When you are
retired you are supposed to put away your watch and become less regulated by
time. But time is always there. The world runs on time.
I wonder who
invented time – yes invented. The
universe is not concerned about time; it’s just there. It is humans that have divide up their existence
by some unit of before, now and after – and believe the world and the universe
are regulated by their standard.
I am sure
the white race wants to take credit for time; but I have the feeling it was an
Arab concept. The Arabs were
contemplating math, science and technology back when white Europeans were
living in grass hovels and stabbing each other with sharp sticks.
But I don’t
doubt it was white people that decided to divide the day into two, twelve arbitrary
unites of sixty minutes of sixty seconds; and then patted themselves on the
back for their brilliance. Perhaps
twelve was the number of times some king farted between daylight and dark.
An arbitrary
base twelve/sixty system doesn’t make any sense. Base ten is mathematically easier to work
with. Why not ten hours divided by one
hundred minutes divided into ten minute unites that could be divided into
deci-minutes, centi-minutes, milli-minutes…
Think of how
much easier space and technology calculations would be if a base ten system was
used as the arbitrary time standard. Time
could be expressed in decimals; not in hours, minutes, seconds and
fractions.
Just a
thought
the Ol’Buzzard
oh man..i just got a sharp stabbing pain over my right eye.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that adherence to time periods and schedules was greatly advanced by medieval monasteries, who separated their days into eight or nine periods marked by bells and prayers. I read a great line once that monks were "the busy professionals of their era."
ReplyDeleteActually it was the Sumerians about 5500 years ago. They used a numerical system based on 12 which was adopted by the Persians and Babylonians. The Babylonians also did the circle thing with 360 degrees.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livescience.com/44964-why-60-minutes-in-an-hour.html
ReplyDeleteWhite men (Europeans) may not have invented time, but they are the ones that placed such importance on time. Which probably explains why the Prime Meridian passes thru London.
ReplyDelete