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US/Canada time zones if they were not adjusted for political boundaries (files.catbox.moe)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

It was recommended multiple times in history, the problem is that it doesn't really solve any problems, just moves the problems elsewhere:

At some parts of the world "midnight" (the time when the day changes) will be during the "day". Would you like that you have to use a different calendar date at the morning and at the evening? It also makes much harder to check if something happened one or 2 days ago by simply checking the date, you would have to know the new UTC time as well
You still would have to know how far they are from you to set up an international call. Some people wake up at 2:00 UTC, some wake up at 16:00 UTC. So actually nothing solved, but you have to use different numbers instead of time zone names.
Time in China works like that, you can already see how it's going there. Full of China is one time zone, on its western border if you would cross to Afghanistan you would have to set your clock 4 and half hours backward. In Xinjiang solar noon is around 15:00 (3 pm). How people live like this? They simply use different timetables, 9-5 job is something like 11-7. So even it doesn't have a separate time zone people live like they would have a separate time zone.
Swatch Internet Time was a well known example of this in the late 90s, you can read the general problems with it on wiki

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm in favor of global UTC, but the first argument is a really good one that I never saw before. You're leading me to reconsider.

Another potential solution to the mess of timezones does not work, shit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Why is it a mess? I know from a programmer's point of view it is, I've seen the Tom Scott video a lot of times, but for average people it doesn't really matter.

Update to the video: they decided that they won't add a new leap second at least until 2035, and there are plans to switch to leap minutes instead, and sync to the astronomical clock once every century only.

Where it matters, e.g. international flight, they already use UTC for everything. How they solve this problem behind the scenes shouldn't affect the everyday lives of people. Computers use binary but we still use decimal system and noone want to change the numbering system. In a lot of places people use 12 hour clock in speech, but 24 hour in written form, and noone has problem with that. I don't understand why we should change it just because of the laziness of some programmers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Plus you lose all of the cross-cultural understanding that's currently built into the time. The concept of what the number on the clock is and how that relates to the actual time of day has dozens if not hundreds of tiny bits of additional understanding baked into it depending on the situation.

In order to communicate these ideas, people would start referring to their local offset instead of the UTC and then we're just back at time zones again.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

IMO people would figure it out and life would go on. Yes, lots of people would have the calendar date advance in the middle of the day but that's fine, we'd get used to it. People wouldn't work 9-5 jobs, but we'd come up with different terminology.

I don't really see the argument about people waking up at different times. Yeah, some people would wake up at 02:00 and some at 16:00, but when someone says they wake up at 02:00, there's 0 confusion about when that is. You'd have to know when someone is awake to do an international call, but you have to do that anyways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

IMO people would figure it out and life would go on.

This whole thread is about how it can be solved or not. Also they would oppose such a change, and we are speaking about millions of people. Would you tell them: "Oh, this system is terrible for you but a bit more convenient for us, so we will change, and you will figure it out"

One way to solve it that they use a different point for day change, but we are back to the root again, as at some points on the planet they will have a different date, or we can call it a different time zone....

I don’t really see the argument about people waking up at different times.

The point is that you get the same problem as with the current system, and abolishing the time zones won't solve issues like that. People will still live according to their solar day, and if you want to call someone on the other side of globe you still have to look up when are their working hour, aka their "time zone"... So abolishment of time zones were not successful, they are just called differently...