WHAT TIME IS IT? PART II - 10.06.2021
October 6, 2021
Good Wednesday morning. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from Burbank, California. Welcome to RUPP'S NOTES/FBI SPECIAL AGENT HARTMAN SERIES posts.
I know your time is precious, and I trust you will find this to be a timely article. Oh, God, did I really write that.
The concept of time came to my mind again on Monday because of what happened. I arrived at the automobile dealership at 6:50 a.m. for routine service and an airbag recall. I figured that I would be out of there well before Noon. At 4:15 p.m., the vehicle was ready. What a wasted day. Fortunately, I had taken a lot of reading material with me. Unfortunately, I did not have my computer and could not make my usual Monday post of this newsletter.
Apparently, time is frequently on my mind, as I sent out a post on March 17 of this year with the same title. As age catches up with me, I suspect that time is becoming more important, and I'm becoming more forgetful.
I do buy into the saying, "Time is Precious." And, I agree with the statement that "Time is a concept; it doesn't exist." Some great minds disagree about what "time" is. One is Stephen Hawking, who got way over my head on the subject. Physics was not one of my better subjects. According to Stephen Hawking, time moves slower in far-out space. No matter how many times I read the article, I had no idea why. The quote of his I do like is, "You would have to fly around the world four hundred million times to add one second to your life, but your life would be reduced by more than that by all those airline meals." So, time does allow for humor. In fact, I think humor does speed up time, and sadness certainly slows it down. Now in my logic, if that is true, you would want more sadness to extend time. Forget about logic. Yes, time is confusing.
When the DEBATE ORGANIZATION polled their membership on the question, "Is time a man-made construct?" – 64% responded Yes, and 36% No. My bet is that the Social Science majors voted Yes, and the STEM majors voted No.
For some reason, I thought of "High Noon at the O.K. Corral." Well, it wasn't "High Noon." According to WIKIPEDIA, it was a 30-second shootout between lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys, including Ike Clanton, that occurred at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona.
Now that's pretty specific. Thirty seconds, and a specific date and time.
As respects the 30 seconds, psychologists indicate that every individual perceives the flow of time differently.
Then with respect to the specific date and time, you may not want to put it into your timeline spreadsheet because time is not what it seems. The January 2013 issue of the SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE had an article titled "Why Time Is A Social Construct," which includes the following – . . . "The U.S. national time standard, for instance, didn't emerge until 1883 when it was adopted by the railroads, which needed to maintain common timetables. Before that, cities largely kept their own local time, and many were not happy to have big government and big railroads force standardization on them. 'Let the people of Cincinnati stick to the truth as it is written by the sun, moon, and stars,' editorialized one newspaper when the changeover was going into effect. . . . The era of globalization may be finishing the job, as information technology and the international supply chain knit nations together more tightly than ever."
This is from my previous post on this subject –
In my novel SKYWARD, the Bowman Colony on the Moon messes with time measurement compared to what they knew back down on Earth. Why? Because it made sense to do so. After all, we on Earth vary time by geographic location and change time when we want more daylight in the evening. In the United States, we just set our clocks back an hour to accomplish this.
At the San Francisco Skyward Research &Training Center established by the Bowman Twins, the Bowman Colony on the Moon will have its own definition of a day. This is because the Colony will be located in Shackleton Crater, where the rim is sunlit for more than ninety percent of the year, and the topographic depressions below never receive sunlight. So much for sunrise and sunset.
To better fit their needs (24-hour monitoring and building of the Colony, physical space sharing for eating, exercise, and entertainment), the decision is made that a year will consist of 292 days, each day made up of 30 hours. There will be three work shifts of 10 hours, followed by 20 hours for sleeping and personal activity. Each of the three shifts will live in its own habitational unit. Lighting will be adjusted to sync that group's biological clock to match their shift. Work, eating, and workout spaces will be continually lit. The Colony is designed to be very efficient.
The 292 days and 30 hours match the 8,760 hours in an Earth year (except for a leap year). If a Colonist wants to know what time it is at a particular city on Earth, they simply ask "Sky." Everything in Bowman Colony is controlled by Sky. It's "Alexia" or "Siri" on steroids. Sky is the all-knowing, interactive voice assistant that is connected to the Colonies master computer. It basically controls everything in the Bowman Colony. Sky is the master or controller of all the other devices and processes in the Colony and serves as its communication hub. It uses voice and facial recognition to accomplish such things as unlocking and opening doors, seal off areas that have lost atmosphere or involve a fire, controlling thermostats, lamps, and lights, checking news and weather, and telling what time it is on Earth. Remember, it's not that easy to walk around in low gravity, so the more things that can be voice-activated, the easier it is for the Colonists.
The concept of time has allowed humans to advance over all other species. The 2.4-second rocket burn to send a spacecraft in the right direction, the 30 minutes to properly bake a cake, and timelines to efficiently construct something are things that no other species can do.
It feels good to get back on schedule.
Cheers,
Richard V. Rupp, Author
Website – www.richardvrupp.com
Email – rupprisk@gmail.com
Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp