4 ms·

> or worry about whether whomever we had to collaborate with in a different part of the world was doing the same. How would having a single universal time solv

by SamBam 5y ago

> or worry about whether whomever we had to collaborate with in a different part of the world was doing the same. How would having a single universal time solve knowing whether your collaborators were asleep or having dinner or whatever? You could have some kind of lookup table -- "Australians usually wake up around 18:00 UTC" -- but then what have you solved?

WithinReason 5y ago
With universal time you wouldn't have to do conversion when you want to determine when an event is in one time-zone when it's specified in another one.
- taeric 5y ago
  You would if you were wanting to be kind to the folks not in your area. Would also make moving amusingly harder. You would be used to schools and business starting at time X, but you would be wrong.
  - riemannzeta 5y ago
    Would it be harder? Maybe it would make adjusting to the fact that you live in a different longitude easier.
    - taeric 5y ago
      I mean, it wouldn't be a complete road block. But when visiting cross country, it is easy to know folks get up around eight to nine. Pretty much wherever I go. Similarly, I can check out my call will hit around five to know I will probably be interrupting meal time for families with kids.
riemannzeta 5y ago
So you still need lookup table to figure out whether you're being considerate of them or not. At least you don't have to worry also that you're miscommunicating with them regarding when you want to meet! My sense is that more of the problems we have result from not understanding what time somebody is proposing. People are free to point out, after all, that that isn't a convenient time so long as they understand what is proposed accurately. There's some possibility, in fact, that everybody living with their own local time makes it harder for people to learn how their local time works relative to others'. If we all used one universal time, we'd probably have developed an intuition for when people were sleeping in different parts of the world according to that universal time. As it is, we tend to rely on the lookup tables every time.

by SamBam 5y ago

WithinReason 5y ago

With universal time you wouldn't have to do conversion when you want to determine when an event is in one time-zone when it's specified in another one.

taeric 5y ago
You would if you were wanting to be kind to the folks not in your area. Would also make moving amusingly harder. You would be used to schools and business starting at time X, but you would be wrong.
- riemannzeta 5y ago
  Would it be harder? Maybe it would make adjusting to the fact that you live in a different longitude easier.
  - taeric 5y ago
    I mean, it wouldn't be a complete road block. But when visiting cross country, it is easy to know folks get up around eight to nine. Pretty much wherever I go. Similarly, I can check out my call will hit around five to know I will probably be interrupting meal time for families with kids.

riemannzeta 5y ago

So you still need lookup table to figure out whether you're being considerate of them or not. At least you don't have to worry also that you're miscommunicating with them regarding when you want to meet! My sense is that more of the problems we have result from not understanding what time somebody is proposing. People are free to point out, after all, that that isn't a convenient time so long as they understand what is proposed accurately. There's some possibility, in fact, that everybody living with their own local time makes it harder for people to learn how their local time works relative to others'. If we all used one universal time, we'd probably have developed an intuition for when people were sleeping in different parts of the world according to that universal time. As it is, we tend to rely on the lookup tables every time.