Time Ambiguity

Even UTC Universal Time has ambiguity. At this point in human history we shouldn’t be ambiguous with time anymore. Time Ambiguity didn’t used to matter. When commercial railways developed it started to. Then with the technology boom it became important. Now with the modern internet it has become an urgent issue. With standard time format, the notation & expression of date & time around the world is ambiguous & often confusing. For example the time: Saturday 6^th August 2015 3:45pm in Tennessee, USA can be expressed in 87 different ways:

How Erthbeet Time Eliminates Ambiguity

The Erthbeet EBT protocol resolves all these issues because it is a small rigid format that completely eliminates time ambiguity, & more importantly: time zone ambiguity. People do not need to understand an Erthbeet time, just like people do not understand a UTC time. They only have to click the Universal Time Link (UTL) & viola: LOCAL TIME!

The interesting aspect of time notation is that cultures have ‘fallen’ into their own expressional format of date & time. For example, the United States of America commonly express time in the format month/date/year, while other countries use other formats. While most people are aware of these format differences, and usually manage to interpret the intended time, they shouldn’t have to. However, the point being made here is that time ambiguity still exists, despite the fact that the various time format differences are all defined by ISO or RFC documentation.

Time-keeping is now computer-based whereas before computers, time was taken from the next best source: a radio, television or someone else’s clock. Because computers like sequential numbering, the more sensible format of year-month-date is now taking predominance. This format also sorts alphabetically, which for computer users, makes life a lot easier!

The 12-hour clock will eventually die. It has certainly had it’s purpose during the development of time-keeping & has served a predominantly daylight-hours world to provide a less-congested clock visually. But in todays world the two 12-hour  time sections only exacerbate time confusion rather than to ease it. Certainly, the new generation and at a slower rate, the older, are embracing 24-hour time, but more out of need than choice. Consequently more 24-hour clock-faces will begin to appear not only in businesses, transport terminals & offices, but also in people’s homes. As the 12-hour clock has been around for some time, the global infrastructural change to 24-hour will probably be slow. Clock & watch-manufacturers, cartography, documentation & form templates, databases & electronics are only a handful of categories that will need to initiate reluctant & expensive change to accommodate a 24-hour time system.

Erthbeet have chosen to use 24-hour times to remain congruent with the purpose of unambiguous time. The change to 24-hour for most people is not particularly painful. It only takes a week or so of using 24-hour time to connect it with one’s real-life schedule & to attach meaning to it. The easiest way to learn 24-hour time is simply to switch across all electronics to 24-hour time, & because the world’s clocks are still mainly 12-hour, working with the two together will quickly mentally synchronize the two together.