Mayan prophesy

[xouper]

From Randi's December 12 Commentary:

Mike Wood: The gist of it was that, as the Mayan astrologers predicted, either the world will end in 2012, or a large change in the world will occur between now and then ... I'm a great admirer of your work, and here's hoping it continues well after the Mayans say it will, although I somehow can't see anyone claiming the JREF million before 2012....

James Randi: Mike, when 2012 comes around, and the prophecy is not fulfilled, the nut-cases out there will begin the repair work, re-interpreting the original data and patching it all up.

Part of the problem is that the Mayan astrologers didn't actually predict the world would end in 2012. This is a common misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar by many in the New Age Community, which as I have posted before on this forum, does not end when the Mayan Long Count rolls over from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0 on December 21, 2012. No repair work or patching up of the original data will be necessary, since it doesn't support an end-of-the-world prophesy in the first place. When the prophesy fails to pass, the New Age Community will need do nothing more than admit they misunderstood the intent of the Mayan calendar.

 

[hgc]

....
When the prophesy fails to pass, the New Age Community will need do nothing more than admit they misunderstood the intent of the Mayan calendar.

Have you awoken from your fantasy yet?

I assume you were being sarcastic, but just in case: They will not admit that they misunderstood anything. They will equivocate in the usual ways. What the Mayans really intended will be of no more relevance in 2012 for the New Agers than it is now. They're just making it up now, and they'll continue to make it up as they go along. They'll just to Hale-Bopping on their merry way.

 

[xouper]

hgc: They will not admit that they misunderstood anything. They will equivocate in the usual ways. What the Mayans really intended will be of no more relevance in 2012 for the New Agers than it is now. They're just making it up now, and they'll continue to make it up as they go along. They'll just to Hale-Bopping on their merry way.

That's what I meant to say.

 

[epepke]

From Randi's December 12 Commentary:

Part of the problem is that the Mayan astrologers didn't actually predict the world would end in 2012. This is a common misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar by many in the New Age Community, which as I have posted before on this forum, does not end when the Mayan Long Count rolls over from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0 on December 21, 2012. No repair work or patching up of the original data will be necessary, since it doesn't support an end-of-the-world prophesy in the first place. When the prophesy fails to pass, the New Age Community will need do nothing more than admit they misunderstood the intent of the Mayan calendar.

So, are there going to be lots of jobs for programmers to fix the Y5K bug in those Mayan computers?

 

[xouper]

epepke: So, are there going to be lots of jobs for programmers to fix the Y5K bug in those Mayan computers?

Good one



However, the Mayan Long Count doesn't overflow its five digit representation until Friday, October 13, 4772, spanning a period of almost 8000 years:

0.0.0.0.0 = 11 August 3114 BC

19.19.19.17.19 = 12 October 4772

There is some evidence, however, that the Maya favored cycles of 13 baktuns, which is 1,872,000 days, or about 5125 years (as you already observed ).


The following calendar calulator converts a Mayan Long count to a Gregorian proleptic date, using the widely accepted Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation constant of 584283.

<FORM action=http://www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/mayagreg.py method=post target=_blank><TABLE cellpadding=8><TR><TD><FONT size=2>Baktun</FONT>
<SELECT name=Baktun><OPTION>0<OPTION>1<OPTION>2<OPTION>3<OPTION>4<OPTION>5<OPTION>6<OPTION>7<OPTION>8<OPTION>9<OPTION>10<OPTION>11<OPTION selected>12<OPTION>13<OPTION>14<OPTION>15<OPTION>16<OPTION>17<OPTION>18<OPTION>19</OPTION></SELECT></TD><TD><FONT size=2>Katun</FONT>
<SELECT name=Katun><OPTION>0<OPTION>1<OPTION>2<OPTION>3<OPTION>4<OPTION>5<OPTION>6<OPTION>7<OPTION>8<OPTION>9<OPTION>10<OPTION>11<OPTION>12<OPTION>13<OPTION>14<OPTION>15<OPTION>16<OPTION>17<OPTION>18<OPTION selected>19</OPTION></SELECT></TD><TD><FONT size=2>Tun</FONT>
<SELECT name=Tun><OPTION>0<OPTION>1<OPTION>2<OPTION>3<OPTION>4<OPTION>5<OPTION>6<OPTION>7<OPTION>8<OPTION>9<OPTION selected>10<OPTION>11<OPTION>12<OPTION>13<OPTION>14<OPTION>15<OPTION>16<OPTION>17<OPTION>18<OPTION>19</OPTION></SELECT></TD><TD><FONT size=2>Uinal</FONT>
<SELECT name=Uinal><OPTION>0<OPTION>1<OPTION>2<OPTION>3<OPTION>4<OPTION>5<OPTION>6<OPTION>7<OPTION>8<OPTION>9<OPTION>10<OPTION>11<OPTION>12<OPTION>13<OPTION>14<OPTION selected>15<OPTION>16<OPTION>17</OPTION></SELECT></TD><TD><FONT size=2>Kin</FONT>
<SELECT name=Kin><OPTION>0<OPTION>1<OPTION>2<OPTION>3<OPTION>4<OPTION>5<OPTION>6<OPTION>7<OPTION>8<OPTION>9<OPTION selected>10<OPTION>11<OPTION>12<OPTION>13<OPTION>14<OPTION>15<OPTION>16<OPTION>17<OPTION>18<OPTION>19</OPTION></SELECT></TD></TR></TABLE>
<INPUT type=submit value="Get Gregorian Date"><INPUT type=hidden value=584283 name=cc></FORM>

More Mayan calendar tools here:

http://www.pauahtun.org/tools.html

Please notice that they use a different correlation constant than GMT, and that you will have to manually change it if you want to use another correlation.

 

[tamiO]

I am a Gallactic Portal!

 

[epepke]

However, the Mayan Long Count doesn't overflow its five digit representation until Friday, October 13, 4772, spanning a period of almost 8000 years:

That's awfully close to the maximum date value in Oracle, ya know.