this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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As a social construct, I like that I can be anywhere in the world and know that around noon is probably an appropriate time for lunch, etc.
Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so.
Is that where my sandwich went?
You life was an illusion, and you are the sandwich.
Yeah that doesn't work if you live in Seattle.
Did you just describe timezones?
I think they're proposing personal time zones, where every individual's clock shows their precise solar time, and nobody ever manages to be on time to work ever again.
Good god, imagine 360 timezones to describe each longitude.
Each timezone would be 4 minutes, and span roughly 56 miles (tho, that's different as you get nearer the poles).
For the majority of things, it would be fine. Most appointments etc that are "booked" verbally would likely be within 56 miles, where "casual" time would work. Anything beyond that feels like a "significant" thing, which would probably involve written/digital communication - where computers could pick up the slack for translation.
And EVERYONE would be aware of timezones. So, even Microsoft/Excel would have to recognise that timezones are a real thing.
So, probably not that bad
that's basically why timezones were created. before then, every town had its own local time.
I'm imagining something more fluid, where the time it is depends on exactly where you're standing and the position of the sun in relation to it. You'd need to factor the direction you're traveling as well as the distance whenever you went anywhere. We'd have a lot more intimate relationship with our current celestial situation.
What you're describing is LITERALLY the system we have. UTC is a global, coordinated time that tracks solar time to a precision of less than a second. As far as my computer is concerned, my time is UTC (technically GMT, but they both refer to the same time) minus 6 hours. We all could choose to say, "hey, wanna meet for dinner at 3AM?" and have that be a normal thing to say in my area, and an odd thing to say odd in Europe... but nobody wants that.
It really seems like you're just describing time zones. Or do you mean that we should be even more granular about it and have personal timezones that adjust depending on where we are on the globe? That just seems like timezones with extra steps
This is the same fucking thing. It is simultaneously 12:25am MDT and 6:25am GMT where I live. If you ask my computer what time it is, it knows it is 06:25:00-06:00.
Two sides of the same coin buddy.
How stoned are you right now
Can you give me an example with an example time and how 2 people in different countries would organise a meeting?
Are you suggesting something like continuous timezones? Thanks for bringing this nightmare to a whole new level! :)
Unless you're in Tibet, Xinjiang, or another place observing UTC+8 with a significant offset from local solar time.
They had their chance. Heck, they still have their chance. They will continue to have their chance.
Imagine you're watching a movie, and the main character turns over to their bedside clock and it shows 4:13 am. With time zones we all understand what part of the day that is and instinctively can relate to the situation.
Without timezones, every locality would have a different shorthand and cultural understanding of what times mean what. Or they'd adopt a second system that helps transcend that but that's just inventing timezones again...
I reluctantly agree with you. Though I think the reluctance is just because there's something in me that's viscerally offended by the concept of time itself (probably the ADHD)
Are you thinking about daylight savings time? I'd agree there, but timezones absolutely make sense, and we've always used some version of it. "See you at noon" has a sort of built in timezone, as does sunrise and sunset. We (all human societies) relate hours to the day in a similar, albeit more regular way. If you did away with timezones, you'd replace a minor inconvenience with a monstrous one. Everyone uses what, GMT? Naah
Stop using drugs, you're making literally no sense.
Actually, it makes perfect sense.
The loose terms like morning, noon, night etc are related to the suns position in the sky and exist regardless of what the wall clock happens to say
Time zones are fine. Daylight Savings Time needs to be taken out behind the wood shed and killed with a spoon.
I like it when i miss the train because town A's time is way off from toen C's time
I honestly can't tell if you are pro or anti time zones from this comment.
Nobody likes missing a train.
In this scenario, missing a train is caused by timezones.
It's sarcasm. So against timezones.
Maybe, against more granular timezones, ok with status-quo, but would be happy if all official correspondence happened with UTC.
Possibly completely against timezones.
Maybe a mix of all of the above
I think it would be intuitive to people after a while