I have to work a bit, so I still have much to write about voting systems, and I have huge projects still on the drawing board. I am sorry. As it turned out, I discovered something which can trigger a lively debate:

I believe that it would be good to adopt the HoloceneCalendar, ISO8601, and eliminate TimeZones:

The HoloceneCalendar is based on the approximate beginning of the Holocene. It is 12017. It is neutral and all historical dates are positive.

ISO 8601 writes Date & Time in descending order using the format YYYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. Now is 12017-09-18T02:49:44.

Elimination of TimeZones is simply using only UTC.

Until a few days ago, I believed these ideas were uncontroversial among skeptics, but encountered a skeptic opposed to some parts of these.

Let us have a discussion about using ISO 8601, the HoloceneCalendar, and eliminating TimeZones. I shall start:

I support ISO 8601, the HoloceneCalendar, and eliminating TimeZones.

In the discussion, it is perfectly okay, let us say, support, to support ISO 8601, and oppose the HoloceneCalendar, and eliminating TimeZones, as an example, so you are free to pick and choose.

Remember, we attack ideas —— ¡not each other! Please be civil.

6118304
Avoiding personal attacks as best I can - that you thought these were uncontroversial among skeptics is stunning. I am not sure how you could come to that conclusion unless you've had a very insular experience indeed.

6118502

Maybe I live an insular existence, but timezones are a bother, a string of 3 double-digit numbers one has to convert to a date is a pain, and different calendars with negative dates and 3 way one goes from negative to positive (straight to, -1 to +1, a -0 which counts down to 0-Time, followed by a positive 0, and -1 followed by an unsigned 0 year followed by +1) is confusing. I figured that others would just want to abandon timezones and use UTC only, use ISO 8601 for representing time & date, and switch to the neutral HoloceneCalendar, with all historical dates being positive numbers. It honestly surprises me that other skeptics might prefer the other more bothersome, painful, and confusing ways.

What is the rationale behind universal UTC? I'm all for eliminating 12-hour time and summer time, mind you.

6121046

> “What is the rationale behind universal UTC? I'm all for eliminating 12-hour time and summer time, mind you.”

Just get rid of all timezones. All clocks on Earth would agree (we already worked out the Darian Calendar for Mars (it proposed 0-Time is the beginning of telescopic observations on Mars, but given that Martian children will have to learn human history, I figure that its 0-Time would be better as close to 0-Time of the HoloceneCalendar as is practicable)). When some friend on the InterNet requests a call at 13:00:00 tomorrow, we shall not have to worry about timezones because they will not exist (¿Is it my 13:00:00? or ¿her 13:00:00?, or ¿13:00:00 UTC?).

Speaking about calendars of other worlds, for intercalculating dates, I propose that computers keep an invariant count of PlanckTimeUnits from 00000-01-01T00:00:00 HC (HoloceneCalendar). Since this invariant count of PlanckTimeUnits would be used on different worlds in the Solar System, ¿would we not have to take into account General Relativity? ¡Yes! We can calculate the invariant count of PlanckTimeUnits using Barycentric Coordinate Time:

Computers would just increment a signed 256-bit integer. It would be like UnixTime except instead of seconds and a 32-bit or 64-bit integer, it would be PlanckTimeUnits and a 256-Bit integer. Given that Balanced Ternary is the best base for computing, maybe future computers will use PlanckTimeUnits and a 243-trit integer.

In the meantime, on Earth, just eliminate the bothersome timezones and use UTC everywhere. Right now is 18:12:14. All clocks everywhere on Earth should say that.

6118822
Counter point: people like the knowing that a certain time of day is going to mean similar things no matter where you go. If you tell me it's 7pm in Japan, I now no longer have any idea if it's dark or light and if it's towards the beginning or end of the day or somewhere in between etc. etc. I think it's easier for people to just look up what time it is somewhere than to have to memorize what UTC Times are going to be like all over the world.

6121932

> “Counterpoint: people like knowing that a certain time of day is going to mean similar things no matter where you go.”

¿How does knowing whether the Sun is visible in different locations help one schedule synchronous communications? If I write that everypony is invited to a videochat at 12017-09-22T09:00:00, what is important is that all participants show up on time.