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The idea that if being dark at 12pm in 20k years will bother anyone is absurd. The shift will happen so slowly that the only people who will even realize it hap

The idea that if being dark at 12pm in 20k years will bother anyone is absurd. The shift will happen so slowly that the only people who will even realize it happened are historians and history buffs. Really the idea that there will enough civilizational continuity that our current timekeeping infrastructure and systems will continue unbroken for that long is insane.

al_borland 7mo ago
Changing a global time system is not a trivial task. We’re still using a calendar developed over 400 years ago and just making minor tweaks. Without some central global authority, change is unlikely. And even with that, it would be extraordinary disruptive. The middle for the day, on our time keeping devices, being light outside goes all the way back to the first sundials over 3,000 years ago. Small and regular maintenance is more realistic than expecting a complete overhaul of timekeeping at some point when are lack of maintenance becomes so problematic that the whole system needs to be thrown away.
- deleted 7mo ago
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- fuoqi 7mo ago
  >The middle for the day, on our time keeping devices, being light outside goes all the way back to the first sundials over 3,000 years ago. Most of the world is perfectly fine with 12:00 not being synchronized with high noon [0]. And some jurisdictions still semiannually f*k with it further using DST. Generously assuming the current time keeping system will survive for ~6k years (looking at the leap seconds accumulation rate for the last 50 years) we can just shift timezones by one hour. [0]: https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a4613f057d3b5f17ec548e6ac06d1/aaca3f3d940ef33f-fc/s1280x1920/34bd493695cd2b39bfd5755240f2b8e0adb49330.png https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a4613f057d3b5f17ec548e6ac06d1...
- sarchertech 7mo ago
  We’re talking 20k-50k years before the 12pm is no longer light outside. Do you know how long that is on a civilizational scale? When we try to develop warnings for nuclear waste storage that will last that long it’s mostly impossible because we assume there will be absolutely no civilizational continuity/shared context. Doing 20k years of regular maintenance just in case we somehow keep using the same timekeeping system is completely unhinged. Better to jump an hour in 6k years if people in 6k years decide they care.
bloppe 7mo ago
We're still using a calendar that was essentially created by Julius Caesar (with a slight adjustment by Pope Gregory). I think you're underestimating the power of continuity.
- sarchertech 7mo ago
  Keep in mind that the calendar we use today is off by 13 days from the one in use 2000 years ago. We’re talking about an hour difference in 6,000 years. 6,000 years ago is 1,000 years before Stonehenge. And this isn’t about whether we use the same calendar, we’re talking about whether we have time keeping continuity down to the second. This requires infrastructure continuity and essentially no adjustments whatsoever over that time.

al_borland 7mo ago

Changing a global time system is not a trivial task. We’re still using a calendar developed over 400 years ago and just making minor tweaks. Without some central global authority, change is unlikely. And even with that, it would be extraordinary disruptive. The middle for the day, on our time keeping devices, being light outside goes all the way back to the first sundials over 3,000 years ago. Small and regular maintenance is more realistic than expecting a complete overhaul of timekeeping at some point when are lack of maintenance becomes so problematic that the whole system needs to be thrown away.

deleted 7mo ago
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fuoqi 7mo ago
>The middle for the day, on our time keeping devices, being light outside goes all the way back to the first sundials over 3,000 years ago. Most of the world is perfectly fine with 12:00 not being synchronized with high noon [0]. And some jurisdictions still semiannually f*k with it further using DST. Generously assuming the current time keeping system will survive for ~6k years (looking at the leap seconds accumulation rate for the last 50 years) we can just shift timezones by one hour. [0]: https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a4613f057d3b5f17ec548e6ac06d1/aaca3f3d940ef33f-fc/s1280x1920/34bd493695cd2b39bfd5755240f2b8e0adb49330.png https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a4613f057d3b5f17ec548e6ac06d1...
sarchertech 7mo ago
We’re talking 20k-50k years before the 12pm is no longer light outside. Do you know how long that is on a civilizational scale? When we try to develop warnings for nuclear waste storage that will last that long it’s mostly impossible because we assume there will be absolutely no civilizational continuity/shared context. Doing 20k years of regular maintenance just in case we somehow keep using the same timekeeping system is completely unhinged. Better to jump an hour in 6k years if people in 6k years decide they care.

bloppe 7mo ago

We're still using a calendar that was essentially created by Julius Caesar (with a slight adjustment by Pope Gregory). I think you're underestimating the power of continuity.

sarchertech 7mo ago
Keep in mind that the calendar we use today is off by 13 days from the one in use 2000 years ago. We’re talking about an hour difference in 6,000 years. 6,000 years ago is 1,000 years before Stonehenge. And this isn’t about whether we use the same calendar, we’re talking about whether we have time keeping continuity down to the second. This requires infrastructure continuity and essentially no adjustments whatsoever over that time.