In one of these stories you used Google and in the other you didn’t. Both of these problems are solveable with Google
Comment on Why don't we have one timezone covering the whole earth?
YaBoyMax@programming.dev 4 months ago
So You Want To Abolish Time Zones
In a nutshell:
Before abolishing time zones:
I want to call my Uncle Steve in Melbourne. What time is it there?
Google tells me it is currently 4:25am there.
It’s probably best not to call right now.
After abolishing time zones:*
I want to call my Uncle Steve in Melbourne. What time is it there?
It is 04:25 (“four twenty-five”) there, same as it is here.
Does that mean I can call him?
I don’t know.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
r00ty@kbin.life 4 months ago
We could all just cover our windows, take Vitamin D supplements and actually all live on the UTC timezone.
redcalcium@lemmy.institute 4 months ago
And let the brits enjoy UTC+0 like nothing happened while the rest of the word scrambles to adapt to the new time system? This is tyranny! I demand a new system where my region is the one with UTC+0 instead!
towerful@programming.dev 4 months ago
Have UTC+0 run horizontally, instead.
And increase its width to run from +80° to -80°.
Squeeze the rest of the timezones into the polesr00ty@kbin.life 4 months ago
No! In summer time we'd be a whole hour out of our natural time! It would be too much to handle.
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 4 months ago
You still need to convert in your head to “decide if usually awake at this time”. This solves nothing. Plus what if they’re somewhere unfamiliar on a trip?
Meanwhile stuff like world time buddy or other locations on clocks are very accessible tools
VoterFrog@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The joke is that the whole world could go to sleep/wake up/work at the exact same time, day or night.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I lived in a tiny apartment with a streetlamp just outside my only window. Even with blackout curtains that room had no day/night cycle. I’m still trying to get back on a normal day/night cycle, fifteen years later.
So, that’s another method you could try.
kevincox@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Google tells me people are usually awake at 20:25 there.
Problem solved. This actually makes it problem simpler. With different time zones:
- Get local time.
- Convert to target time.
- Decide if your uncle is usually awake at the target time.
With one time zone:
- Get time.
- Decide if your uncle is usually awake at that time.
hglman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Exactly, it always requires knowing your uncles habits.
Turun@feddit.de 4 months ago
No shit, so no difference to the current situation.
Turun@feddit.de 4 months ago
I am too late. I knew this would be the top post, even though the arguments brought forth in the blog post are utterly stupid. I would even go so far as to say their arguments are presented in bad faith, because I refuse to believe the author actually thinks that’s how it would go. (They have some seriously awesome posts, I most highly recommend qntm.org/mmacevedo)
With time zones:
you Google what the timzone offset is (aka at which point in your local timezone the sun rises over there). Considering this sunrise time you then have to make a judgement if your uncle would be awake now.Without times zones: you Google at which time the sun rises over there. Considering this sunrise time you then have to make a judgement if your uncle would be awake now.
It’s literally the same process.
ech@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Ah yes, sunrise. That things that never ever changes depending on the time of year or location on the planet. Very dependable and memorizable thing, the sunrise.
hglman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah, which makes the points, it’s non trivial to know when to contact people with timezones anyways. The time zone only adds more complexity.
ta_leadran_orm@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I think the point is that people’s routine isn’t tied to sunrise. For example, in the summertime I start work about 4 hours after sunrise, and in the winter I start work 20mins after sunrise. The difference would actually be more dramatic without daylight savings With timezones and modern internet you don’t need to look up the offset at all, you just look up the current time in that zone and decide if that’s an appropriate time to call. Speaking as someone who deals with timezones a fair bit, both in work and personal life. And as someone who understands the headache of dealing with them in international computer systems, the time zone system is a very nice compromise. Though daylight savings need to die
Turun@feddit.de 4 months ago
Very dependable and memorizable thing, the sunrise.
Uh, yeah? Because it defines your circadian rhythm?
Ah yes, clock time. That things that never ever changes depending on the time of year or location on the planet. Very dependable and memorizable thing, the clock time.
The arguments are exactly the same. It basically boils down to the philosophy if you want the daily life to be controlled by clocks or by the natural sleep/wake cycle of the body.
Some prefer by the clock, because it provides a fixed constant, even if it may run counter to our very nature. You very well may prefer that. Others argue for a more natural sleep cycle, especially when it comes to school for example. Complaints about work starting too early are not exactly rare either.ech@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Some prefer by the clock, because it provides a fixed constant
Huh, you know what? I think you’re right.
knightly@pawb.social 4 months ago
You already have to Google for what time it is in another part of the world, and Google can also tell you when sunup, solar noon, sundown, and midnight are in Melbourne, so it sounds like you aren’t any worse off without time zones.
If you actually want to know if the sun is up somewhere else, then you want a world clock. At a glance visibility on the current position of the sun for every location on the globe, no time zones necessary.
Falcon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Just add 11 to utc.
No harder than having different times in different places.
hglman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Just coordinate via asynchronous communication to schedule a time. It’s not 1935.
You: “hey uncle text me when it would be a good time to have a call”
6 hours later
Uncle: “hey i just got up, lets have a call at 4:50”
You: “thats a bid late for me, im in bed by 4:00, what about 3:30?”
Uncle: “sure sounds great”
No one needed to know anything about when people wake up, where on earth they live, etc.
person@lemm.ee 4 months ago
It can also tell you what the waking hours would be with the same amount of effort, no?
And to give another example:
Before abolishing time zones:
“Hey everyone on this global internet forum, we are launching at UTC+3 16:00 today!”
Oh okay. Wait am I UTC or UTC+1 right now? How much would that be?
After abolishing time zones
“Hey everyone on this global internet forum, we are launching at 16:00 today!”
Oh okay, 7 hours from now.
4am@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Yeah it’s too bad that we can’t have the convenience of both, right?
Hey, wait a minute…
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Relevant username
TheDannysaur@lemmy.world 4 months ago
What time zone is that minute in?!
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s a situation where there are benefits to either option but one probably outweighs the other massively in frequency. I schedule many more international meetings and make many more international calls than the number of times I’ve needed a global event time. And that’s kinda saying something since I’m a space geek that looks for astronomical events, which are all UTC. It’s fewer steps to look up the distant current time and do the math from my current time for a passive event than it is to have everyone be UTC, then look up a distant wake time or business hours, then do math to figure out what the functional time is for something requiring human input.
China is one universal time despite spanning from +5 to +9
captainjaneway@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah but in your example, you wouldn’t need to look anything up either. You’re presumably very familiar with the offset of your time to their time? You’d also become familiar with their “universal time” versus your time. You’d just know what hours they’d be awake and asleep because you will have done the translation a few times.
In addition, I - personally - would find it easier to memorize times in a single system: e.g. remembering that people in China are awake from 9pm to 8am is easier for me to remember. I typically already do this in my own head. I’ll convert times to my own local time and then memorize that. Do other people not do that? I find it much easier to look at my own clock and know if I can reach out to someone internationally.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I don’t know, I’m not seeing how that’s different. You’re remembering how your clock maps to other countries, I’m remembering UTC offsets. I feel like the main thing I’m actually seeing here is really a DST issue and remembering partial-hour offsets. Neither of those would go away with abolishing time zones
bouh@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Whether you realise it or not, there are two hours you are using here. Your local time that you suppose is automatically converted in your brain, and the international time that you can already use and is called UTC.
Learn to use UTC, problem solved.
Why do you want to create problems when there is a solution already?
person@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Without timezones you would not need to use two times. That is the solution. What problems is it creating?
bouh@lemmy.world 4 months ago
That time means nothing anymore. Time is something real, not a mere number that’s irrelevant to reality. Midday is the middle of the day and the zenith of the sun, or close enough. Midnight is the middle of the night. Etc. It doesn’t need to be exact, but it needs to mean something. In France for example 4PM is the name of the snack you eat that this time.