5 ms·
Come on, even Earth doesn't need timezones.
by WithinReason 4y ago
Come on, even Earth doesn't need timezones.
- WayToDoor 4y agoSo You Want Continuous Time Zones [0] ? Or maybe you want to abolish them entirely [1] ? [0] https://qntm.org/continuous https://qntm.org/continuous [1] https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish
- twic 4y agoThe solution is obviously Swatch Internet Time.
- WithinReason 4y agoAbolish them entirely. Your second link is silly and is not a serious counterargument.
- Dylan16807 4y agoIt's just as valid as a non-silly post. If you get rid of time zones, people will replace them with an ad hoc system that does most of the same things but worse. The current implementation could be improved some, but time zones in general are close to the least worst option.
- WithinReason 4y agoI think having a unified time everywhere is a really obvious advantage. Time being measured differently based on geographic location is completely silly. You would still need to look up how a different location is scheduled but you also need to do that with timezones so there's no disadvantage, only an advantage.
- Dylan16807 4y agoWe do have a unified time everywhere, UTC. Putting time zones on top means people have to look up less.
- WithinReason 4y agoUTC is effectively a timezone. Putting tomezones on top means people have to look up more.
- Dylan16807 4y agoPlease explain how you would do unified time without UTC?
- WithinReason 4y agoI would use UTC of course. Why would you do anything else?
- Dylan16807 4y agoThen I don't understand what point you were making when you said "UTC is effectively a timezone." But if it was notably more convenient, I would expect to see more people using it right now, even when it's not the default.
- WithinReason 4y agoIt's a matter of compatibility, e.g. you're not going to start measuring length in meters when everyone else in your country is using feet. That's why I said UTC is a time zone, nobody uses it outside of the UTC time zone, therefore nobody uses it outside of the UTC time zone.
- lesuorac 4y agoI mean each city used to have their own time zone and we got rid of that. The next step is to just get rid of the country-sized timezones. Sure the sun doesn't rise in US West as US East at the same time but it also doesn't rise at the same time in Florida as it does in Maine.
- downvotetruth 4y agoThose links have many falsehoods like claiming that UTC is a time zone. UTC±00:00 or Z is, but not UTC; "Continuous Time Zones" is self-contradictory.
- layman51 4y agoThe Earth doesn’t need them? But wasn’t the concept of a time zone invented because someone was always late to the train station and it was leaving him behind? We would at least need one giant time zone with an international date line.
- njarboe 4y agoIt was needed for running railroads but the issue was a bit more important than being late for your train and missing it. When you are running trains in opposite directions on the same track it is pretty important to have your clocks well synced so you don't have head-on collisions.
- downvotetruth 4y agoHaving your clocks well synced is not enough to stop collisions.