year would we start at.
Famously UNIX starts its dates at Jan 1st 1970, so that's a candidate.
Otherwise zero could simply be the start of the next calendar year after the decision, minus numbers for preceding years.
Or we could choose a significant historical or scientific event as year zero, say the discovery of the general theory of relativity.
What else would make a good zero year?
