3 ms·

time zones are really stupid as a modern society why not use one single time measurement it would complicate coordinating something between Earth and Mars if b

time zones are really stupid as a modern society why not use one single time measurement it would complicate coordinating something between Earth and Mars if both parties are keeping their own seperate time

jngreenlee 8y ago
I've thought about this a lot too...one-hour gradiant jumps also make little sense and are only "accurate" for some point roughly in the center of the zone. So, if there was "universal time", you might arrive in Phoenix at something that looks like 2200, and it's the afternoon. You might ask a local/hotel clerk/etc "what time do people go to bed here?" if you can't rely on the sun. However, you would be quite certain that the morning meeting is at say 1400, so you set your alarm for 1230 and everything just works!
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  If we want to set the time for machines instead of people, that would work great... but wait, machines already use UTC. People could already all be using UTC now. They don't, because it does not meet our human needs for clock time.
schoen 8y ago
There's an extensive discussion of this at https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish. (See also https://qntm.org/continuous. https://qntm.org/continuous.)
lainga 8y ago
That would only marginally help, I think. Shifting the numbers used for hours of the day around won't make people go to bed at 2200 UTC in Australia or Los Angeles. Now instead of asking "If it's 1300 PST here, what time is it on Mars?", you're asking, "If it's mid-morning here at 1300 UTC, are people eating dinner or fast asleep on Mars?"
- function_seven 8y ago
  Exactly. No matter what, the Earth is round and the sun rises and sets at different times for different locations. We coordinate our schedules with this wherever we are. Moving to a single time everywhere just exchanges one set of annoyances for another. It doesn't fix anything. I do get the aversion to "odd" zones like :30 or :45 offsets, though.
rhino369 8y ago
It gives you additional information about what people are doing at any given time in that timezone. If it's 2:25 PM KST, I know my buddy in Korea is probably sleeping. America probably only needs two time zones, east and west, since the central zone mostly operates on the eastern timeframe anyway. People go to work by 8 or 8:30 in Chicago compared to 9:30 in the east. Local news is on at 10pm, not 11pm.
- function_seven 8y ago
  1. Your buddy needs to get a job and stop sleeping in all the time :p 2. For selfish reasons, I would love for MST to annex PST along with DST going away. We should all join America/Phoenix as the West of the Rockies time.

jngreenlee 8y ago

I've thought about this a lot too...one-hour gradiant jumps also make little sense and are only "accurate" for some point roughly in the center of the zone. So, if there was "universal time", you might arrive in Phoenix at something that looks like 2200, and it's the afternoon. You might ask a local/hotel clerk/etc "what time do people go to bed here?" if you can't rely on the sun. However, you would be quite certain that the morning meeting is at say 1400, so you set your alarm for 1230 and everything just works!

jrochkind1 8y ago
If we want to set the time for machines instead of people, that would work great... but wait, machines already use UTC. People could already all be using UTC now. They don't, because it does not meet our human needs for clock time.

schoen 8y ago

There's an extensive discussion of this at https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish. (See also https://qntm.org/continuous. https://qntm.org/continuous.)

lainga 8y ago

That would only marginally help, I think. Shifting the numbers used for hours of the day around won't make people go to bed at 2200 UTC in Australia or Los Angeles. Now instead of asking "If it's 1300 PST here, what time is it on Mars?", you're asking, "If it's mid-morning here at 1300 UTC, are people eating dinner or fast asleep on Mars?"

function_seven 8y ago
Exactly. No matter what, the Earth is round and the sun rises and sets at different times for different locations. We coordinate our schedules with this wherever we are. Moving to a single time everywhere just exchanges one set of annoyances for another. It doesn't fix anything. I do get the aversion to "odd" zones like :30 or :45 offsets, though.

rhino369 8y ago

It gives you additional information about what people are doing at any given time in that timezone. If it's 2:25 PM KST, I know my buddy in Korea is probably sleeping. America probably only needs two time zones, east and west, since the central zone mostly operates on the eastern timeframe anyway. People go to work by 8 or 8:30 in Chicago compared to 9:30 in the east. Local news is on at 10pm, not 11pm.

function_seven 8y ago
1. Your buddy needs to get a job and stop sleeping in all the time :p 2. For selfish reasons, I would love for MST to annex PST along with DST going away. We should all join America/Phoenix as the West of the Rockies time.