4 ms·

Because it is not the "natural" time but the artificial one that is chosen.

foepys 8y ago
Humans already don't plan their day strictly around sunlight. Otherwise we wouldn't go to bed at 10pm and get up at 6am (or even later) but rather go to bed at 8pm and get up at 4am.
- zeveb 8y ago
  > Humans already don't plan their day strictly around sunlight. For maximum health & energy efficiency, though, we probably ought to (just like we probably ought to build our houses so that air conditioning is optional & heating is efficient).
- seanalltogether 8y ago
  I would argue they still plan according to the sun. Why have most westerner cultures slowly adapted to a 9 - 5 schedule when older generations used to work 8 - 4? Daylight savings slowly convinced society to start the work day 1 hour later.
TallGuyShort 8y ago
How is the other one natural? It's all based on artificial boundaries and divisions anyway. Seems to me the sun is highest several hours after noon and midnight is closer to sunset than sunrise.
- zeveb 8y ago
  > Seems to me the sun is highest several hours after noon and midnight is closer to sunset than sunrise. The definition of noon is when the sun is at its highest point. Yes, due to timezones real noon may be half an hour from clock noon — but that's all (modulo places which are on a neighbouring timezone for reasons; regardless, being more than 1½ hours from real time is political stupidity). Are you in China? I understand the PRC believes that all Chinese should be on Beijing time — c.f. above, under political stupidity.
  - ArchTypical 8y ago
    > The definition of noon is when the sun is at its highest point. A historically tenuous regional decision about naming, does not influence global reality beyond being contextually incompatible. So what?
hunta2097 8y ago
I know it would "feel" right to have the centre of daylight hours at 12PM on summer solstice... but it's much more useful to have lighter evenings that mornings in my opinion. +1 1PM middday. Full disclosure : I am not a morning person.
masklinn 8y ago
It's the time matching how most of western society (if not humanity) works. Most people don't center their night around 00:00, it's usually centered around 03:00~04:00
BjoernKW 8y ago
There's nothing that makes summer time more natural than winter time other than that winter time precedes summer time. Both essentially are societal constructs, though.
- ginko 8y ago
  Summer time is on average further off from solar time. For instance normal time is pretty close to solar time when you're around Berlin.
simias 8y ago
Unless you like keeping track of time with a sundial that doesn't seem like a very strong argument.
e12e 8y ago
You get the job of re-labeling all the sun dials, I guess.

Humans already don't plan their day strictly around sunlight. Otherwise we wouldn't go to bed at 10pm and get up at 6am (or even later) but rather go to bed at 8pm and get up at 4am.

zeveb 8y ago
> Humans already don't plan their day strictly around sunlight. For maximum health & energy efficiency, though, we probably ought to (just like we probably ought to build our houses so that air conditioning is optional & heating is efficient).
seanalltogether 8y ago
I would argue they still plan according to the sun. Why have most westerner cultures slowly adapted to a 9 - 5 schedule when older generations used to work 8 - 4? Daylight savings slowly convinced society to start the work day 1 hour later.

TallGuyShort 8y ago

How is the other one natural? It's all based on artificial boundaries and divisions anyway. Seems to me the sun is highest several hours after noon and midnight is closer to sunset than sunrise.

zeveb 8y ago
> Seems to me the sun is highest several hours after noon and midnight is closer to sunset than sunrise. The definition of noon is when the sun is at its highest point. Yes, due to timezones real noon may be half an hour from clock noon — but that's all (modulo places which are on a neighbouring timezone for reasons; regardless, being more than 1½ hours from real time is political stupidity). Are you in China? I understand the PRC believes that all Chinese should be on Beijing time — c.f. above, under political stupidity.
- ArchTypical 8y ago
  > The definition of noon is when the sun is at its highest point. A historically tenuous regional decision about naming, does not influence global reality beyond being contextually incompatible. So what?

hunta2097 8y ago

I know it would "feel" right to have the centre of daylight hours at 12PM on summer solstice... but it's much more useful to have lighter evenings that mornings in my opinion. +1 1PM middday. Full disclosure : I am not a morning person.

masklinn 8y ago

It's the time matching how most of western society (if not humanity) works. Most people don't center their night around 00:00, it's usually centered around 03:00~04:00

BjoernKW 8y ago

There's nothing that makes summer time more natural than winter time other than that winter time precedes summer time. Both essentially are societal constructs, though.

ginko 8y ago
Summer time is on average further off from solar time. For instance normal time is pretty close to solar time when you're around Berlin.

simias 8y ago

Unless you like keeping track of time with a sundial that doesn't seem like a very strong argument.

e12e 8y ago

You get the job of re-labeling all the sun dials, I guess.