MetaChat - Should we get rid of time zones?

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19 March 2012

Should we get rid of time zones?

post by: BoringPostcards at: 11:27 | 15 comments

I've had three jobs where I had to come to work at 6AM Pacific Time (ironically, only one had to do with 'time-syncing' with the East Coast). I don't care what time the clock tells you it is, you will never get used to it.

posted by oneswellfoop 19 March | 11:37

They would probably base it off GMT if they were to try it, so I really don't want to be getting up at midnight lol

posted by rollick 19 March | 11:49

I would settle for disposing of Daylight Savings shifts.

posted by Ardiril 19 March | 12:03

Besides, the Republicans would object to anything this progressive.

posted by Ardiril 19 March | 12:07

We should get rid of time itself. If everything happened all at once we would be finished already.

posted by Splunge 19 March | 12:27

The article is confusing to me. Is it advocating for universal working hours (i.e., the entire globe works 9am to 6pm, even if that's through the night for some), or for a universal clock with local working hours (i.e., it's 2am everywhere, and half the world is asleep and the other half is in the middle of their work day)?

He seems to present both options as if they were the same thing.

(I don't actually like either option, though, so maybe it doesn't matter.)

posted by occhiblu 19 March | 12:56

I think it's the first one, occhiblu. Relegating half the globe to living nocturnally seems ridiculous to me, though, so maybe I'm misunderstanding it.

posted by BoringPostcards 19 March | 13:04

On Universal GMT, the New York Stock Exchange would open at 5AM. Now THAT's "The City That Never Sleeps".

Also, West Coast USA workday starts at Midnight. All of California on Graveyard Shift, baybee!!! Except for those working in agriculture because those damned farm animals don't respect human clocks!

I would support this for one reason: when I'm on IRC chatting with anybody from Australia, I get so jealous that they're on the other sideof the International Date Line and living in THE FUTURE.

posted by oneswellfoop 19 March | 13:34

Yes.

posted by Eideteker 19 March | 14:17

I'm pretty sure he means occhiblu's second option: a universal clock, but people still get up and go to work according to local daylight. Seems like a fantastic idea to me... but I'm only a few miles from the Greenwich Meridian.

posted by TheophileEscargot 19 March | 15:17

We should also adopt the Dan-f-ian Calendar. I'll get back to you when I make one up.

posted by danf 19 March | 15:19

I'm pretty sure he means occhiblu's second option: a universal clock, but people still get up and go to work according to local daylight.

I don't see how that helps anything. If it's 9am and you're in NYC, then you'd know it's 9am in London and 9am in Sydney but you'd still have to figure out whether it's business hours in either place before making a phone call.

posted by occhiblu 19 March | 15:33

Also, we would always be wondering whether it is 4:20 or beer o'clock..

posted by Ardiril 19 March | 15:42

If it's 9am and you're in NYC, then you'd know it's 9am in London and 9am in Sydney but you'd still have to figure out whether it's business hours in either place before making a phone call.

Yeah, he meant that people would be working at the same time, daylight schedule be damned.

Relegating half the globe to living nocturnally seems ridiculous to me...

He tries to scale down the implementation before examining it:

But then, why don’t we start small? Before anyone embarks on a giant scheme to jumble global clocks, let’s look at what would happen if the continental United States moved to a single time zone.

So his apparent approval of the idea seems conditional on it just being a US thing. Which wouldn't be that different from how it already is in China.

Going completely international seems absurd and Klein kinda skips dealing with that.

posted by mullacc 19 March | 17:38

Is this one of those Friday night questions?

posted by chewatadistance 19 March | 17:58

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