Why can't we have two scales of 'time', one for marking what we'd now call 'absolute time' (an arbitrary clock that is the same all over, E.G. UTC) and another for 'time of day' (in a given location); they should also be displayed uniquely so that it's not possible to confuse one with the other.
Let's pick an arbitrary time. As a high tech society no longer ruled by sun dials we should instead make the start of the scale 'dawn' (on average). 'noon' would be at 25% of that scale, 'sunset' at 50%, midnight at 75% and 'dawn' again would be 100%/0% where it loops.
I think 00 Monday might be good shorthand for 'dawn' Monday, though most would still say 'dawn Monday', however 10 Monday would be a good marker for when you might want to meet someone for your daily dose of caffeine. 40 through 60 might be when you'd prefer to eat dinner.
I often like to test new concepts by applying them to (realistic) extremes, and seeing how they play out.
So take a small town, high in the Arctic Circle, which experiences 30 minutes of darkness around the Summer Solstice. 00 Monday (June 21) would correlate roughly with 12.15am; 50 Monday (sunset) would be 11.45pm. 75 Monday would come 15 minutes after sunset; though 25 Monday ('noon') would be 12pm midday, 10 Monday would actually be 4.56am. In fairness, when I'm up then I do like my caffeine.
Fast forward to December 21 (Winter solstice). The town now has 4 hours of sunlight, roughly corresponding so 00 Monday is 10am and 50 Monday is 2pm. 75 Monday is midnight, but there are now 10 hours between 50 and 75 where there used to be 15 minutes. 10 Monday equates with 10.48am, a fine time for a coffee meeting (even though it's my third meeting of the day), but bearing little resemblence to 4.56am except they match the same proportional distance between dawn and noon.
Thise living in Singapore near the Equator can't understand the fuss, since barely nothing has changed.
Nit picking, I know; when above the Arctic circle, the sun is up for 24 hours at the summer solstice and never rises at the winter solstice.
I think you mean to say "just below the Arctic Circle". Some place like Umeå, Sweden, perhaps. (Even then, it's not really "dark" when the sun dips just below the northern horizon.) Yeah, a time system based on sunrise/set really isn't going to work in the high latitudes.
And if we're talking Sweden, "daily dose of caffeine"? Is that breakfast, morning coffee break, end of lunch coffee, afternoon coffee break or after work coffee? :)
Good addition. Yes, I avoided the 'midnight sun / sun never sets' extreme because it actually kills the 00 = Dawn in one fell swoop. But I didn't realise how low a latitude that came (I did experience 'midnight sun' holidaying in Bergen, Norway, but even then it actually set a little later in the night.)
> As a high tech society no longer ruled by sun dials we should instead make the start of the scale 'dawn' (on average).
The day starting at dawn wasn't an uncommon rule with sundials. Its kind of weird, I'd say, that your idea boils down to "we aren't ruled by sun dials, so we should govern time by the rising of the sun". What?
Why can't we have two scales of 'time', one for marking what we'd now call 'absolute time' (an arbitrary clock that is the same all over, E.G. UTC) and another for 'time of day' (in a given location); they should also be displayed uniquely so that it's not possible to confuse one with the other.
Let's pick an arbitrary time. As a high tech society no longer ruled by sun dials we should instead make the start of the scale 'dawn' (on average). 'noon' would be at 25% of that scale, 'sunset' at 50%, midnight at 75% and 'dawn' again would be 100%/0% where it loops.
I think 00 Monday might be good shorthand for 'dawn' Monday, though most would still say 'dawn Monday', however 10 Monday would be a good marker for when you might want to meet someone for your daily dose of caffeine. 40 through 60 might be when you'd prefer to eat dinner.