also being discussed on MeFi and HN

    • Arthur BesseOPA
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      2 years ago

      If by “UNIX time” you mean store timestamps as seconds (minus number-of-leap-seconds, currently 27) since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, that epoch is still technically defined in terms of the christian epoch, and, worse, it is also defined in terms of UTC which wasn’t even really standardized until 1972 and which periodically needs to have leap seconds inserted by the Earth Rotation Service. At least they have a cool logo:

      We should probably just admit to the aliens that we didn’t even have a very precise definition of a “second” until 3 BUE (Before UNIX Era) but then we can tell them about TAI64, TAI64N, and TAI64NA and Circular T and then they’ll see that we’re at least starting to get serious.

      It will be much easier if we can manage to abolish daylight savings time before we have to explain that too.

      • vitaminka
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        2 years ago

        pretty sure unix time began with the creation of the universe in the 1970 🤨

  • ree
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    2 years ago

    I don’t sée any reason for aliens to have their shit together…

    • sexy_peach@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      Yeah people humanize them way too much. They could be any number of ways, unintelligent, intelligent, have weird values, whatever.

  • DessalinesA
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    2 years ago

    Has anyone ever come up with a sane time / calendar system?

    • @dessalines @cypherpunks

      The simplest system may be 13 months of 28 days: every month has exactly 4 weeks, starting with a Monday and ending with a Sunday.
      The l
      365th day (and 366th in leap years) is a bonus day, a jolly outside of weeks, maybe a bank holiday.

      Everyone is happy.

      But maybe it doesn’t worth the effort to change a system which is the same in almost all the world, even with a simpler one

      • nachtigall@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        Everyone is happy.

        Except for nations and religions that celebrate their holidays on a 29th/30th/31st. And businesses because they like accounting in periods smaller than a year like quarters or semesters while 13 is a prime number (still possible but not really neat). Unfortunately.

        I’d still root for the International Fixed Calendar though.

  • Tiuku@sopuli.xyz
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    2 years ago

    Our timesystem has it’s oddities for sure but at least it’s pretty much the same all around the globe. There are no silly imperial units of time etc.

  • jollyrogue
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    2 years ago

    Hopefully, they just show up and blast us all.

    They’ll probably build condos on the beaches after that, but no humans is a win.

  • sproid
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    2 years ago

    When the time comes, we’ll create or adopt a galactic calendar. Then set up a an equivalent/translation to one place in earth.

  • Cyclohexane
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    2 years ago

    It’s not really worth changing the calendar system. There is a greater benefit in the calendar system being unified across the world, consistent, and stable, rather than the parts adding up perfectly and not being based on a certain culture or religion.