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  3. Why don't the whole planet just use UTC+00:00 / Universal Time without time zones?

Why don't the whole planet just use UTC+00:00 / Universal Time without time zones?

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  • P [email protected]

    Why isn't this a popular thing?

    L This user is from outside of this forum
    L This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by
    #114

    On the other hand, we could refine time zones so they’re continuous instead of discrete chunks. Then every step you take adjusts the time. Would be more “accurate.”

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    • I [email protected]

      Base 10/100 is inferior to 12/60 when it comes to splitting.

      10 can only be divided by 10,5,2, and 1. 100 only adds 4, 25, and 50 to that.

      12 is divisible by 12,6,4,3,2, and 1. 60 adds 5,10,15,20, and 30.

      What is time other than measuring the movements of circles and spheres? The rotation of the earth, the revolution around the sun. It makes sense for us to use the same basic 12/60/360 tools we use for circles, degrees. The “metric” measurement of circles is radians, which would require factoring pi into our measurement of time, and that would be way more complicated.

      H This user is from outside of this forum
      H This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by [email protected]
      #115

      That is correct. We'd gain a few things though. For example I could easily tell how much time passed between 8:47am and 3:22pm without doing all the gymnastics. Or maybe how many days it is until a certain date. As of now that's just a lot of irregular 30s and 31s and then the last of February and you almost need a look-up table for that with all the extra rules and exceptions.

      Main thing I wanted to say, once you decouple time from the timezones, you're somewhat on the way of making earth's spin meaningless. You'd end up going to work at 14:50 and returning home at 23:20 anyway (for example). Maybe you'll advance into a new day randomly while at it. I don't see how that's fundamentally different to just working from 250 until 600. And I think I can as easily remember to pick up the kids at 2am or at 100 ticks. Also some calculations wirh the 60 are really annoying. Netflix will show a movie is 145 minutes, it's now x o clock and do I get to bed at 10:30pm? That'd also be easier with metric.

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      • C [email protected]

        To be fair, a lot of office jobs (in Prague at least) are 9-17, or 8-16. Unless you meant government offices, which do open earlier with standart 8(7.5)hr shift

        C This user is from outside of this forum
        C This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #116

        CZECH FOUND

        You've been added to the list. There's nearly 10 of us, almost enough to keep [email protected] afloat!

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        • I [email protected]

          No, in this hypothetical scenario, he wouldn't complain about it being 0945 because he's grown up in a world where that's ambiguous. He's going to say, "Don't you know it's the middle of the night here?!"

          dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
          dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by [email protected]
          #117

          because he's grown up in a world where that's ambiguous

          No he hasn't. Never moved a or traveled outside his own city.

          That why this "make everyones time the same" is about as smart as an idea as shoving Lego up your nose.

          I 1 Reply Last reply
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          • I [email protected]

            It's not more convenient. I'm just saying we'd have been used to that and just as weirded out by the idea of time zones if that was all we'd ever known.

            dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
            dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #118

            No we wouldn't.

            One of these is a logical thing, we measured time in the relative passing of days.

            Having "our local noon is 0550pm" is dumb as rocks and nowhere comparable to time zones. Unlike some people have prolly told you, not every idea is equal.

            Now go ahead and read what it's doing in China and see our glorious idea at work

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            • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

              No we wouldn't.

              One of these is a logical thing, we measured time in the relative passing of days.

              Having "our local noon is 0550pm" is dumb as rocks and nowhere comparable to time zones. Unlike some people have prolly told you, not every idea is equal.

              Now go ahead and read what it's doing in China and see our glorious idea at work

              I This user is from outside of this forum
              I This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote on last edited by
              #119

              Having "our local noon is 0550pm" is dumb as rocks and nowhere comparable to time zones.

              How is "our local noon is at 1200" any more objectively logical? Midnight is an objectively arbitrary time to start the new date. The best you can say is that it's twelve hours before local noon, but even if you index off of local noon it doesn't make any more logical sense to put the 0 while most people are asleep. Someone who hasn't grown up with our clock might well say, "why would we choose a clock that puts the beginning of the usable part of the day at 6 or 7 for most people?" Calling the hour when people wake up 0000 or 0100 would make a lot of logical sense.

              Unlike some people have prolly told you, not every idea is equal.

              Numbers have no inherent meaning. We could make noon happen at 0000, 1200, 2200, whatever--and people would find it completely intuitive if they grew up in it all their lives.

              I'm not saying that "every idea is equal." That's patently nonsense. What I'm saying is that, if you're going to have a 24-hour clock indexed to noon, putting noon at 1200 makes just as much sense as putting it at any other time on that 24-hour clock.

              Now go ahead and read what it's doing in China and see our glorious idea at work

              Sounds like the answer is "fine." People in Xinjiang wake up a couple of hours late, start work at 1100, have lunch at 1400, and often watch the sun set at midnight. They continue to live there and continue to have a pretty normal life. The only weirdness comes from talking to people in other time zones, which again would not be a problem if everyone in the world had started with this from their youth.

              Again, I'm not trying to suggest that it's better. I'm just saying that this arbitrary choice about how to handle time around the world is not any better or worse than any other arbitrary choice we could have made; it's only because we know our current method so well that we think any other method is weird.

              dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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              • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                because he's grown up in a world where that's ambiguous

                No he hasn't. Never moved a or traveled outside his own city.

                That why this "make everyones time the same" is about as smart as an idea as shoving Lego up your nose.

                I This user is from outside of this forum
                I This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote on last edited by
                #120

                Are you suggesting that this is a world without the internet or international television programs? He's going to know that hours are different everywhere, especially if he has friends in other regions.

                That why this "make everyones time the same" is about as smart as an idea as shoving Lego up your nose.

                Only because the current way is the one you know. In this alternate universe where the whole world has always been on UTC and someone posted a question on Lemmy asking why the whole planet isn't divided up into 1-hour offsets with their own times, that universe's version of you would be just as irrationally angry with that universe's version of me for daring to suggest that the time zone idea is no less irrational than the UTC idea.

                dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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                • omxxi@feddit.orgO [email protected]

                  That would be shifting from timezone to "workzone" or "noonzone". At this moment you need to setup a meeting with people, then you ask which is their timezone. With global UTC timezone, then you need to ask, which are your work hours? (workzone).

                  Q This user is from outside of this forum
                  Q This user is from outside of this forum
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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #121

                  With global UTC timezone, then you need to ask, which are your work hours?

                  Which would be beautiful because you'd instantly gain an intuitive understanding of how that overlaps with your own work hours instead of having to do a conversion.

                  omxxi@feddit.orgO 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • I [email protected]

                    Are you suggesting that this is a world without the internet or international television programs? He's going to know that hours are different everywhere, especially if he has friends in other regions.

                    That why this "make everyones time the same" is about as smart as an idea as shoving Lego up your nose.

                    Only because the current way is the one you know. In this alternate universe where the whole world has always been on UTC and someone posted a question on Lemmy asking why the whole planet isn't divided up into 1-hour offsets with their own times, that universe's version of you would be just as irrationally angry with that universe's version of me for daring to suggest that the time zone idea is no less irrational than the UTC idea.

                    dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                    dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                    #122

                    I can't believe you're being serious. Literally, I have a hard time believing you aren't pretending to be that simple.

                    Only because the current way is the one you know. In this alternate universe where the whole world has always been on UTC

                    You don't understand time zones or geopolitical history either it seems, and you're imaging people from thousands of years ago to have a concept of universality. I can't thank you enough for the roaring belly laughs I've gotten from reading your brain farts.

                    You're not proposing a single improvement, you're making the system actively much much much shittier

                    planet isn't divided up into 1-hour offsets with their own times, that universe's version

                    Except it is, because that's how hours work. You probably don't know where they come from either

                    I know it seems to you like you're making sense, but you're not, because you're ignorant of so many assumptions you've made, which if changed, would be like giving ancient Romans the GPS instead of them using sundials and that said Romans would've magically been able to consider that theyre noon is two hours after "the real" noon, which is based on.........?

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                    • P [email protected]

                      Why isn't this a popular thing?

                      J This user is from outside of this forum
                      J This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #123

                      Why should the UK get to be the only place with an accurate local time? I don't want to live on UK time.

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                      • I [email protected]

                        Having "our local noon is 0550pm" is dumb as rocks and nowhere comparable to time zones.

                        How is "our local noon is at 1200" any more objectively logical? Midnight is an objectively arbitrary time to start the new date. The best you can say is that it's twelve hours before local noon, but even if you index off of local noon it doesn't make any more logical sense to put the 0 while most people are asleep. Someone who hasn't grown up with our clock might well say, "why would we choose a clock that puts the beginning of the usable part of the day at 6 or 7 for most people?" Calling the hour when people wake up 0000 or 0100 would make a lot of logical sense.

                        Unlike some people have prolly told you, not every idea is equal.

                        Numbers have no inherent meaning. We could make noon happen at 0000, 1200, 2200, whatever--and people would find it completely intuitive if they grew up in it all their lives.

                        I'm not saying that "every idea is equal." That's patently nonsense. What I'm saying is that, if you're going to have a 24-hour clock indexed to noon, putting noon at 1200 makes just as much sense as putting it at any other time on that 24-hour clock.

                        Now go ahead and read what it's doing in China and see our glorious idea at work

                        Sounds like the answer is "fine." People in Xinjiang wake up a couple of hours late, start work at 1100, have lunch at 1400, and often watch the sun set at midnight. They continue to live there and continue to have a pretty normal life. The only weirdness comes from talking to people in other time zones, which again would not be a problem if everyone in the world had started with this from their youth.

                        Again, I'm not trying to suggest that it's better. I'm just saying that this arbitrary choice about how to handle time around the world is not any better or worse than any other arbitrary choice we could have made; it's only because we know our current method so well that we think any other method is weird.

                        dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                        dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
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                        wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                        #124

                        You don't know what "arbitrary" means..

                        Noon or midnight aren't arbitrary. They're the exact opposite. Noon is the middle of the day. The exact middle point of one revolution of our planet (roughly, days aren't actually exactly a day long but that's too advanced for you lol).

                        The exact middle of the day, recognisable to most people simply by looking up, is the exact opposite of arbitrary.

                        Numbers have no inherent meaning

                        Uh, yes they do. That's why they're called numbers. "2" means || that many things and "5" means ||||| means that many things. There's literally an inherent meaning in them.

                        There's also actual reason as to why the day is divided the way it is, but seeing how proud you are of your overbearing ignorance, I'm not gonna educate you on what it is.

                        Hours weren't always the same length, it'd depend on the length of the time of day. Do you know what doesn't change? Noon being in the middle of the day. Because we're on a revolving piece of rock in space and no matter how much you stomp your foot and cry foul, noon will still always be non-arbitrary

                        What you need is a fkin dictionary bruh

                        Sounds like the answer is "fine."

                        Ah, some deeply meaningful willfull ignorance, because you can't admit you backed a moronic idea.

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                        • P [email protected]

                          Why isn't this a popular thing?

                          hatchetharo@pawb.socialH This user is from outside of this forum
                          hatchetharo@pawb.socialH This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                          #125

                          because we sleep at night and are active during the day, and so we need to track that in a way that is universal. if i mention 12:00, people understand that it is noon where i am, and if i mention 22:00, they know it's bedtime.

                          the whole point of time zones is to have time cohesion in a wider region within margin of error of solar noon, so people on the far east and far west of a time zone are close enough to solar noon at 12:00. you can take a train to a neighbouring city without having to worry about needing to adjust your timekeeping devices by a few minutes.

                          to put your scenario into perspective, china has already done what you suggested on a smaller scale: the entire country is on UTC+8 for the sake of "unity" and "national cohesion". beijing loves it; 12:00 is still noon there! except it ain't in xinjiang and tibet. xinjiang has its own unofficial xinjiang time zone of UTC+6, and so people have to specify which time zone they're talking about and convert times between the two time zones in conversation because the uyghers use xinjiang time and the han chinese use beijing time, and you can imagine the confusion and also technical issues that has arisen from that.

                          imagine that, but 12 times worse. no thanks, i'll do the simple math of converting time zones if i ever need to communicate internationally.

                          fuck daylight savings. take that shit out back.

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                          • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                            I can't believe you're being serious. Literally, I have a hard time believing you aren't pretending to be that simple.

                            Only because the current way is the one you know. In this alternate universe where the whole world has always been on UTC

                            You don't understand time zones or geopolitical history either it seems, and you're imaging people from thousands of years ago to have a concept of universality. I can't thank you enough for the roaring belly laughs I've gotten from reading your brain farts.

                            You're not proposing a single improvement, you're making the system actively much much much shittier

                            planet isn't divided up into 1-hour offsets with their own times, that universe's version

                            Except it is, because that's how hours work. You probably don't know where they come from either

                            I know it seems to you like you're making sense, but you're not, because you're ignorant of so many assumptions you've made, which if changed, would be like giving ancient Romans the GPS instead of them using sundials and that said Romans would've magically been able to consider that theyre noon is two hours after "the real" noon, which is based on.........?

                            I This user is from outside of this forum
                            I This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #126

                            You're assuming an awful lot about me based on complete ignorance and using those assumptions to justify a really bizarre level of abuse.

                            You don't understand time zones or geopolitical history either it seems, and you're imaging people from thousands of years ago to have a concept of universality.

                            I'm not. That's literally the premise of the idea proposed here. The fact that you don't get that is really making me question your reading comprehension abilities.

                            You're not proposing a single improvement,

                            Correct. I'm not. As I've noted several times now, I'm not proposing anything. I'm just pointing out that we have a significant bias toward the system we already know.

                            Except it is, because that's how hours work. You probably don't know where they come from either

                            Yeah, they were chosen more or less arbitrarily by the ancient Egyptians because there were twelve significant constellations they followed, which led to a sort of base-12 number system they used for stuff related to the sky (months and hours in particular).

                            Again, units and numbers have no inherent meaning. We made it all up. A day could just as easily have had ten hours of 144 minutes each, or 40 hours of 36 minutes each.

                            I know it seems to you like you're making sense, but you're not...

                            The fact that you don't understand what I'm saying doesn't mean that I'm not making sense. And I think there's ample evidence here that you're just not reading carefully.

                            ...because you're ignorant of so many assumptions you've made, which if changed, would be like giving ancient Romans the GPS instead of them using sundials and that said Romans would've magically been able to consider that theyre noon is two hours after "the real" noon, which is based on.........?

                            Ok. Deciphering your word salad here, I think you're trying to suggest that our current 24-hour day and time zones were somehow inevitable? Which...I mean, obviously they aren't, since there are many cultures that independently came up with different time systems.

                            There's a Hindi clock that divides the day into thirty hours. Roman timekeeping was divided into 12 hours, but that time was measured from sunrise to sunset. Byzantine time uses the same division of days into 24 hours, but starts a day at sunset, meaning that the start of a day changes within the same city throughout the year. France even tried decimal time for a while, where each day has ten hours, each hour has 100 minutes, and each minute has 100 seconds. All of these systems arose from different starting conditions, none of which were "giving Romans GPS" (they already knew the Earth was round) and none of which caused any problems with users going to sleep at different times of day.

                            The thought experiment here isn't "how could this have happened given existing conditions?" or even "what conditions could have brought this about?" but rather "assuming a world where some set of conditions brought about a true worldwide UTC without offsets, what would it look like to the users of that system?"

                            And this is what you've decided merits abusive behavior. Can't imagine what you're like about stuff that actually matters.

                            dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • Q [email protected]

                              With global UTC timezone, then you need to ask, which are your work hours?

                              Which would be beautiful because you'd instantly gain an intuitive understanding of how that overlaps with your own work hours instead of having to do a conversion.

                              omxxi@feddit.orgO This user is from outside of this forum
                              omxxi@feddit.orgO This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #127

                              You're doing a conversion when you ask that question.
                              My point is, there is no gain, is just converting one system for another that requires the exact work. Then we'll have tables of "workzones per country" and we need to do the same conversion to setup a meeting.

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                              • P [email protected]

                                Why isn't this a popular thing?

                                omxxi@feddit.orgO This user is from outside of this forum
                                omxxi@feddit.orgO This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #128

                                Maybe it would be easier if the earth would be flat 🙂

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                                • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                                  You don't know what "arbitrary" means..

                                  Noon or midnight aren't arbitrary. They're the exact opposite. Noon is the middle of the day. The exact middle point of one revolution of our planet (roughly, days aren't actually exactly a day long but that's too advanced for you lol).

                                  The exact middle of the day, recognisable to most people simply by looking up, is the exact opposite of arbitrary.

                                  Numbers have no inherent meaning

                                  Uh, yes they do. That's why they're called numbers. "2" means || that many things and "5" means ||||| means that many things. There's literally an inherent meaning in them.

                                  There's also actual reason as to why the day is divided the way it is, but seeing how proud you are of your overbearing ignorance, I'm not gonna educate you on what it is.

                                  Hours weren't always the same length, it'd depend on the length of the time of day. Do you know what doesn't change? Noon being in the middle of the day. Because we're on a revolving piece of rock in space and no matter how much you stomp your foot and cry foul, noon will still always be non-arbitrary

                                  What you need is a fkin dictionary bruh

                                  Sounds like the answer is "fine."

                                  Ah, some deeply meaningful willfull ignorance, because you can't admit you backed a moronic idea.

                                  I This user is from outside of this forum
                                  I This user is from outside of this forum
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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #129

                                  Noon or midnight aren't arbitrary.

                                  I didn't say they were. I said that the numbers we've attached to them are.

                                  (roughly, days aren't actually exactly a day long but that's too advanced for you lol).

                                  Strong words from someone who only reads three out of every five words.

                                  The exact middle of the day, recognisable to most people simply by looking up, is the exact opposite of arbitrary.

                                  Calling it the "middle of the day" is. It could very easily be the beginning of the day, or three-quarters of the way through the day. If you had lived with that your whole life, you would think it was normal.

                                  There's literally an inherent meaning in [numbers].

                                  Not as they're used in timekeeping. I'm sorry, I didn't realize I needed to explain something so simple to you as "the words I use are meant to be interpreted in the context in which I'm using them."

                                  There's also actual reason as to why the day is divided the way it is, but seeing how proud you are of your overbearing ignorance, I'm not gonna educate you on what it is.

                                  That's a lot of words to say "I don't know but there's probably a reason."

                                  The real reason is "because the ancient Egyptians arbitrarily decided to divide it into twelve hours." As for indexing solar noon as 12:00, well, it actually didn't always; in fact, the word "noon" comes from the Latin word for "nine." The first hour of the day (when people woke up) was 1:00, roughly analogous to our 6am, and nine hours later (our 3pm) was "noon." The reason it became solar noon was that they observed a sort of coordinated universal time! Noon drifted earlier in the day as the center of culture drifted.

                                  Hours weren't always the same length, it'd depend on the length of the time of day. Do you know what doesn't change? Noon being in the middle of the day.

                                  Sure it does. Other cultures make noon the beginning of the day, or make sunset the beginning of the day. Yes it changes the lengths of time periods. You only think it's weird because you've always known a world where noon was the middle of the day.

                                  Because we're on a revolving piece of rock in space and no matter how much you stomp your foot and cry foul, noon will still always be non-arbitrary

                                  True. But noon as equal to 1200 will always be arbitrary, because we're on a rock in space and it didn't come with any numbers on it.

                                  Ah, some deeply meaningful willfull ignorance, because you can't admit you backed a moronic idea.

                                  Once again, I beg you to actually use some reading comprehension. I haven't backed any ideas. But it's easier to sling insults than to read carefully and come up with a cogent response.

                                  dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • I [email protected]

                                    Noon or midnight aren't arbitrary.

                                    I didn't say they were. I said that the numbers we've attached to them are.

                                    (roughly, days aren't actually exactly a day long but that's too advanced for you lol).

                                    Strong words from someone who only reads three out of every five words.

                                    The exact middle of the day, recognisable to most people simply by looking up, is the exact opposite of arbitrary.

                                    Calling it the "middle of the day" is. It could very easily be the beginning of the day, or three-quarters of the way through the day. If you had lived with that your whole life, you would think it was normal.

                                    There's literally an inherent meaning in [numbers].

                                    Not as they're used in timekeeping. I'm sorry, I didn't realize I needed to explain something so simple to you as "the words I use are meant to be interpreted in the context in which I'm using them."

                                    There's also actual reason as to why the day is divided the way it is, but seeing how proud you are of your overbearing ignorance, I'm not gonna educate you on what it is.

                                    That's a lot of words to say "I don't know but there's probably a reason."

                                    The real reason is "because the ancient Egyptians arbitrarily decided to divide it into twelve hours." As for indexing solar noon as 12:00, well, it actually didn't always; in fact, the word "noon" comes from the Latin word for "nine." The first hour of the day (when people woke up) was 1:00, roughly analogous to our 6am, and nine hours later (our 3pm) was "noon." The reason it became solar noon was that they observed a sort of coordinated universal time! Noon drifted earlier in the day as the center of culture drifted.

                                    Hours weren't always the same length, it'd depend on the length of the time of day. Do you know what doesn't change? Noon being in the middle of the day.

                                    Sure it does. Other cultures make noon the beginning of the day, or make sunset the beginning of the day. Yes it changes the lengths of time periods. You only think it's weird because you've always known a world where noon was the middle of the day.

                                    Because we're on a revolving piece of rock in space and no matter how much you stomp your foot and cry foul, noon will still always be non-arbitrary

                                    True. But noon as equal to 1200 will always be arbitrary, because we're on a rock in space and it didn't come with any numbers on it.

                                    Ah, some deeply meaningful willfull ignorance, because you can't admit you backed a moronic idea.

                                    Once again, I beg you to actually use some reading comprehension. I haven't backed any ideas. But it's easier to sling insults than to read carefully and come up with a cogent response.

                                    dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                                    dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                                    #130

                                    You keep with your naive argument about noon being arbitrary and pretend as if your proposal isn't like climbing up a tree arse first.

                                    You're just wrong.

                                    With your system, if you woke up after drinking for days, not knowing literally where on Earth you are, you would see a restaurant, read the sign and still have zero idea when it was open. You'd need to know where you are and "when" the times are. Ridiculous

                                    With the regular system, you wake up anywhere in the world, look up at the sky, see it's roughly noon, and see a sign on a restaurant saying its open 10-21, you know you can walk in and eat.

                                    You're trying to make yourself out as logical, but you're failing very fucking hard.

                                    It's called the middle of the day, because it's in the middle of the day. Before it there's an equal amount of light as after it. Youre honestly going to stand here arguing that high-noon being in the middle of a DAY is arbitrary, without smelling a hint of irony?

                                    Take a thing. Divide it exactly in half. Can you cut at an arbitrary point to make that happen...? Or is there like a thing where if you choose the exact point in the middle of that thing (like, an exact point, not an arbitrary one), then you get two halves which are exactly the same size?

                                    You're clearly upset and projecting. Is English your first language? It's honestly amazing how often I end up correcting Americans on how to use English.

                                    Sure it does. Other cultures make noon the beginning of the day, or make sunset the beginning of the day

                                    You didn't understand the point. I was talking about Romans. Happy desperate googling, mr angry-like-a-wet-cat!

                                    You saying a thing doesn't make it so. For instance I could say that literally every word you said was arbitrary. It doesn't make it so, does it? Also, trying to use prescriptivism shows just how lacking you are in your linguistics conversational.

                                    Me purposefully not replying to each of your childish retorts wouldn't help anything. You're just wrong but you'll never be able to accept it. You'll equivocate, possibly for weeks even.

                                    I 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • I [email protected]

                                      You're assuming an awful lot about me based on complete ignorance and using those assumptions to justify a really bizarre level of abuse.

                                      You don't understand time zones or geopolitical history either it seems, and you're imaging people from thousands of years ago to have a concept of universality.

                                      I'm not. That's literally the premise of the idea proposed here. The fact that you don't get that is really making me question your reading comprehension abilities.

                                      You're not proposing a single improvement,

                                      Correct. I'm not. As I've noted several times now, I'm not proposing anything. I'm just pointing out that we have a significant bias toward the system we already know.

                                      Except it is, because that's how hours work. You probably don't know where they come from either

                                      Yeah, they were chosen more or less arbitrarily by the ancient Egyptians because there were twelve significant constellations they followed, which led to a sort of base-12 number system they used for stuff related to the sky (months and hours in particular).

                                      Again, units and numbers have no inherent meaning. We made it all up. A day could just as easily have had ten hours of 144 minutes each, or 40 hours of 36 minutes each.

                                      I know it seems to you like you're making sense, but you're not...

                                      The fact that you don't understand what I'm saying doesn't mean that I'm not making sense. And I think there's ample evidence here that you're just not reading carefully.

                                      ...because you're ignorant of so many assumptions you've made, which if changed, would be like giving ancient Romans the GPS instead of them using sundials and that said Romans would've magically been able to consider that theyre noon is two hours after "the real" noon, which is based on.........?

                                      Ok. Deciphering your word salad here, I think you're trying to suggest that our current 24-hour day and time zones were somehow inevitable? Which...I mean, obviously they aren't, since there are many cultures that independently came up with different time systems.

                                      There's a Hindi clock that divides the day into thirty hours. Roman timekeeping was divided into 12 hours, but that time was measured from sunrise to sunset. Byzantine time uses the same division of days into 24 hours, but starts a day at sunset, meaning that the start of a day changes within the same city throughout the year. France even tried decimal time for a while, where each day has ten hours, each hour has 100 minutes, and each minute has 100 seconds. All of these systems arose from different starting conditions, none of which were "giving Romans GPS" (they already knew the Earth was round) and none of which caused any problems with users going to sleep at different times of day.

                                      The thought experiment here isn't "how could this have happened given existing conditions?" or even "what conditions could have brought this about?" but rather "assuming a world where some set of conditions brought about a true worldwide UTC without offsets, what would it look like to the users of that system?"

                                      And this is what you've decided merits abusive behavior. Can't imagine what you're like about stuff that actually matters.

                                      dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                                      dasus@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                                      [email protected]
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #131

                                      assuming an awful lot about me based on complete ignorance and

                                      Oh another one of "me saying things doesn't mean anything, you can't deduce I meant something just because I said it!"

                                      I'm not.

                                      You are.

                                      have a significant bias toward the system we already know.

                                      No, you're pretending to be a pseudointellectuel while missing the actual issues shoved down your face, because you lack understanding and your ego is 3 sizes too big for your skills

                                      Yeah, they were chosen more or less arbitrarily by the ancient Egyptians because there were twelve significant constellations they followed, which led to a sort of base-12 number system they used for stuff related to the sky (months and hours in particular).

                                      Exactly like I said. A pretentious pseudointellectuel and I'm not gonna teach you history. Do some desperate googling and then become ashamed

                                      Again, units and numbers have no inherent meaning

                                      Again, they literally have INHERENT meaning.

                                      Send me your address I'll order you a dictionary

                                      And I think there's ample evidence here that you're just not reading carefully

                                      "But but you're laughing at my rhetoric so you can't have read it"

                                      Zzzz

                                      24-hour day and time zones were somehow inevitable

                                      By what fucking logic? You talk to me of reading comprehension 😄

                                      You don't understand the fundamental flaw in the system, but like I said, I'm not gonna be lecturing you, I'd rather watch you make a moron of yourself and maybe, maybe point out later what I'm talking about.

                                      There's a Hindi clock that divides the day into thirty hours. Roman timekeeping was divided into 12 hours, but that time was measured from sunrise to sunset. Byzantine time uses the same division of days into 24 hours, but starts a day at sunset, meaning that the start of a day changes within the same city throughout the year. France even tried decimal time for a while, where each day has ten hours, each hour has 100 minutes, and each minute has 100 seconds. All of these systems arose from different starting conditions, none of which were "giving Romans GPS" (they already knew the Earth was round) and none of which caused any problems with users going to sleep at different times of day.

                                      You talk to me of word salad while you're some pseudointellectual 14-year old twerp repeating these sad sixth grade history facts as some unbelievably arcane knowledge while not understanding the fundamental flaw in the whole system.

                                      I 1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                                        You keep with your naive argument about noon being arbitrary and pretend as if your proposal isn't like climbing up a tree arse first.

                                        You're just wrong.

                                        With your system, if you woke up after drinking for days, not knowing literally where on Earth you are, you would see a restaurant, read the sign and still have zero idea when it was open. You'd need to know where you are and "when" the times are. Ridiculous

                                        With the regular system, you wake up anywhere in the world, look up at the sky, see it's roughly noon, and see a sign on a restaurant saying its open 10-21, you know you can walk in and eat.

                                        You're trying to make yourself out as logical, but you're failing very fucking hard.

                                        It's called the middle of the day, because it's in the middle of the day. Before it there's an equal amount of light as after it. Youre honestly going to stand here arguing that high-noon being in the middle of a DAY is arbitrary, without smelling a hint of irony?

                                        Take a thing. Divide it exactly in half. Can you cut at an arbitrary point to make that happen...? Or is there like a thing where if you choose the exact point in the middle of that thing (like, an exact point, not an arbitrary one), then you get two halves which are exactly the same size?

                                        You're clearly upset and projecting. Is English your first language? It's honestly amazing how often I end up correcting Americans on how to use English.

                                        Sure it does. Other cultures make noon the beginning of the day, or make sunset the beginning of the day

                                        You didn't understand the point. I was talking about Romans. Happy desperate googling, mr angry-like-a-wet-cat!

                                        You saying a thing doesn't make it so. For instance I could say that literally every word you said was arbitrary. It doesn't make it so, does it? Also, trying to use prescriptivism shows just how lacking you are in your linguistics conversational.

                                        Me purposefully not replying to each of your childish retorts wouldn't help anything. You're just wrong but you'll never be able to accept it. You'll equivocate, possibly for weeks even.

                                        I This user is from outside of this forum
                                        I This user is from outside of this forum
                                        [email protected]
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #132

                                        You keep with your naive argument about noon being arbitrary and pretend as if your proposal isn't like climbing up a tree arse first.

                                        I don't have any proposal at all, and until you get that into your head, I just don't see how you can possibly have enough of a basis to even continue this conversation intelligently.

                                        You're just wrong.

                                        Citation needed.

                                        With your system,

                                        I. Don't. Have. A. System.

                                        if you woke up after drinking for days, not knowing literally where on Earth you are, you would see a restaurant, read the sign and still have zero idea when it was open. You'd need to know where you are and "when" the times are. Ridiculous

                                        Bro, other languages exist. If you woke up after drinking for days, it's entirely likely that you won't be able to read the words on the sign and know whether it's a restaurant or a nursing home or a gambling parlor.

                                        It's called the middle of the day, because it's in the middle of the day.

                                        That there's what we call a tautology.

                                        Before it there's an equal amount of light as after it. Youre honestly going to stand here arguing that high-noon being in the middle of a DAY is arbitrary, without smelling a hint of irony?

                                        Nope. But you still aren't actually dealing with the reality that I'm not saying the word "noon" is arbitrary, I'm saying that the numbers we've assigned to it are. Remember, in the twelve hour clock, noon happens at the end of one set of numbers and at the beginning of the other set. In some timekeeping systems it's even weirder. Other choices could and have been made, and are even still in use.

                                        I'm begging you. Give some indication that you are at all literate here.

                                        You're clearly upset and projecting. Is English your first language? It's honestly amazing how often I end up correcting Americans on how to use English.

                                        Not sure what you're talking about. I'm having a great time watching you make a fool of yourself and froth at the mouth about how intelligent you are. It's hilarious.

                                        You didn't understand the point. I was talking about Romans. Happy desperate googling, mr angry-like-a-wet-cat!

                                        Aw, sorry, I already noted that you're angry. You can't "no u" that one back at me. I'm deducting five indignation points.

                                        You saying a thing doesn't make it so. For instance I could say that literally every word you said was arbitrary. It doesn't make it so, does it? Also, trying to use prescriptivism shows just how lacking you are in your linguistics conversational.

                                        ...eh? I'm very clearly not being prescriptivist, since I'm the one taking about how the word has been used differently through time.

                                        Are you feeding my posts to ChatGPT and asking for responses?

                                        Me purposefully not replying to each of your childish retorts wouldn't help anything.

                                        Ah, classic. "I don't have an actual argument, so I'll pretend like making one is beneath me and hope the other person makes it for me..."

                                        You're just wrong but you'll never be able to accept it. You'll equivocate, possibly for weeks even.

                                        "...and then I'll preemptively lay the table for me to exit the conversation with righteous indignation when I've used up all of my insults or gotten bored." Love it. Well done.

                                        dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • dasus@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                                          assuming an awful lot about me based on complete ignorance and

                                          Oh another one of "me saying things doesn't mean anything, you can't deduce I meant something just because I said it!"

                                          I'm not.

                                          You are.

                                          have a significant bias toward the system we already know.

                                          No, you're pretending to be a pseudointellectuel while missing the actual issues shoved down your face, because you lack understanding and your ego is 3 sizes too big for your skills

                                          Yeah, they were chosen more or less arbitrarily by the ancient Egyptians because there were twelve significant constellations they followed, which led to a sort of base-12 number system they used for stuff related to the sky (months and hours in particular).

                                          Exactly like I said. A pretentious pseudointellectuel and I'm not gonna teach you history. Do some desperate googling and then become ashamed

                                          Again, units and numbers have no inherent meaning

                                          Again, they literally have INHERENT meaning.

                                          Send me your address I'll order you a dictionary

                                          And I think there's ample evidence here that you're just not reading carefully

                                          "But but you're laughing at my rhetoric so you can't have read it"

                                          Zzzz

                                          24-hour day and time zones were somehow inevitable

                                          By what fucking logic? You talk to me of reading comprehension 😄

                                          You don't understand the fundamental flaw in the system, but like I said, I'm not gonna be lecturing you, I'd rather watch you make a moron of yourself and maybe, maybe point out later what I'm talking about.

                                          There's a Hindi clock that divides the day into thirty hours. Roman timekeeping was divided into 12 hours, but that time was measured from sunrise to sunset. Byzantine time uses the same division of days into 24 hours, but starts a day at sunset, meaning that the start of a day changes within the same city throughout the year. France even tried decimal time for a while, where each day has ten hours, each hour has 100 minutes, and each minute has 100 seconds. All of these systems arose from different starting conditions, none of which were "giving Romans GPS" (they already knew the Earth was round) and none of which caused any problems with users going to sleep at different times of day.

                                          You talk to me of word salad while you're some pseudointellectual 14-year old twerp repeating these sad sixth grade history facts as some unbelievably arcane knowledge while not understanding the fundamental flaw in the whole system.

                                          I This user is from outside of this forum
                                          I This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #133

                                          Oh another one of "me saying things doesn't mean anything, you can't deduce I meant something just because I said it!"

                                          No, it's "you can't just unilaterally decide that I actually mean the opposite of what I'm saying."

                                          I'm not.

                                          You are.

                                          Oh, for real? Well, if you've already decided what I mean, then by all means, don't let me distract you with reality.

                                          you're pretending to be a pseudointellectuel

                                          No, I'm definitely a pseudointellectual.

                                          while missing the actual issues shoved down your face, because you lack understanding and your ego is 3 sizes too big for your skills

                                          I have yet to see you actually respond to the points I've actually made, only points you think I've made, so I'm not sure how you have enough data to determine that I "lack understanding."

                                          Exactly like I said. A pretentious pseudointellectuel and I'm not gonna teach you history. Do some desperate googling and then become ashamed

                                          I don't know what to tell you, bro. We have twelve hours because the ancient Egyptians liked the stars. That's just reality. I'd love to hear why you think it is, though.

                                          Again, units and numbers have no inherent meaning

                                          Again, they literally have INHERENT meaning.

                                          Send me your address I'll order you a dictionary

                                          Before you send it, I recommend you look up the word "context."

                                          You don't understand the fundamental flaw in the system, but like I said, I'm not gonna be lecturing you, I'd rather watch you make a moron of yourself and maybe, maybe point out later what I'm talking about.

                                          So, again, no actual argument, you're just hoping to keep this going for long enough to come up with one.

                                          You talk to me of word salad while you're some pseudointellectual 14-year old twerp repeating these sad sixth grade history facts as some unbelievably arcane knowledge while not understanding the fundamental flaw in the whole system.

                                          I didn't think there's anything arcane about something that can be easily found in a history book. But thanks for assuming I'm 14, that's very kind of you. I haven't been assumed to be that young in a long, long time.

                                          dasus@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
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