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Time to Dump Time Zones (NYT Op-ed)
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Straight Edge
Member
How else am I supposed to get recorded statements?
E-Cat
Member
Wolfe
Member
Uh what? Not have to fuck with your alarm? But you'll have to change the time itself anyway or else your alarm will be going off at the correct time in the wrong time zone. Unless you're taking into account a smart phone changing it's time zone accordingly? Do they even do that? I don't change time zone frequently enough to know
DLST is awful though, that is for sure.
Smooth Operator
Member
I'm dumb guys, i'm sorry (Only slept 3 hours, guess i should go to bed early tonight).
What point does this serve? Time was designed for humans so it should be human optimized (ie it's tied to culture, not simplicity of number systems). It's the whole reason DST works at all. You're just trading one conversion for another, ultimately. Who cares about computer systems? They should never use non UTC anyway except for display.
Adam_Vania
Banned
wtf does he even mean w this? the system is unstable? how so? has anyone accidentally thought it was the wrong time or something? how is it going to "collapse"? what kind of idiotic fearmongering is this?
bravo for getting the easiest job in the world of writing a opinion piece for something that will never happen though! who do u know that got u this sweet gig, James Gleick?
ZeroGravity
Member
The very definition of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it."
chillybright
Banned
OnionPowder
Member
It's high three
It's high noon somewhere, oh...
Oppo
Member
it was broke though – time zones were invented to address a need.
personally I wouldn't mind the change proposed, but it would throw a lot of things into chaos. and since we are already displaying exactly the intended time with + or -X hours then I don't see a big advantage to signifying "real time" instead.
SMS: "u up?"
Yup. Unless I'm missing something, this seems to make some specific business scenarios easier while also creating many issues for daily life scenarios.
If the entire argument for not getting rid of time zones hinges on needing to make a phone call, then we should get rid of time zones.
I think that would be fine, but not at all worth the transition. Yeah, everyone can just think of a different part of the day when they hear 3PM, there's no problem there. But getting everyone to be ok with that would be a big problem. And the advantage? You can avoid 2 Google searches each time you encounter an important time for a distant location.
Honestly, we can't even get everyone to agree to the 24 hour clock or the metric system. Both those goals are closer to being achieved, and one of them would be super useful.
Honestly, we can't even get everyone to agree to the 24 hour clock or the metric system. Both those goals are closer to being achieved, and one of them would be super useful.
They do. Or, at least mine does. Gives me a little notification saying 'hey now you're in this timezone' and all that.Unless you're taking into account a smart phone changing it's time zone accordingly? Do they even do that? I don't change time zone frequently enough to know
Americans run around with yards and feet, cups and ounces, pounds and ounces, but want a unified clock? You guys don't even have a 24h clock yet!
That aside, why the hell would we do this? The clock is made so that it is noon when the sun crosses the meridian. That means there's really infinite time-zones since it's continuous, so we made time zones. It makes absolutely no sense to get rid of time zones, as ordinary people normally relate to time zones most when travelling. It's best to know that it's seven in the morning when you wake up, so you know it's a good time to get up or not. Imagine going to Tokyo, going "oh, it's 17:00. That gives me no fucking information what so ever. Ok, so I'm normally in Europe, which means that it's +9 for me, so it's... 28:00. God damnit. OK, that's 28 - 24, so it's 4:00 in the morning. That means I can sleep more. Fuck me, now I'm wide awake".
This won't even help with what they're really hoping to fix; there'll still be a time difference. If I know that it's 10:00 in the morning in Tokyo, I can assume that an office is open. If I go "it's 13:20, now. I have no idea if that's in the middle of the night or not for someone in Japan". What the hell is this even supposed to fix?
Also, DST is the best. It prevents the sun from coming up at 2:30 in the morning and going down at 9:30 in the evening here. That doesn't make sense.
The more I think about it, the more obvious it is how stupid this idea is.
That aside, why the hell would we do this? The clock is made so that it is noon when the sun crosses the meridian. That means there's really infinite time-zones since it's continuous, so we made time zones. It makes absolutely no sense to get rid of time zones, as ordinary people normally relate to time zones most when travelling. It's best to know that it's seven in the morning when you wake up, so you know it's a good time to get up or not. Imagine going to Tokyo, going "oh, it's 17:00. That gives me no fucking information what so ever. Ok, so I'm normally in Europe, which means that it's +9 for me, so it's... 28:00. God damnit. OK, that's 28 - 24, so it's 4:00 in the morning. That means I can sleep more. Fuck me, now I'm wide awake".
This won't even help with what they're really hoping to fix; there'll still be a time difference. If I know that it's 10:00 in the morning in Tokyo, I can assume that an office is open. If I go "it's 13:20, now. I have no idea if that's in the middle of the night or not for someone in Japan". What the hell is this even supposed to fix?
Also, DST is the best. It prevents the sun from coming up at 2:30 in the morning and going down at 9:30 in the evening here. That doesn't make sense.
The more I think about it, the more obvious it is how stupid this idea is.
DST rules. Why do so many people hate it?
hobblygobbly
Member
I agree, world is so global now that people really don't need to know of all regional time zones and try to know the local time. All you need is the UTC offset and now you know the hour difference... then you will know the local time in relation to yours. There's no other simpler system.
Examples (cities for clarity but obviously it covers entire regions like UTC+1 for Central Europe):
London UTC+0
Berlin UTC+1
Kiev UTC+2
Moscow UTC+3
Beijing UTC+8
Tokyo UTC+9
Auckland UTC+12
Los Angeles UTC-8
Denver UTC-7
Dallas UTC-6
New York UTC-5
Arithmetic, what's the difference between Berlin and New York by just knowing the two offsets? 6 hours, now a Berliner will know the time in New York in relation and vice versa, it's universal.
Examples (cities for clarity but obviously it covers entire regions like UTC+1 for Central Europe):
London UTC+0
Berlin UTC+1
Kiev UTC+2
Moscow UTC+3
Beijing UTC+8
Tokyo UTC+9
Auckland UTC+12
Los Angeles UTC-8
Denver UTC-7
Dallas UTC-6
New York UTC-5
Arithmetic, what's the difference between Berlin and New York by just knowing the two offsets? 6 hours, now a Berliner will know the time in New York in relation and vice versa, it's universal.
Oppo
Member
honestly it's as good a system as any for this purpose
Skellig Gra
Member
How is that any different than how things are currently working?
Ganzlinger
Member
I believe they created the time zones for a very good reason in the first place, so you can actually relate to the time based on sun position and natural illumination even if you traveled to the opposite side of the world.
You can avoid to search "what time is it in NYC", but you still have no idea what time it is in NYC. "Global time" means nothing. The article brings up that for computers and air traffic it makes sense, and they're god damned right it makes sense. I'm a programmer. Localization of time zones, dates, week numbers are the silliest task to spent way too much time on. This won't solve half of that. They quote 39 time zones being silly. I agree. Standardize on only "on the hour" time zone. Australia and India can adjust. But this solves way less than they think it does. What most programmers argue is that you should have a standardized way to represent time. We don't care about offsets in hours. That's easy. What's hard is knowing which way some people represent their dates. is it DDMMYY? Maybe it's MMDDYY? Because that makes zero sense. It should be YYMMDD, since computers can sort it with the alphabet, but whatever. Programs use epoch time anyway.
SaganIsGOAT
Junior Member
I am in
Many of the multinational companies I've worked for/with already do that, by setting international meetings using UTC.
Sharing a common timezone would still oblige some people to wake up in the middle of the night in some parts of the world, and for others to stay at work until the middle of the following night.
Unless the author thinks these people should change their working hours to fit this common timezone.
In which case he's just crazy AF.
Uh, not really. You just go to bed X number of hours past sundown and wake up at sunrise.
You do realize we managed our sleep cycles just fine before the advent of timekeeping, right?
You're completely overlooking that you now have to perform that arithmetic task every single time you wonder what time it is, instead of having to do it once. You say "ok, so it's 13:00. Is this a good time to have dinner? I have to calculate what time it is by my standard first". It might be global, but it presents no benefits, and it is in relation to nothing.
LookAtMeGo
Member
I read this as "Trump to dump time zones"
Lasthope106
Member
No thanks. I like the idea that people can have coffee at 9:00 am in the morning, and that is understood all around the world. With this system everyone's morning would be a different hour. That's just an example.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
I am all for this. So all for this. We don't need to arbitrarily start our days with our clocks set at a certain time. Our physiology uses the sun as reference for when to sleep/wake, not clocks, as it is.
Can't you just have coffee in the morning? Do you really need the "9am" part?
Can't you just have coffee in the morning? Do you really need the "9am" part?
The Spoony Hou
Member
I wonder if that would eventually cause the world population to flock to the places close to the central time zone. The same way going to space is easier near the equator, living on Earth might be simpler near the ideal time zone.
Well, that's a fucking stupid idea.
Well, that's a fucking stupid idea.
This is true if you live at the equator, or fairly close to it. The sun currently sets at five here. My physiology had a hard time, but is now not tethered to the sun. I have this brief period of perhaps a month twice a year when the sun correctly sets my queues. I love those months, because it's easy for me to get up and go to sleep. I currently get really sleepy around seven, but then I'm wide wake by 10. It's stupid. You live by the clock, so this isn't true. Most people get up so they can be at work in time, not by when the sun rises.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Does it get rid of DST?
Straight Edge
Member
The proposed method is just another different arbitrary way of managing your day.
Stuff like this is similar to how programmers should never be in charge of the user interface.
ClosingADoor
Member
No, it is perfectly fine as it is. Changing it to a standard time will add a lot of confusion.
It's actually already a miracle we are all on a 24 hour clock around the world an nobody thought to do something different.
It's actually already a miracle we are all on a 24 hour clock around the world an nobody thought to do something different.
Henry Jones Jr
Member
Get rid of daylight savings time first.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Your natural circadian rhythm is driven largely by responses to light and darkness in your environment. You can change it, but any change to it is arbitrary on your part. Just like when your clock is set to is arbitrary. If you changed all of the clocks in your house to be set five hours back you're not suddenly going to be more tired. Not unless you arbitrarily change your sleep schedule to match the clock even though you want to keep the same sleep schedule.
Agreed. A better arbitrary way.
Programmers would actually be pretty annoyed it were to change now.
If you need something to tell you when it is morning or afternoon or night in other country so you can communicate with this person, set a deadline or whatever, than you need basicaly a timezone
Nazgul_Hunter
Member
I don't understand the benefits of this? Seems like you're trading the mental burden of figuring out what time it is somewhere for the mental burden of figuring out what time do people do X in a specific place, like:
I'm in NYC and it's 3AM, can I call my colleague in London? What hours do they work?
Jetlag will still be a thing... Instead of "I have to wait until 9PM to sleep to make it better" it becomes "At what time do I have to go to sleep to make it better?"
IDK just seems stupid man.
I'm in NYC and it's 3AM, can I call my colleague in London? What hours do they work?
Jetlag will still be a thing... Instead of "I have to wait until 9PM to sleep to make it better" it becomes "At what time do I have to go to sleep to make it better?"
IDK just seems stupid man.
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