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OsrsNeedsf2P 5 hours ago

My dream world is everyone using 24 hour clocks set to UTC

boothby 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My 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 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time

redfern314 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My favorite depiction of your dream world: https://qntm.org/abolish

allknowingfrog 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> 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.

Arch485 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I feel like days are a non-issue; they would just start at different times (UTC) in different territories. This wouldn't make things any more complicated than they already are (currently, if I want to talk to someone in Australia, I have to look up what time it is in Australia and infer the day of the week from that, if necessary. If everything is under UTC, I know what "time" it is, but I still have to look up what day it is).

Most of the issues time zones cause are not "day of the week" related anyways (at least in my experience), so I think having to figure out what day of the week it is somewhere else wouldn't be a common problem anyways.

redfern314 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There'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 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I 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.

bvanheu 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

thank you for sharing, I was trying to find something similar that explains why UTC everywhere is such a bad idea!

notnullorvoid 29 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Mine 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.

yen223 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My 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

leoapagano 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My 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.

fc417fc802 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

12 oz of alcohol would obviously be larger in the winter the closer you get to the poles. I think I like this idea.

gonzalohm 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And then it's going to be so fun guessing at which time each country in the world starts working

notnullorvoid 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

Not 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 26 minutes ago | parent [-]

Also 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.

4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
karmakurtisaani 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Time 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 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But if we abolish time zones how will we keep trains from hitting each other on the tracks?

SpecialistK 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sounds good on paper, terrible idea in practice.

pezezin 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Nah, it also sounds terrible on paper.

SpecialistK 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I'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.

recursive 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I 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!

__s 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have all my clocks set to UTC. Works for me

pezezin 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Good 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.

1718627440 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I 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.