All DST and time zones should be removed and we should only have one global time. People in different locations would just get up at different times on the clock. Communication about times would get so much easier, communication about schedules would get so much easier. “The same time every week” would have an actual meaning all year around regardless of any notions about getting up later relative to local sunrise in the darker time of the year.
This solves making the statement “let’s meet at 5” be more clear globally, but doesn’t solve the actual confusion. Person A getting up hours before normal, being in the middle of person B’s day, and being when person C would go to bed still happens. All it does is destroy any frame of reference and make travel more difficult. You would still need a chart to know if any time was actually during waking or business hours at each location on earth.
Communication about times would get so much easier, communication about schedules would get so much easier.
Except that it wouldn’t. It would make communication about time a culture sensitive topic. Sure, the exact time of day in relation to the position of the sun might get lost with our current system, but if someone tells you “I’ve slept til 12am” at least you know it was somewhat around noon. Under your new system you’d always have to consider where someone lives.
But in a way that’s a good example for what I meant. You and me communicate time both in reference to the time of day, not a virtual time of the planet that means something else to everyone depending on location, and you easily could spot my mistake.
Is being able to communicate about stuff like that casually, where you do not mean a specific time anyway, really worth the giant pile of pain that time zones add to actual scheduling?
I mean what’s more important to you, being able drop the info about time zones when scheduling international meetings, or preserving humanities ability to communicate time respectively to the actual time of day?
I’ve lived in three countries so far and never actually had trouble scheduling anything. The concept of time of day on the other hand is pretty prevalent in my daily life.
All DST and time zones should be removed and we should only have one global time. People in different locations would just get up at different times on the clock. Communication about times would get so much easier, communication about schedules would get so much easier. “The same time every week” would have an actual meaning all year around regardless of any notions about getting up later relative to local sunrise in the darker time of the year.
This solves making the statement “let’s meet at 5” be more clear globally, but doesn’t solve the actual confusion. Person A getting up hours before normal, being in the middle of person B’s day, and being when person C would go to bed still happens. All it does is destroy any frame of reference and make travel more difficult. You would still need a chart to know if any time was actually during waking or business hours at each location on earth.
Except that it wouldn’t. It would make communication about time a culture sensitive topic. Sure, the exact time of day in relation to the position of the sun might get lost with our current system, but if someone tells you “I’ve slept til 12am” at least you know it was somewhat around noon. Under your new system you’d always have to consider where someone lives.
erm… 12am is midnight
Ahem. Oops.
But in a way that’s a good example for what I meant. You and me communicate time both in reference to the time of day, not a virtual time of the planet that means something else to everyone depending on location, and you easily could spot my mistake.
So let’s just say I did that on purpose.
Is being able to communicate about stuff like that casually, where you do not mean a specific time anyway, really worth the giant pile of pain that time zones add to actual scheduling?
I mean what’s more important to you, being able drop the info about time zones when scheduling international meetings, or preserving humanities ability to communicate time respectively to the actual time of day?
I’ve lived in three countries so far and never actually had trouble scheduling anything. The concept of time of day on the other hand is pretty prevalent in my daily life.
Swatch did this years ago… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time