You advocate a [blank] approach to calendar reform | Hacker News Reader

You advocate a [blank] approach to calendar reform

qntm.org

29 pointsapsec11215 comments

( ) having months of different lengths is irritating

( ) having months which vary in length from year to year is maddening

People toy with calendar reform exactly because so many boxes are already ticked in our current system, and other boxes are questionable:

( ) having one or two days per year with no day of the week is asinine

Meanwhile, happy day that only happens once every four years.

I always see it as a half serious pursuit, but it's fun to try because our current system is an irrational historical accident that predates almost everything we've learned about math, astronomy, sociology, and usability.

The only time I could ever see us adopting new calendar systems is when (if) we eventually migrate off-planet into space colonies or onto other bodies in the solar system. Why? Because only then will each colony have a completely different notion of what a solar year is, and different (or even entirely artificial) notions of solar days. In these colonies a standardized calendar system may arise. Or a chaotic web of independent calendar systems.

Perhaps just a count of seconds from some zero point. Mark intervals in kilosecs and megasecs. Then the computer time-counter register will be the only clock anybody needs. Never mind 'Wednesday'. "See you in a megasec!" which is about 11.6 of our 'days'.

The problem there is that seconds are relative to movement. If you are traveling faster than earth, your clock is going to lose sync.

That is a problem that cannot be solved!

I like that this comes preticked:

> the history of calendar reform is insanely complicated and no amount of further calendar reform can make it simpler

I agree that calendar reform is futile, it's more useful to have a universal standard than trying to get everyone to agree on a marginally better one. But it's fun to think about how you could design the calendar from scratch, or how we should do it on Mars.

Besides social inertia, I have not heard a good argument for lunar months. I convert months to day numbers (feb 29 becomes day 60) in my head, which makes reasoning about longer time scales a little easier.

The majority of these complaints also apply to our current system.

this even works if your approach is to not change anything! :)

my favorite line:

( ) the length of the solar day is ultimately unbounded

That made me laugh out loud, causing some suspicious glances:

( ) years which count down instead of up are not very funny

()The past will always exist, and they'll never adopt your new calendar. FTW!

global Metric time...;)

Which would require reprinting every science book, re-deriving every mathematical equation, replacing every road sign, ruler, measuring cup, scale, etc. Because metric time would involve altering the second, you would need to alter pretty much every other constant to match.

Right, but note that almost anywhere outside the (christian) west uses (at least) two concurrent systems without much trouble (e.g. India: Western/Shaka calendar, Israel: Western/Jewish Lunar calendar, etc.).

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