I have been thinking about the 878 days, on the grounds that high-budget TV series don't have random numbers, only Easter eggs. These are my two favourite ideas:
1. The maths idea
878/323 is a good approximation of number e, to 4 decimal places. (Number e is the base of natural logarithms, and anybody who studies maths to a high enough level will know about it). It's especially easy to remember because 878-323=555. Number e is needed to describe the Gaussian bell curve, which is an essential tool of statistics, and psychohistorians need to be familiar with it.
2. The history idea
878 AD isn't a very interesting year. It's in the middle of the Dark Ages, it has a couple of big battles in it, but lots of years have battles.
But the Galactic Empire is inspired in the Roman Empire. And the Romans counted years from the foundation of Rome. 878 AUC (Ad Urbe Condita) is 125 AD, and a much more interesting year. It's in the middle of what's been described as the Golden Era of the Roman Empire, and it's when the Pantheon was built. Other parts of the world were prosperous, too: the Parthian Empire in the Middle East, the Kushan Empire in India, the Han Empire in China, and even the Javanese calendar starts on this year. Long-distance trade was happening, and a few years later there were reports of Roman merchants arriving in China, and Roman coins have been found that appear to confirm this.
Surely the contrast between the sad state of the world in 878 AD and the prosperity of 878 AUC would be of great interest to any psychohistorian.
I have been thinking about the 878 days, on the grounds that high-budget TV series don't have random numbers, only Easter eggs. These are my two favourite ideas:
1. The maths idea
878/323 is a good approximation of number e, to 4 decimal places. (Number e is the base of natural logarithms, and anybody who studies maths to a high enough level will know about it). It's especially easy to remember because 878-323=555. Number e is needed to describe the Gaussian bell curve, which is an essential tool of statistics, and psychohistorians need to be familiar with it.
2. The history idea
878 AD isn't a very interesting year. It's in the middle of the Dark Ages, it has a couple of big battles in it, but lots of years have battles.
But the Galactic Empire is inspired in the Roman Empire. And the Romans counted years from the foundation of Rome. 878 AUC (Ad Urbe Condita) is 125 AD, and a much more interesting year. It's in the middle of what's been described as the Golden Era of the Roman Empire, and it's when the Pantheon was built. Other parts of the world were prosperous, too: the Parthian Empire in the Middle East, the Kushan Empire in India, the Han Empire in China, and even the Javanese calendar starts on this year. Long-distance trade was happening, and a few years later there were reports of Roman merchants arriving in China, and Roman coins have been found that appear to confirm this.
Surely the contrast between the sad state of the world in 878 AD and the prosperity of 878 AUC would be of great interest to any psychohistorian.