4 ms·

I agree that changing the definition of seconds would cause all kinds of problems. However, having local time and a local calendar that are synchronized with w

• skissane 6y ago
  > However, having local time and a local calendar that are synchronized with when the sun comes up and the seasons I think makes a lot of sense How important are the seasons going to be for people who have to spend the vast majority of their time indoors due to the lack of a breathable atmosphere – and possibly even underground for protection against radiation? Maybe one day Mars will be terraformed and given a breathable atmosphere, and maybe even some kind of artificial magnetosphere can be created to protect against radiation. But that is going to take many centuries. The fact is that modern societies don't really need a calendar synchronised to the seasons. Most jobs nowadays the seasons are not very important. This is especially true in parts of the world where the difference in weather between the seasons is less marked (like where I live, here it never snows in winter). Fields such as agriculture where seasons are important can always keep track of the seasons independently from the calendar, or using a special purpose agricultural calendar. In fact, that's what is traditionally done in much of the Islamic world – the Islamic calendar was used for most purposes, which is out of sync with the seasons. Those jobs for which seasons were important, such as farmers, also used a separate solar calendar. It was only in the 20th century that the need to participate in the global economy created pressure to use the Gregorian calendar instead. > I like Kim Stanley Robinson's approach, as described in the Mars trilogy. They use standard seconds, but at 12:00 midnight, the clocks just stop for about 39 minutes I don't know why you'd do that. On earth, clocks run from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 each day. On Mars, you'd just make them run to 24:39:34 instead. That way you can actually get precise times for events that occur in those extra 39 minutes and 35 seconds that happen each day. (Also, I'd hope people on Mars would be using 24 hour time–I'm one of those people who changes all their clocks to 24 hour time on Earth) > Martian colonies will still care about Earth calendars, but only to the extent that they have to deal with Earth For the first few decades at the very least, Martian colonies will be dealing with Earth an awful lot. A lot of goods will have to be imported from Earth. There will be a lot of focus on what they can locally manufacture on Mars, but they'll start with basic stuff like foodstuffs and simpler manufactured goods, and it will be a long time before Mars has leading-edge semiconductor fabs or a lot of other stuff like that. There will also be continual immigration from Earth, and also people returning to Earth (whether temporarily or permanently). That's going to psychologically link them with Earth. Martians are also going to consume a huge amount of cultural imports from Earth. You think on Mars they won't have Netflix, YouTube, etc? They'll replicate the content library into a Mars-based CDN and people will be watching it on Mars. It is going to take a long time before natively produced Martian media/entertainment content becomes more popular than the Earth-imported stuff. And I think that's going to tie Martians to Earth at least as much as trade ties and movement of people back and forth will. Martian colonies will undoubtedly develop some unique cultural aspects, but a huge amount of their culture is just going to be Earth imports.
  • elihu 6y ago
    > How important are the seasons going to be for people who have to spend the vast majority of their time indoors due to the lack of a breathable atmosphere – and possibly even underground for protection against radiation? Quite important, actually. Day and night cycles determine when solar power is available. You'll probably have some outdoor activity by humans (mining, construction, maintenance, etc...) that would be affected by daylight. (Perhaps most work will actually be done at night to avoid radiation from the sun?) And even in a hardened habitat you might have skylights (maybe long tubes or solar collectors connected to fiber optic cables rather than big windows in the ceiling). > The fact is that modern societies don't really need a calendar synchronised to the seasons. Most jobs nowadays the seasons are not very important. I work an indoor job, but still the seasons affect me quite a lot. (It's cold and rainy in the winter.) I don't know what the seasons are like on Mars, but I could imagine outdoor seasonal differences in temperature and light levels could have some impact on colony logistics. > For the first few decades at the very least, Martian colonies will be dealing with Earth an awful lot. Sure, but if the lead time between ordering a part and receiving delivery is something like six months or a year, it's probably hard to care that much about what's going on on Earth in real time. Sort of like someone who runs a business that buys parts from vendors in China is probably aware of the Chinese New Year. But that doesn't mean they run their life primarily off of the traditional Chinese calendar. > I don't know why you'd do that. On earth, clocks run from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 each day. On Mars, you'd just make them run to 24:39:34 instead. Well, sure, that's the practical solution. But it's less poetic than having some interval every day where the accounting of time is put on hold.
    • skissane 6y ago
      > I could imagine outdoor seasonal differences in temperature and light levels could have some impact on colony logistics The question is whether that's important enough to justify using as the primary calendar for everyday use. You can always have a "Mars seasons" app which displays current and future Mars seasonal information in terms of the Earth calendar, or in terms of some kind of hybrid Earth-Mars calendar (like my suggestion of using Mars sols but Earth years.)