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Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

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Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#531

Post by Sebb767 »

haswell wrote: post #511
_k9eq wrote: post #154

I find the implication that aliens are rational and have no subrational concepts due to tradition and habit interesting, as it sort of implies that these kinds of outgrowths are not necessary and can just be done away with. The narrator starts from a position of not wanting to legitimize or historicize beyond reductive statements like "some ancient civilization did XYZ". I'll admit that I skimmed through the last par…

The thing that would've brought it around for me is a punchline where the alien says something like "wow, your system is so clean and simple compared to ours". I do think there's a certain degree of humor when looking back at history. There are plenty of things to laugh at in hindsight. But the thing that rubs me wrong is the undertone that this is somehow a distinctly human trait or inherently a bad thing. That some…

> But the thing that rubs me wrong is the undertone that this is somehow some distinctly human trait. That somehow only humanity is subject to the impact of evolution and gradual learning over time.

Well, to be fair, we really don't know that - we don't have another advanced civilization to compare us to.

But I fully agree, our system might have some legacy cruft, but it works surprisingly well. Joel Spolkys wise words on rewrites also apply to our calendar.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#532

Post by robofanatic »

Alien: so how do you write the date? year-month-day?

"nope, there are several variations but most popular are monthnumber-day-year and day-monthnumber-year. For example - 6-6-2022

"oh so you do use numbers for months."

"yeah sometimes"

"so in your example how do you know which one is day and which one is the month"

"depends upon which part of the earth you are standing on"

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#533

Post by Sebb767 »

Judgmentality wrote: post #325
_k9eq wrote: post #154

I find the implication that aliens are rational and have no subrational concepts due to tradition and habit interesting, as it sort of implies that these kinds of outgrowths are not necessary and can just be done away with. The narrator starts from a position of not wanting to legitimize or historicize beyond reductive statements like "some ancient civilization did XYZ". I'll admit that I skimmed through the last par…

[flagged]

> It is funny. You should try laughing at how dumb we are. It's fun.

But are we dumb or is this just a reductionist take at something that actually has some reason behind it?

Things simply stop being funny if you feel like important background is missing, no snobbery needed.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#534

Post by fknorangesite »

simonh wrote: post #262
narag wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I didn't find it funny, maybe because it ignores the reasons of the inconsistencies, that by the way are perfectly understandable looking at space. Months are related to Moon's orbit, weeks to its phases. Months have other gods's names: Janus, Phoebe, Mars, Aphrodite, Maya, Juno... Julius and Augustus were emperors and from that point are just numerals, starting at March. It was associated with Mars because…

The point of comical absurdities like this is precisely that they appear comical or absurd if you don’t know the reasons for them being the way they are. That doesn’t mean there are no reasons, it’s just that those reasons aren’t necessary or even relevant to appreciating the apparent absurdity.

Don't bother dissecting the frog; this website is populated mostly by sticks in the mud.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#535

Post by coldtea »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

>* - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is used conversationally;*

I think most countries use 12h time casually (conversationally and so on), but most understand 24h time - and it's used officially (e.g. in state communications) in many. It's in the US though that people often need it explained.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#536

Post by w10-1 »

econ101time wrote: post #457

This is how a 12 year old internet atheist sees the world. Advanced alien species is just a stand-in for the know-it-all author. Grow up. These things all have good historical reasons. And you don't turn society upside down just to get some nice parsimony in the calendar. We have a system that works and is remarkably accurate. Changing it would upset millions of social customs, accounting systems, computer systems, e…

Actually, what you're suggesting is that even if it is broken, it's too costly to fix. Then you should ask: costly compared to what?

If we fixed it, then innumerable generations after us would not have to deal with the problem.

The idea of "historical reason" and "social custom" assumes what it tries to prove, that the past is more important than the future.

The real problem is that we don't pay for the costs we impose on the future -- in bad calendars and environmental collapse from an overheated climate.

And because we don't pay, we don't have to care.

Indeed, "not caring" is taken as a badge of honor -- oppositional self-glorification through contempt for others.

Your point would be well-taken if it were well-intended and made with grace. The original post is a funny way to imagine accounting for the weight of history we lay upon those who come after us. It's a nice way to ask us to take some responsibility. Most everyone is willing to do what they can to make the world that little bit better. Indeed, I believe that those who came up with the original mistakes were trying to do better, and would welcome the corrections.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#537

Post by fknorangesite »

Symbiote wrote: post #414
paines wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't truly matter or? It's not like you are going to work on sundays. You only realize it with calenders in e.g. Outlook, and long gone TV guides....

It's a little disorienting on booking sites (hotels etc) when the first day of the week isn't Monday. I once booked a train on the wrong day because the localisation changed part way through my search. (Fortunately I noticed.)

Ah, I disagree: it's disorienting when the first day of the week is on Monday.

Funny how that works, right?

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#539

Post by Morgawr »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

> - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week;

Just adding to the rest of the responses but Japan also has a very... contrived relationship with what counts as "the beginning of the week" and most people would say Sunday is that day.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#540

Post by cperciva »

miniwark wrote: post #396
cperciva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

February, the last month of the year was shorter because the year isn’t long enough to give it 30 days Originally February had 30 days, along with all the other months. (The 5 or 6 remaining days at various times were either extra days which didn't belong to a month or were omitted until there was a month's worth of them to catch up on.) February got shorter because (being the last month of the year) it had days remo…

The Ethiopian calendar still do this, 12 months of 30 days each and a last 5 to 6 "month". The reddit thread is funny but it also forget than there is not only one calendar in the actual world... Long time ago, i have meet an indian who was never able to explain to me witch days he was forbidden to eat meat (he was not a strict vegetarian), or even food at all. It was probably a mix of one of the indian calendars, ho…

My understanding is that the Ethiopian calendar is basically the ancient Egyptian calendar aside from some names changing.
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