Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems fromconlangs)

"Mark J. Reed" wrote:
> I mean, as long as my boss and I agree on what time I'm supposed to
> show up for a meeting (which is admittedly an open question if it's
> at half [past] the hour :) ), does it really matter if we call it
> 2:30 PM EDT, 1330 EST, or 1830 UTC?   Who cares if the sun is at
> high noon at 0600 in the summer and 0700 in the winter instead of
> at 1200 year round?  Clock time is just an arbitrary label and it's
> past time we got rid of its archaic chaining to the position
> of the sun in the local sky.
Now, that's a bit much, in my opinion.  :-)  Daylight savings is silly,
I agree, but time zones, in one form or another, are essential.  I
suppose you could have the same "time" everywhere, but that would be
even more inconvenient than time zones.  For example, in some places,
normal working hours would be 9-17, in others they'd be 4-12, in still
others they'd be 20-04, so that halfway thru your day you have to change
the date!  As long as people live on the surface of the Earth, they're
going to be awake at different times in different parts.  :-)

Tho, I have a similar view about the calendar.  Get rid of leap years,
and just have a 365-day year every year, and don't worry about the slow
procession of the seasons.

Now, if we were living on the Moon, or on a planet with an inconvenient
rotational period, or underground as in Asimov's Caves of Steel or the
city-world of Trantor, then sure, we could have a single time for
everyone.

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