A timecycle is:
a spacetime vehicle, able to disappear from one set of spatiotemporal coordinates and appear at another with zero duration for its rider(s);
a flying vehicle with its own "...antigravity drive..." (p. 691)
It has saddles, a console and steering bars and records every spacetime jump.
The console can:
display a map with current location;
show the rest of the Earth's surface;
"...show a region at any scale desired..." (ibid.)
This map unit makes the space control easy to use as long as precise positioning is not required.
A rider can:
"Press for the date." (p. 690)
- which appears in easy-to-learn post-Arabic numerals.
Of course Roman numerals would be useless for such purposes but I would need a lot of persuading that Arabic numerals can be improved on.
See also:
9 comments:
I don't think they could be improved on either. Tho' in fact they're derived from Hindu mathematicians in India, btw.
Yes. Came to Europe via Arabs.
Kaor, to Both!
I've tried but I simply can't visualize numbers as convenient as the ones some forgotten genius invented in India. Nowadays Roman numbers are mostly used for artistic reasons or as the ordinal numbers for popes like Leo XIV or monarchs such as Charles III.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. Latin numerals retain a limited or ornamental use, like on clocks where a mistake was made: "iii" instead of "iv." It remains convenient to write Leo XIV and Charles III and to number listed points as (i), (ii) etc.
Paul.
"iiii"
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! I like Roman numbers on clocks and on my wrist-watch because they look more elegant than "Arabic" numerals.
But "IIII" was not always thought of as a mistake. I've seen "IV" written as "IIII" on things like coins in circumstances where that must have been deliberate.
Ad astra! Sean
Roman numerals are a bit of an affectation, IMHO.
Sean: Yeah, the Romans didn't always follow what we think of as "Roman numerals". Systems were less consistent then.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, but I actually had in mind how some Spanish coins I saw pictures of had "Carolus IIII" on them, not "Carolus IV." What seemed an oddity was what struck me.
Ad astra! Sean
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