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jeffhykin ,

You’ll basically have timezones either way, there’s just two ways of doing it.

If we all used UTC, then businesses would need to change what time they opened depending on their location. Ex: Best Buy opening at 12 noon on the US west coast, and 3pm on the east coast. Locations inbetween would have different opening times. So we would get the noon zone, 1pm zone, 2pm zone, and 3pm zone. All nation wide businesses with standard open/close times would effectively follow the same pattern, and it would be best if they all coordinated on where those zones occured. So then we would get new timezones, they’d just be slightly different in how they functioned.

kevincox ,
@kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

Yes, the main question is picking between:

  1. The time numbers are the same around the world, but schedules are shifted.
  2. The time numbers are shifted, but schedules are roughly the same.

Personally I think 1 is more valuable because being able to easily and reliably talk about time seems more useful than being able to have my phone time show a number that lets me guess schedules when visiting a place.

afraid_of_zombies ,

I still don’t get why this is better. You know that 2am people are in bed. No matter where in the world.

YaBoyMax ,

So You Want To Abolish Time Zones

In a nutshell:

Before abolishing time zones:

I want to call my Uncle Steve in Melbourne. What time is it there?

Google tells me it is currently 4:25am there.

It’s probably best not to call right now.

After abolishing time zones:

I want to call my Uncle Steve in Melbourne. What time is it there?

It is 04:25 (“four twenty-five”) there, same as it is here.

Does that mean I can call him?

I don’t know.

bionicjoey ,

In one of these stories you used Google and in the other you didn’t. Both of these problems are solveable with Google

person , (edited )

deleted_by_author

    •
    4am ,

    Yeah it’s too bad that we can’t have the convenience of both, right?

    Hey, wait a minute…

    bionicjoey ,

    Relevant username

    TheDannysaur ,

    What time zone is that minute in?!

    XeroxCool ,

    It’s a situation where there are benefits to either option but one probably outweighs the other massively in frequency. I schedule many more international meetings and make many more international calls than the number of times I’ve needed a global event time. And that’s kinda saying something since I’m a space geek that looks for astronomical events, which are all UTC. It’s fewer steps to look up the distant current time and do the math from my current time for a passive event than it is to have everyone be UTC, then look up a distant wake time or business hours, then do math to figure out what the functional time is for something requiring human input.

    China is one universal time despite spanning from +5 to +9

    captainjaneway ,
    @captainjaneway@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah but in your example, you wouldn’t need to look anything up either. You’re presumably very familiar with the offset of your time to their time? You’d also become familiar with their “universal time” versus your time. You’d just know what hours they’d be awake and asleep because you will have done the translation a few times.

    In addition, I - personally - would find it easier to memorize times in a single system: e.g. remembering that people in China are awake from 9pm to 8am is easier for me to remember. I typically already do this in my own head. I’ll convert times to my own local time and then memorize that. Do other people not do that? I find it much easier to look at my own clock and know if I can reach out to someone internationally.

    XeroxCool ,

    I don’t know, I’m not seeing how that’s different. You’re remembering how your clock maps to other countries, I’m remembering UTC offsets. I feel like the main thing I’m actually seeing here is really a DST issue and remembering partial-hour offsets. Neither of those would go away with abolishing time zones

    captainjaneway ,
    @captainjaneway@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s not that different. But you’re mentally mapping a UTC offset to your local time as well? Doesn’t that mean you have to do something like:

    1. Does this time work for me? (Map offset to my time)
    2. Does this time work for them? (Map offset to their time)

    Genuine question here. Seems like you’re doing twice the time-conversions when using UTC.

    XeroxCool ,

    If UTC is being used, I’m only converting once. If a time is given in UTC, I only need to convert to my time. If I’m looking for a time at some place (and not just looking it up directly) then I’d combine the absolute values of the offsets before doing a time conversion. I wouldn’t say my 9am is 2pm UTC and 2pm UTC is their 4pm, I’d just do my 9am is their (9+5+2=) 4pm.

    Working with time zones makes it easier to keep times in your own perspective. You look up their offset and take a decent guess that their working hours match yours and you’d probably aim for something a little off from your start/end times and safely land towards the middle. To me, that sounds more reliable than hoping to find business hours posted without a distinct, clearly defined geographical divide in which you know the sun is going to shine there.

    I suppose that’s where the “simplicity” really comes from in my above points: time zones give you tables of information about times elsewhere, UTC-only requires a map and interpretation. Would places refine their day time shifts narrower than an hour? A minute? A second? Look at the central time zone in the USA. Columbus, Georgia is EST at -5. Ladonia, Alabama is -6 in CST, just across the state border. 1000 miles away, Seminole TX is on the other border of CST and Lovington, New Mexico is across the border in MST at -7. With time zones, the whole region from TX to AL agrees what an 8am start time is, despite effectively being offset by a whole hour, celestially. But solar noon is only at 12 for people in the middle, at the east border of TX, 500 miles between the two city pairs above. So if everyone goes to UTC, how do you know what a place uses as their schedule? Would Marshall, TX, stay at -6 while the GA/AL pair use -5.5 and the TX/NM pair use +6.5? That 8am local start time would become 1pm UTC for Marshall, 1230utc for ga/al, and 130utc for tx/nm pairs. Would Dallas, between Marshall and Seminole, be -5.78 and start the work day at 01:46:48pm utc? Way harder to track. Hence, the railroads gave us time zones

    bouh ,

    Whether you realise it or not, there are two hours you are using here. Your local time that you suppose is automatically converted in your brain, and the international time that you can already use and is called UTC.

    Learn to use UTC, problem solved.

    Why do you want to create problems when there is a solution already?

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    bouh ,

    That time means nothing anymore. Time is something real, not a mere number that’s irrelevant to reality. Midday is the middle of the day and the zenith of the sun, or close enough. Midnight is the middle of the night. Etc. It doesn’t need to be exact, but it needs to mean something. In France for example 4PM is the name of the snack you eat that this time.

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

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    bouh ,

    Language is also a social construct.

    So, let’s put it this way. Let’s say you have this nonsensical idea of a unique timezone for the planet. We’ll base it on UTC for simplicity.

    You are in new York. It’s 1000. For you in new York, it’s the middle of night. You’ll wake up in a few hours. Your day usually goes about with wake up and work around 1400, lunch around 1800, end of work around 2200, sleep around 600. You can live you life with that. It’s merely a social construct. It’s completely stupid as a construct because it’s not setup for your actual day. The 0 means absolutely nothing. The 12 and the 24 neither. Why have a 24 hours clock for this? But a decimal clock would do nothing more.

    Now you need to work with someone in the UK. Can you talk to him right now? Who knows? You need to ask Internet about the time delay between where you live and where he lives. You learn it’s +6. Or -6. Who cares. Now you juggle with 2 times at your work: your usual one, and your colleague one. Congrats, you made a timezone again. When you need to know when he starts work, you do the maths : 1400-600=800. He must starts at 800, unless there’s some cultural differences.

    Now what you call 1800 is called 1200 for him. You made the same concept, the lunch time, have a different name depending on where you live, and that is after the translation.

    Why even have a time at this point. It’s more confusing than anything. Let’s just have minutes.

    You’ll have wakeup +200 for example. At wakeup +400, it’s midday. Midday +400 is the break. Break+400 is dinner. Dinner +400 is sleepy time. Now that would be much more sensible than your unified clock. There would still be problem with timezones interaction.

    But there’s nothing to do about timezones. It’s and effect of the spherical earth and general relativity. In physics, there is a clock for each and every position, and a delay between each. Most of the time it doesn’t matter, so you use your local time. But when it does, you do timezones. Because that’s how the world physically works.

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    bouh ,

    There is no reason to use a world timezone either, and here we are, discussing about it…

    ErianKalil ,
    @ErianKalil@lemmy.world avatar

    Now you need to work with someone in the UK. Can you talk to him right now? Who knows? You need to ask Internet about the time delay between where you live and where he lives.

    In other words this has not changed either. So not a downside?

    It is a downside, because with a time zone you know immediately if a time is suitable or not. For instance, if you see that in the uk is 4am, you know immediately that it isn’t suitable. If there isn’t a “standard”, you need to check every time if that time is suitable or not, and it isn’t as straightforward.

    knightly , (edited )
    @knightly@pawb.social avatar

    We already gave up the meaning of time when time zones where implemented. If it’s only going to be an approximation anyway then why bother with the added complexity of 230+ extra time zones?

    Y’all are just mad that “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” wouldn’t make sense as a jokey excuse for day-drinking anymore. =3

    bouh ,

    Timezones exist because that’s how time make sense everywhere.

    Je joke works because the earth is a sphere btw. It’s not a joke, it’s a fact. That’s the whole point.

    hglman ,

    No, timezones don’t make sense everywhere, you clearly have not lived on the edge of timezones where the shift from what would be local time is notable.

    r00ty Admin ,
    r00ty avatar

    We could all just cover our windows, take Vitamin D supplements and actually all live on the UTC timezone.

    redcalcium ,

    And let the brits enjoy UTC+0 like nothing happened while the rest of the word scrambles to adapt to the new time system? This is tyranny! I demand a new system where my region is the one with UTC+0 instead!

    towerful ,

    Have UTC+0 run horizontally, instead.
    And increase its width to run from +80° to -80°.
    Squeeze the rest of the timezones into the poles

    r00ty Admin ,
    r00ty avatar

    No! In summer time we'd be a whole hour out of our natural time! It would be too much to handle.

    zipzoopaboop ,

    You still need to convert in your head to “decide if usually awake at this time”. This solves nothing. Plus what if they’re somewhere unfamiliar on a trip?

    Meanwhile stuff like world time buddy or other locations on clocks are very accessible tools

    VoterFrog ,

    The joke is that the whole world could go to sleep/wake up/work at the exact same time, day or night.

    HeyThisIsntTheYMCA ,
    @HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

    I lived in a tiny apartment with a streetlamp just outside my only window. Even with blackout curtains that room had no day/night cycle. I’m still trying to get back on a normal day/night cycle, fifteen years later.

    So, that’s another method you could try.

    Falcon ,

    Just add 11 to utc.

    No harder than having different times in different places.

    kevincox ,
    @kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

    Google tells me people are usually awake at 20:25 there.

    Problem solved. This actually makes it problem simpler. With different time zones:

    1. Get local time.
    2. Convert to target time.
    3. Decide if your uncle is usually awake at the target time.

    With one time zone:

    1. Get time.
    2. Decide if your uncle is usually awake at that time.
    hglman ,

    Exactly, it always requires knowing your uncles habits.

    Turun ,

    No shit, so no difference to the current situation.

    Turun ,

    I am too late. I knew this would be the top post, even though the arguments brought forth in the blog post are utterly stupid. I would even go so far as to say their arguments are presented in bad faith, because I refuse to believe the author actually thinks that’s how it would go. (They have some seriously awesome posts, I most highly recommend qntm.org/mmacevedo)

    With time zones:
    you Google what the timzone offset is (aka at which point in your local timezone the sun rises over there). Considering this sunrise time you then have to make a judgement if your uncle would be awake now.

    Without times zones: you Google at which time the sun rises over there. Considering this sunrise time you then have to make a judgement if your uncle would be awake now.

    It’s literally the same process.

    ech ,

    Ah yes, sunrise. That things that never ever changes depending on the time of year or location on the planet. Very dependable and memorizable thing, the sunrise.

    hglman ,

    Yeah, which makes the points, it’s non trivial to know when to contact people with timezones anyways. The time zone only adds more complexity.

    ta_leadran_orm ,

    I think the point is that people’s routine isn’t tied to sunrise. For example, in the summertime I start work about 4 hours after sunrise, and in the winter I start work 20mins after sunrise. The difference would actually be more dramatic without daylight savings With timezones and modern internet you don’t need to look up the offset at all, you just look up the current time in that zone and decide if that’s an appropriate time to call. Speaking as someone who deals with timezones a fair bit, both in work and personal life. And as someone who understands the headache of dealing with them in international computer systems, the time zone system is a very nice compromise. Though daylight savings need to die

    hglman ,

    If your start time has a 4 hour swing, how could you just look up your local time and make a choice to call?

    Turun ,

    Very dependable and memorizable thing, the sunrise.

    Uh, yeah? Because it defines your circadian rhythm?

    Ah yes, clock time. That things that never ever changes depending on the time of year or location on the planet. Very dependable and memorizable thing, the clock time.

    The arguments are exactly the same. It basically boils down to the philosophy if you want the daily life to be controlled by clocks or by the natural sleep/wake cycle of the body.
    Some prefer by the clock, because it provides a fixed constant, even if it may run counter to our very nature. You very well may prefer that. Others argue for a more natural sleep cycle, especially when it comes to school for example. Complaints about work starting too early are not exactly rare either.

    ech ,

    Some prefer by the clock, because it provides a fixed constant

    Huh, you know what? I think you’re right.

    knightly ,
    @knightly@pawb.social avatar

    You already have to Google for what time it is in another part of the world, and Google can also tell you when sunup, solar noon, sundown, and midnight are in Melbourne, so it sounds like you aren’t any worse off without time zones.

    If you actually want to know if the sun is up somewhere else, then you want a world clock. At a glance visibility on the current position of the sun for every location on the globe, no time zones necessary.

    hglman ,

    Just coordinate via asynchronous communication to schedule a time. It’s not 1935.

    You: “hey uncle text me when it would be a good time to have a call”

    6 hours later

    Uncle: “hey i just got up, lets have a call at 4:50”

    You: “thats a bid late for me, im in bed by 4:00, what about 3:30?”

    Uncle: “sure sounds great”

    No one needed to know anything about when people wake up, where on earth they live, etc.

    Nollij ,

    Which is easier- looking up what time it is in Munich, or looking up what part of the day it is and the hours typically kept by people in Munich? What if you need to schedule a call with your business partners?

    Tramort ,

    We do. It’s called swatch time.

    (Seriously)

    brandon ,

    I really wish that had caught on. Were you a Phantasy Star Online player, by chance?

    Tramort ,

    Lol. i was!

    meant2live218 ,

    I was scrolling all the way down, looking for someone to mention Swatch Internet Time. I never got the hang of it, with regards to what beats related to various times of the day for myself, but I love the idea.

    TheAlbatross ,

    Humans, generally, like to be awake when the sun is visible and asleep when it isn’t. The way we structure our thinking about time, morning, noon, evening, night, are based on the position of the sun.

    The single time zone thing sounds appealing until Germans have to be up at 2 AM to speak with their bosses in NYC as that’s a financial power center and thus gets to dictate the meeting times

    wesker ,
    @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    The single time zone thing sounds appealing until Germans have to be up at 2 AM to speak with their bosses in NYC as that’s a financial power center and thus gets to dictate the meeting times.

    This is how it happens already with international companies, no?

    TheAlbatross ,

    It can be, yes, usually people attempt to be accommodating. I have a regular 8 AM meeting to collaborate with foreign colleagues for which it’s a 4 PM meeting. Neither of us are happy about it, but that’s compromise.

    I think a universal timezone would end up exacerbating the issue of some areas deferring to the ideal time of wealthier areas

    wesker ,
    @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    I see what you’re saying, about the awareness and consideration of other timezones thatbis encouraged simply by having individual ones.

    Deestan ,

    That is already the case in multinational companies. The problem of daytime here nighttime there but we need to meet is the same no matter what numbers their respective timepieces say.

    TheAlbatross ,

    Perhaps the answer is to reform the concept of the meeting to exist in a far less useful way. Meetings should be a series of prerecorded messages sent via email and played like a correspondence game of Chess.

    This would be incredibly inefficient and annoying and perhaps be a catalyst to finally make the weekly update calls a goddamn email that just reads “nothing to report this week, still on schedule to meet Q2 goals” and I can finally get back to smoking weed and ignoring my work phone until 11 AM (sorry, 0635 Neo Standard Time) when I feel like making someone else more money than I’ll ever own.

    nodsocket ,

    We do, it’s UTC

    cloudless ,
    @cloudless@feddit.uk avatar

    We have GMT/UTC for that purpose.

    But do you want to see your clock at 02:00 and say “time to go to work”?

    Deestan ,

    Apart from feeling temporarily (ha!) weird at changing a habit, no. I prefer 02:00 no more or less than any other arbitrary number, really.

    oktoberpaard ,

    Until you’re talking with someone from another country and you have no shared concept of time. Or you’re going abroad and you have to relearn what the numbers mean to fit the schedule. In the current system the numbers mean roughly the same in any country you visit.

    kevincox ,
    @kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

    What do you mean no shared concept of time. Just because the numbers are different doesn’t mean they don’t have time. Most of the time when telling stories people just say “the morning” anyways.

    you have to relearn what the numbers mean to fit the schedule

    Oh no, you have to remember like 2 numbers for wake up and going to bed? Or one offset to shift it? Different cultures already do things like start work at different times and eat dinner at different local times. So it will be no different than “people tend to eat dinner here around 19:00” then “people tend to eat dinner at 04:00 here”. Having relatively consistent local times may be able to give you a rough approximation, but so will just subtracting 9 hours or whatever the conversion happens to be.

    oktoberpaard ,

    But with such a system in place, what are we actually solving? If we’re agreeing on offsets (which would happen in a sane world), we’re just moving the information from one place to another. In both systems there is a concept of time zones, but it’s just the notation that’s different, which adds a whole new bunch of stuff to adapt to that’s goes very much against what is ingrained into society, without offering much in return. It’s basically saying “it’s 10:00 UTC, but I’m living in EST, so the local offset is -5 hours (most people are still asleep here)” [1]. Apart from the fact that you can already use that right now (add ISO 8601 notation to the mix while you’re at it), it doesn’t really change the complexity of having time zones, you just convey it differently.

    Literally the only benefit that I can come up with is that you can leave out the offset indicator (time zone) and still guarantee to be there at the agreed time. Right now you’d have to deduct the time zone from the context, which is not always possible. That doesn’t outweigh the host of new issues that we’d have to adapt to or work around in my opinion.

    [1] In practice we would probably call that 10:00 EST, which would be 10:00 UTC, but indicate the local offset.

    kevincox ,
    @kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

    The offsets would only be used for computer actions like “snooze until tomorrow” or configuring the default time that day/night mode switches. It would be a fairly rare occurrence. In day-to-day life people wouldn’t really think about that. Talking about times using consistent numbers would be incredibly valuable when communicating with people in different places which is becoming more and more common as our world becomes more connected. (How many people have a friend or family overseas? Probably the majority of people)

    Making the “default” way of thinking about time globally consistent would be amazing for communication.

    I agree that the incredibly painful transition wouldn’t be worth it. I just think that assuming we did make the transition, the end result would be better.

    oktoberpaard ,

    But then when you’re talking about 10:00 hours without specifying anything else, it actually means something completely different in the local context, apart from it being the exact same time globally. It doesn’t tell you whether it’s night or day at the other persons location. Your default point of reference in that system is the world, while even today, time is mostly used in a local context for most people. When I’m talking to someone abroad and I say “my cat woke me up at 5:00 in the morning”, I expect the other person to get the meaning of that, because the other person understands my local context.

    When planning meetings you’d have to now the offset either way, because I’m not going to meet at idiotic times if there is an overlap in working hours between the two countries, which is something that you’d have to look up regardless of the time system. And if I send out a digital invite to someone abroad, the time zone information is already encoded inside it, and it shows up correctly in the other person’s agenda without the need to use a global time. In that sense UTC already is the global time and the local context is already an offset to that in the current system. We just don’t use UTC in our daily language.

    But if it helps: I do agree that in an alternative universe the time system could’ve worked like that and it would have functioned. I just don’t see it as a better alternative. It’s the same complexity repackaged and with its own unique downsides.

    kevincox ,
    @kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

    Yes, there is an offset somewhere, but the questions is what is more useful.

    My main argument is that talking about global times is more convenient and more useful most of the time. Sure, if you are scheduling a meeting you still need to consider when the person is awake/working but that is no harder with global time and in fact can be much easier. But most importantly at the end it is very obvious what time you picked and if it works for everyone. If you say “let’s meet at 18:00” and I usually get to work at 19:00 that sets of red flags right away. If I agree to meet at 10:00 $city I need to do math to confirm that. Also I would much rather everyone just give me “working hours” in global time when trying to schedule across multiple people, rather than having to juggle working hours + time zones for each participant.

    I think the concrete difference comes down to which of these properties is more important to you:

    1. Agreeing on a time.
    2. Knowing what time-of-day a particular timestamp is for a particular person.

    Personally 1 is far more valuable to me. It seems that 2 is minor even now, but will be mostly solved by language as well. Sure, our current ability to approximate someone’s schedule probably won’t be perfectly matched even with new language. But it seems like the delta will not be enough to outweigh the benefits of 1.

    “my cat woke me up at 5:00 in the morning”

    Sure, that’s nice, but I’m sure language would quickly adapt. You can always say “very early” and I’m sure that we will get used to talking about local times more as this happens. As it is this still may not be that notable if I don’t know that you work night shifts. Languages would evolve and I don’t think it would be any worse, just different.

    kambusha ,

    You know, I was very much agreeing to OP, until your comment. You make a convincing point.

    I think we can all agree that daylight savings needs to die though.

    TheAlbatross ,

    I think if I had to wake up to the moon to write emails and make spreadsheets until sun up so my boss could read them in sunlight from their balcony I would cause dire problems.

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    TheAlbatross ,

    That seems even more useless, then, because if I wanted to contact someone elsewhere on the planet, I’d still have to check the local working hours vs the local time.

    Claidheamh ,

    You have to do that anyway.

    kent_eh ,

    So there will be no improvement by making a global change that needs everyone to agree to re-learn the systems they are already familiar with.

    Claidheamh , (edited )

    There will be an improvement of course. That kind of thinking is why the USA still uses imperial after 200 years of the metric system.

    TheAlbatross ,

    How? What’s improved? I still need to look up what the local working ours would be in a certain area I’m trying to call as 9-5 in what is currently EST would be 12-8 in PST. That’s pretty much the same as checking the time zone difference. What’s changed? It would also create regional specific timing. If I’m from North Carolina and I’m talking to someone from Sweden, the idea of “waking at four thirty in the goddamn morning” would need to be translated into a local understanding of what that means. I think this would create far more ambiguity than it would eliminate and I’m not sure what benefit comes from it.

    afraid_of_zombies ,

    It isn’t an improvement and your comparison is false.

    afraid_of_zombies ,

    Why is that better?

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    afraid_of_zombies ,

    What are you on about? Countries don’t just decide to mess with their time. And for the one a decade change you can just look it up. And I have no wish to count backwards with you people.

    You are allowed to admit that it is a dumb idea.

    person , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    afraid_of_zombies ,

    How about you come up with a better idea?

    Steve ,

    It’s literally just a number and doesn’t make any tangible difference.

    YaBoyMax ,

    The trouble is that “2 AM” now means radically different things depending on where in the world you are, and you lose any ability to be able to intuitively reason about the time in other parts of the world from you.

    Steve ,

    But now your talking about something else unrelated to what time you get up for work.

    bionicjoey ,

    We’d get used to it. In China they only use one timezone across the whole country, and they just accept that daylight is at different times in the East versus the West

    prettybunnys ,

    Kinda like half the world knows December - March as winter but the other half knows of it as Summer

    edgemaster72 , (edited )
    @edgemaster72@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah but somewhere between 87-90% of the population is in the northern hemisphere so for the vast majority December - March = Winter. Although I guess depending on local climate it might be more like dry vs rainy season, or not much difference between “winter” and “summer”.

    howrar ,

    Months and seasons are much simpler because it’s always a 6 month offset rather than anywhere between 1-24 hours depending on location. It also doesn’t affect scheduling as much. If you’re interacting with someone on the other hemisphere, the outside weather generally doesn’t affect your decision in any meaningful way.

    kinsnik ,

    94% of the population of China lives in east of the heihe-tengchong line, which means that for 94% of the population the timezone is at most 1 hour off of the “true” time, which is pretty normal.

    bionicjoey ,

    Half of Canada’s population lives in the Quebec-Windsor Corridor, but we still use like 7 separate time zones.

    Also that 6% you’re leaving out is more than twice Canada’s population.

    SpaceNoodle ,

    Half of Canada’s population is less than the population of New York State. Y’all tiny. Maybe more people would live there if it wasn’t a frozen wasteland.

    xmunk ,

    Aww, you’re cute.

    Pirky ,
    @Pirky@lemmy.world avatar

    I think it would be better to think of it as, “Do we want everyone to have the same general idea of what 5pm means? Or to have everyone be on one time?”

    Edit: I know it’s an imperfect question as northern/southern latitudes can get dark sooner/later than the other pending the season. But 5pm to a Californian is going to feel very different than to a German if we’re all on one time.
    Those are just my thoughts, though.

    Magister ,
    @Magister@lemmy.world avatar

    yep, zulu time as we called it in the army

    TheInsane42 , (edited )
    @TheInsane42@lemmy.world avatar

    UTC is most universal, as it’s kinda constant (by lack of/knowing a better word). GMT has DST, so that time changes twice a year, UTC is used as base for all timezones, no matter if and when they have DST.

    In the military Zulu is used as name for UTC.

    cloudless ,
    @cloudless@feddit.uk avatar

    TIL, thanks.

    maynarkh ,

    Because people don’t like change, and this was set up when global communications were not yet a thing.

    We are still struggling to get rid of Daylight Savings Time

    wildbus8979 ,

    Kind of the opposite though, this was setup.ehen global communications started to be a thing… Through trains. Timezones were setup for the railway system.

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