I mean... the Imperial system was clearly also a centralization effort.

Maybe in the future we'll have federated units, each person able to use their own measuring system - and also universal translation so every individual can speak their own unique language.

> I mean... the Imperial system was clearly also a centralization effort.

More than you probably know: Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?

The pound of feathers weighs more because for precious metals, like gold, the Troy system is used, and a Troy pound is the equivalent of 373 grams:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight#Troy_pound_(lb_t)

Meanwhile the feathers are measured in the Avoirdupois system, where one pound is the equivalent of 450 grams:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoirdupois

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_yard_and_pound

Now: which weighs more, an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold? The ounce of gold, because there are 12 troy ounces in a pound, while there are 16 (avoirdupois/'regular') ounces in a (avoirdupois) pound, so the gold would be 31 grams and the feathers would be 28 grams.

See also the difference between the 'international' foot (0.3048 meters) and the US survey foot 1200/3937 meters (a difference of only one one-hundredth of a foot per mile):

* https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/geodesy/international-foot.htm...

* https://www.nist.gov/pml/us-surveyfoot

Only for the stuff that actually matters, precise definitions of weights and measures, getting to the moon, targeting missiles, military maps ... for all the plebian things of no real import there's customary units (shhh .. they're defined in terms of metric fundementals).

And Canada, and the UK.