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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

#571

Post by drdeca »

eastbound wrote: post #136
ozim wrote: post #56

Consistency is for small minds. I expect aliens to have much broader issues with time keeping. Rotations of different galaxies? Weird alien rulers imposing their names like "X Æ A-12" for 3rd rotation even if 12 is in the name. Having video calls scheduling is hard between Earth time zones - good luck scheduling video call between two galaxies.

The lag would be enormous between galaxies, unless we invent quantum entanglement, in which case the lag is also irrelevant because you can teleport yourself.

Quantum entanglement does not allow you to communicate information faster than c (though it does allow you to correlate behavior, in a way which the benefits of which can't be seen until after a light-speed delay)

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

#572

Post by bradleysmith »

Cyph0n wrote: post #215
retrac wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week /Officially/ almost everyone has standardized on ISO 8601 where Monday = 1 and Sunday = 7. But unofficially, not really. The week is still popularly understood to start on Sunday in English Canada, and probably some other parts of the English-speaking world. A quick check of Wikipedia suggests…

The Arabic/Islamic calendar starts at Sunday because the weekend is Friday and Saturday. In Islam, the weekly congregation (mass equivalent) takes place on Friday around noon.

Switched to a browser to comment exactly this.

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, we started our work week on Saturday, with Wednesday being the last day of the work (school for me) week. It took me a long time to transition over to think about Saturday/Sunday as the days off. I still get random pangs of excitement on Wednesday thinking it’s the end of the week if my brain hasn’t warmed up.

I believe this is still the case in the gulf states and I would assume other Islamic countries.

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

#573

Post by gmiller123456 »

"But enough about our calendar, let's hear about yours"

"Well, due to what makes a planet habitable, you won't be surprised that our planets year and day isn't incredibly different from yours..."

"But it took you millions of years to get here, why is your calendar based on a place you haven't been to in so long?"

"Well our species lifespan is about 100 years, so, actually, I was never there"

"But I guess you use that calendar to communicate back home?"

"Well, actually, the planet was swallowed by the star during its first red giant phase..."

"So your clock and calendar is based on a planet your separated from by generations, and which doesn't even exist anymore?"

"It does seem silly when you put it like that..."

"But it must be tiring writing out several digits for the year..."

"Oh, we solved that problem, we generally just write the last few digits, and it only becomes a problem every few generations"

"Cool, we just got rid of a system like that, but I'm sure it'll come back soon. Changing the subject, why do you have so many different computers?"

"Well, this is going to seem a bit silly, but we started using quantum computers a long time ago. Since there were 7 quantum states, each manufacturer had its own idea of which state should come first in memory."

Me: pats alien on back, "Dude, I feel you."

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

#575

Post by npsomaratna »

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…

Over here in Sri Lanka:

1) I've seen calendars with both starting days (Sunday/Monday). Anecdotally, calendars with Sunday as the first day seemed to be more popular when I was a kid; now, calendars with Monday as the first day seem to be more common.

2) The 12-hour system is far more popular here than the 24-hour system. Not that we don't use it, but in my experience, 24-hour tends to be mainly used in professional settings; 12-hour is used essentially everywhere else.

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

#576

Post by rsynnott »

Izkata wrote: post #549
rsynnott wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The historic Roman year (the one _before_ the one that Caesar replaced) had 10 months, which is probably where that comes from.

Yeah, what I'd learned as a kid was that Julius and Augustus inserted themselves in the middle to turn it from 10 to 12 months, which is why the latter months are named wrong, but comments up above are saying they just renamed months.

That’s confusing a few separate things. There was (supposedly; we only know about it from late Republic writers) a system with ten months, _then_ a system with 12 months where the year started in March (so the numbering made sense), then at some point the year switched to starting in January, then Julius Caesar’s system, also with 12 months.

Later on (during Augustus’s rule, I think), Quintilis and Sextilis became July and August, but by that time they were _already_ confusingly named.

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

#577

Post by timbit42 »

octobus2021 wrote: post #269
timbit42 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The decimal system should have been the dozenal system but good luck getting people to switch from decimal to dozenal.

I don't know how many fingers you have, but decimal system makes more sense to me...

Since I lost 4 in the accident, I have 12 left.

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

#578

Post by MegaButts »

Sebb767 wrote: post #533
Judgmentality wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

People that are too dumb to understand satire while pointing out why it's satire are indeed dumb, and should laugh at their own stupidity. But people on HN care more about being smart than self-aware, which is why this site is full of the funniest comments. He may as well be arguing about why eating babies is a bad idea after reading A Modest Proposal.
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