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Actually, what you're suggesting is that even if it is broken, it's too costly to fix. Then you should ask: costly compared to what? If we fixed it, then innu
by w10-1 4y ago
Actually, what you're suggesting is that even if it is broken, it's too costly to fix. Then you should ask: costly compared to what?
If we fixed it, then innumerable generations after us would not have to deal with the problem.
The idea of "historical reason" and "social custom" assumes what it tries to prove, that the past is more important than the future.
The real problem is that we don't pay for the costs we impose on the future -- in bad calendars and environmental collapse from an overheated climate.
And because we don't pay, we don't have to care.
Indeed, "not caring" is taken as a badge of honor -- oppositional self-glorification through contempt for others.
Your point would be well-taken if it were well-intended and made with grace. The original post is a funny way to imagine accounting for the weight of history we lay upon those who come after us. It's a nice way to ask us to take some responsibility. Most everyone is willing to do what they can to make the world that little bit better. Indeed, I believe that those who came up with the original mistakes were trying to do better, and would welcome the corrections.
- allenu 4y ago> If we fixed it, then innumerable generations after us would not have to deal with the problem. In day to day use, I'd argue the date and time system works perfectly fine. I know when my birthday is, I know when Christmas is, I know when my next dentist appointment is. I'm not confused because months have different days or that the day is broken into 24 hours. Date and time systems for the most part are useful to us for social and cultural reasons. It works perfectly fine. It may seem "silly" that it's arbitrarily broken up into irregular months, but I'm not sure what we would gain if we used some new date system. Yes, computing the difference between two days is complicated, but when we're dealing with date-time in computing, we generally do not use year/month/day in our computations, but instead use some epoch number and convert to localized formats as needed for display.
- memoryleak 4y agoThere is some stuff, that can be fixed. I do not know the day of week (planning the next dentis appointment) without looking into a calendar. Often I have to think for a bit how many days a month has.
- Joeri 4y agoIndeed. Most of humanity still has to be born, so whatever we improve for future humans will be outweighed by whatever hardship it imposes on us, from a strictly rational point of view. The trick is: how do we know we’re making things better, and how do we know they will stick.