3 ms·
My dream world is everyone using 24 hour clocks set to UTC
by OsrsNeedsf2P 8mo ago
My dream world is everyone using 24 hour clocks set to UTC
- boothby 8mo agoMy dream world would have 86400 time zones, one per arc-second of the globe, so we can all sync our clocks at high noon.
- userbinator 8mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time
- pseudalopex 8mo agohttps://qntm.org/continuous https://qntm.org/continuous
- SpecialistK 8mo agoSounds good on paper, terrible idea in practice.
- pezezin 8mo agoNah, it also sounds terrible on paper.
- SpecialistK 8mo agoI'll correct myself: it sounds good for about 5 seconds before you think about it and realize it's an unworkable idea which creates more problems than it solves.
- __s 8mo agoI have all my clocks set to UTC. Works for me
- 1718627440 8mo agoI also did that for some time, I just don't perceived clocks to have a single point that is up and mentally rotated clocks all the time. The hours just lost their meaning beyond their numerical value.
- pezezin 8mo agoGood for you. I am currently living in Japan, and I don't want sunrise to happen at 21:00, noon at 3:00, and sunset at 9:00.
- dirasieb 8mo ago>I don't want sunrise to happen at 21:00, noon at 3:00, and sunset at 9:00 but it will happen regardless of what you think about it, the only choice you have is to pretend it's happening at a "different time" because you assign a different number to it
- pezezin 8mo agoTrue, but I want the numbers assigned to it to have a sensible meaning for us humans. Even if dealing with time zones is annoying, we must remember that computers should serve humans, not the other way around.
- recursive 8mo agoI will readily admit that I'm an idiot, but I've thought about it for literally multiple minutes, and I still love it. It even still seems workable!
- redfern314 8mo agoMy favorite depiction of your dream world: https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish
- bvanheu 8mo agothank you for sharing, I was trying to find something similar that explains why UTC everywhere is such a bad idea!
- allknowingfrog 8mo ago> Uncle Steve is zero hours ahead. Uncle Steve is the same number of hours ahead that he has always been, and that's a thing that could be looked up just as easily as finding his time zone. I think the author is greatly exaggerating the degree to which time zones solve any of the problems mentioned. Uncle Steve might be on a different sleep schedule from me, regardless of whether or not he's in a different time zone. Days of the week definitely become interesting in a global UTC system, but noon used to literally mean "the sun is at it's highest point". I suspect that people would grumble for a year or two and then forget that another system ever existed.
- redfern314 8mo agoThere's certainly a bit of dramatization/exaggeration here, but the main point is that it doesn't really fix the stated problem while also being a huge change for everyone to adapt to.
- stackskipton 8mo agoI think you missed entire point of operation. If everywhere runs on UTC, they will still have different times when people are working/not working/sleeping so you still have to look something up and figure it out. With time zones, you look up "What time is it?", realize it's 4:30AM and since most people around the world follow similar schedule, you quickly realize he's fast asleep.
- iggldiggl 8mo ago
- yen223 8mo agoMy dream world is we apply time zone logic to every other unit of measurement. 1 metre can be 100cm or 200cm depending on the season and your location
- fc417fc802 8mo ago12 oz of alcohol would obviously be larger in the winter the closer you get to the poles. I think I like this idea.
- leoapagano 8mo agoMy nightmare world would be one where we apply "everything else" logic to time. 1 kilosecond: about 17 minutes 1 megasecond: about 12 days 1 gigasecond: about 32 years "Oh man, it's been a hot megasecond since we last spoke!" Said everyone, in my worst nightmares.
- yen223 8mo agoplease nobody tell this person about milliseconds
- karmakurtisaani 8mo agoTime zones are a pain, but it might be too much to fix. Now, 13 month calendar with each month 4 weeks, on the other hand..
- throwway120385 8mo agoBut if we abolish time zones how will we keep trains from hitting each other on the tracks?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- gonzalohm 8mo agoAnd then it's going to be so fun guessing at which time each country in the world starts working
- notnullorvoid 8mo agoNot hard, visualize the locations on the globe and a pie with 24 slices. If you start work at 12, and you want to know when someone 2 slices West will start you add 2 to get 14. 2 slice East of you, subtract 2 to get 10. Better than guessing what timezone the region picked when it spans multiple natural time zones, and whether they do or don't have time changes.
- notnullorvoid 8mo agoAlso it's much easier for communication, because if someone sends you a message asking to have a call or meeting at X hour there's no need to know their timezone, because your X hour is the same as theirs no matter where you are in the world.
- duskdozer 8mo agoIdeally, you would be asking what time your specific colleagues start and end work, which could be quite different than the average of people who work in their country.
- notnullorvoid 8mo agoMine too. People seem to have are hard time conceptualizing the hour as an arbitrary number, rather than having a static (usually incorrect) meaning associated with it like 12 as noon/midnight.
- alex_suzuki 8mo agoMine would use Swatch Beat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time I’m writing this at @296.77
- gbriel 8mo agoMy dream is everyone has a personal clock based on their GPS location and solar noon is always when the sun is highest overhead wherever they are. Go to sleep and wake up based on this clock and use it for nothing else.
- wraptile 8mo agoIf only we had UTC 2.0 with UTC-0 set somewhere in the middle of Pacific or Atlantic - UTC would finally have cultural adoption. Setting UTC on GMT was such a mistake.