In the industrial age, a universal measuring system, universally applied, made sense. It enabled the Capitalists to manage their multinational empires on a more efficient basis. These revolutions ultimately ended the age of industrial mass, and of the colonial empires. Because of these technologies, we live in an age of customization and speed. Computers have vastly expanded our ability to handle information, and so have made the need for standards less explicit.
Computers are what make the return to customization and speed possible.
And, metric conversion is something that happens every day in computers. Conclusion Today, converting the nation to the metric system might provide minor savings to an Indonesian Billionaire trying to build an industrial empire. Computer technology has made those visions of conformity obsolete. In fact, this technology has made all arguments about expense relatively moot. And that leaves us mired in highly esoteric arguments between bureaucrats, businessmen, traditionalists, and indonesian billionaires about what are in fact, at best, relatively minor cost savings.