Let’s say people can’t agree on the time to go to bed, and each timezone declared war on every other timezone. Who would win in this conflict? What alliances would form, and will there be betrayal? What would the new world order look like with a standard time for everyone?

GMT+8 looks good with the entire population of China on its side. GMT+1 and +2 have large chunks of Europe and Africa and could be quite strong too. The timezones in the east and west coast of the U.S. might also stand a good chance.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
    91·
    9 hours ago

    China’s cheating, it’s all crammed forcefully into one timezone, Beijing’s!
    In far western China in winter, it could be noon and the sun is barely rising over the horizon. Then in summer the sunset might be at around 1am.

  • stinky@redlemmy.comEnglish
    91·
    10 hours ago

    There should be no time zones. We don’t need them. It’s 8pm, everywhere on Earth at the same time. Darkness is falling at 8pm in Dublin, but it’s still sunny and bright at 8pm in New York. It would take some adjusting but would remove all of the logic and cost associated with timing a particular place.

    • nandeEbisu@lemmy.world
      71·
      10 hours ago

      Ask people in western China how that’s working for them. And that’s only the width of one country, not a continent or hemisphere.

      • stinky@redlemmy.comEnglish
        4·
        8 hours ago

        If your friend is of China’s majority Han ethnicity, you can assume that by 3 o’clock he’s referring to Beijing Standard Time. But if your friend is a Uighur, the largest ethnic minority group in Xinjiang, he might be referring to “local time,” which is two hours behind.

        ^ this is a problem because of the existence of time zones.

        In the summer, for instance, it isn’t uncommon in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to see people enjoying a beautiful sunset … at midnight

        ^ this is NOT a problem. there is no inherent issue with the sun being up at midnight.

        Time Zones cause more trouble than they’re worth, as you pointed out. I’m recommending removing them.

        • mapu@slrpnk.net
          1·
          5 hours ago

          I think we can arrive to a best-of-both-worlds solution if we just up the tolerance for when solar noon can be to 12:00±2 h. If China just had +7 instead of +8 as their timezone then 99 % of the population would have solar noon in between 10:30 and 13:30. Same applies to the entire EU (excluding Outermost Regions) if it had +1. The entirety of South America and most of the Caribbean would fit in +4. The US could definitely get away with 3 timezones instead of its current 5 (-6, -8, -10).

  • morphballganon@lemmy.world
    3·
    8 hours ago

    The one with Hawaii could just pretend they’ve already been wiped out and wait for everyone else to destroy each other

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    271·
    16 hours ago

    Probably China. It’s one nation, full of industry and under a single leadership. They could produce whatever they needed. China is one time zone.

    Next competitor is the slice encompassing a large number of countries in Africa as well as most of western Europe. Huge number of people and industries contained in that slice, but they lack common leadership.

  • bitcrafter@programming.dev
    2·
    10 hours ago

    They would all lose because they stretch all the way down into Antarctica which means that the penguins would be involved…

  • Geobloke@aussie.zone
    711·
    24 hours ago

    Definitely +8, they have like a third of the world’s population.

    The first to lose world be +8.25 they’re at the bottom of Western Australia. There’s roughly 12 people there unless Bruce is passing through. A fuck ton of emu war veterans though. From the side that won

    • zlatiah@lemmy.world
      8·
      19 hours ago

      Not to mention that the entirety of China, a singular political and military entity (a fairly strong one nonetheless), is somehow all +8 due to a technicality

      Now all of China knows you’re here!