4 ms·

Time is hard: https://zachholman.com/talk/utc-is-enough-for-everyone-right https://zachholman.com/talk/utc-is-enough-for-everyone-right This is all because of

by adtac 7y ago

Time is hard: https://zachholman.com/talk/utc-is-enough-for-everyone-right https://zachholman.com/talk/utc-is-enough-for-everyone-right This is all because of the fact that we're trying to represent the time taken by the earth (an arbitrary planet that has no impact on the universe whatsoever) to revolve around the sun (an arbitrary star) in terms of the amount of time the earth takes to rotate around itself. These two obviously unrelated things are somehow merged into to create an unsolvable clusterfuck. To make matters worse, let's sprinkle some politics...

icxa 7y ago
> (an arbitrary planet that has no impact on the universe whatsoever) What do you call this type of worldview where you just view everything as completely meaningless or devoid of any value? Is it really straight up Narcism? I mean my god no wonder this is one of the most depressed generations on record. Apologies for the off-topic comment, I just felt compelled to post this. We are the most meaningful, most important things in the universe until we know or learn otherwise. We are the most intelligent, most accomplished life forms in our known existence. Viewing it as arbitrary might be "technically true" but then again what do we know? What if we are it? It is just as plausible as the other view: that we are just on a billion year course for the eventual heat death of the universe and the end of existence all together. Treat yourselves as special, you are. Treat others that way too. You'll also be a lot happier. Sorry for the platitudes.
- chendragon 7y ago
  If I remember correctly the word you're looking for is nihilism.
  - laughinghan 7y ago
    Ironically, viewing yourself as the most meaningful, important, intelligent, accomplished thing in the universe sounds a lot like narcissism.
    - delinka 7y ago
      When your "universe" is the size of a solar system with a single life-supporting planet, what other conclusion could possibly be met? If you're the only one in a talent contest, you're the best ... and the worst.
- nkrisc 7y ago
  I like life, but we are meaningless motes in the universe. We'll all be dead one day and no one will remember us. It's ok though, it doesn't matter.
  - sapilla 7y ago
    If human matters do not matter, why assume that language carries meaning? Do you believe that animals have meaningful conversation? Or that humans do? Does the universe speak? If it did, would you know? Do you understand its language? Can you hear it? There's also something else: nothing.
- karpodiem 7y ago
  I've learned to enjoy the struggle and this has helped me immensely.
kortilla 7y ago
It’s not an arbitrary planet from our perspective, which is the only one we even know to exist. We’ve needed to coordinate actions forever and the sun was the only reliable way to do that for a long time. Nothing arbitrary about where our time came from.
- derefr 7y ago
  Sure, for now; but I feel like it'd be aesthetically pleasing in some sense to try for something more objective—i.e. to predetermine the sort of timekeeping methods we would need upon establishing trade relations with a universe full of aliens, and then to use those methods in advance. Like a Society for Creative Anachronism meeting where the target period is forward in time rather than backward.
  - jakelazaroff 7y ago
    Given that we have no idea whether aliens even exist — and that life on Earth both literally and figuratively revolves around the Sun — that strikes me as the ultimate premature optimization.
  - SllX 7y ago
    If we ever meet aliens that also happen to be advanced enough to trade with, we will have already solved this issue ourselves because we’re cruising around in the Enterprise and needed a new timekeeping system by that point, or the Enterprise came to us and they will have their own timekeeping system that we can adopt. Before then? Eh. Objectivity is overrated and an imperfect time system is a nice reminder that life doesn’t revolve around us and what we want.
kstenerud 7y ago
I was hoping that he'd cover the different kinds of time, and where each kind is used in a program, but nobody seems to think about it: * Absolute Time: A time value fixed to UTC. * Fixed Time: A time value fixed to a specific time zone. * Floating Time: A time value that is interpreted according to the time zone of the observer. https://technicalsourcery.net/posts/time/ https://technicalsourcery.net/posts/time/

by adtac 7y ago

icxa 7y ago

> (an arbitrary planet that has no impact on the universe whatsoever) What do you call this type of worldview where you just view everything as completely meaningless or devoid of any value? Is it really straight up Narcism? I mean my god no wonder this is one of the most depressed generations on record. Apologies for the off-topic comment, I just felt compelled to post this. We are the most meaningful, most important things in the universe until we know or learn otherwise. We are the most intelligent, most accomplished life forms in our known existence. Viewing it as arbitrary might be "technically true" but then again what do we know? What if we are it? It is just as plausible as the other view: that we are just on a billion year course for the eventual heat death of the universe and the end of existence all together. Treat yourselves as special, you are. Treat others that way too. You'll also be a lot happier. Sorry for the platitudes.

chendragon 7y ago
If I remember correctly the word you're looking for is nihilism.
- laughinghan 7y ago
  Ironically, viewing yourself as the most meaningful, important, intelligent, accomplished thing in the universe sounds a lot like narcissism.
  - delinka 7y ago
    When your "universe" is the size of a solar system with a single life-supporting planet, what other conclusion could possibly be met? If you're the only one in a talent contest, you're the best ... and the worst.
nkrisc 7y ago
I like life, but we are meaningless motes in the universe. We'll all be dead one day and no one will remember us. It's ok though, it doesn't matter.
- sapilla 7y ago
  If human matters do not matter, why assume that language carries meaning? Do you believe that animals have meaningful conversation? Or that humans do? Does the universe speak? If it did, would you know? Do you understand its language? Can you hear it? There's also something else: nothing.
karpodiem 7y ago
I've learned to enjoy the struggle and this has helped me immensely.

kortilla 7y ago

It’s not an arbitrary planet from our perspective, which is the only one we even know to exist. We’ve needed to coordinate actions forever and the sun was the only reliable way to do that for a long time. Nothing arbitrary about where our time came from.

derefr 7y ago
Sure, for now; but I feel like it'd be aesthetically pleasing in some sense to try for something more objective—i.e. to predetermine the sort of timekeeping methods we would need upon establishing trade relations with a universe full of aliens, and then to use those methods in advance. Like a Society for Creative Anachronism meeting where the target period is forward in time rather than backward.
- jakelazaroff 7y ago
  Given that we have no idea whether aliens even exist — and that life on Earth both literally and figuratively revolves around the Sun — that strikes me as the ultimate premature optimization.
- SllX 7y ago
  If we ever meet aliens that also happen to be advanced enough to trade with, we will have already solved this issue ourselves because we’re cruising around in the Enterprise and needed a new timekeeping system by that point, or the Enterprise came to us and they will have their own timekeeping system that we can adopt. Before then? Eh. Objectivity is overrated and an imperfect time system is a nice reminder that life doesn’t revolve around us and what we want.

kstenerud 7y ago

I was hoping that he'd cover the different kinds of time, and where each kind is used in a program, but nobody seems to think about it: * Absolute Time: A time value fixed to UTC. * Fixed Time: A time value fixed to a specific time zone. * Floating Time: A time value that is interpreted according to the time zone of the observer. https://technicalsourcery.net/posts/time/ https://technicalsourcery.net/posts/time/