It is rare to hear someone saying “200 years BC” or “1956 AD”. This distinction reaches so far into our past as to be meaningless in today’s fast-paced and constantly online world. Surely we should abandon this anachronism with its outmoded religious references and replace it with something more relevant to the way we do things these days.
How about restarting the calendar in 1997 as year zero.
Then the Boomtown Rats’ song “I don’t like Mondays” would have been a hit in the year 18 BG (before Google) and Obama became US president in year 12 AG (after Google). This would have the added advantages of year zero representing the first time a computer beat a world champion at chess and celebrating Steve Job’s return to Apple but would also have the unfortunate side-effect of redefining Tony Blair’s premiership as starting in year zero.