TIME The Concept

Time is only a concept that we have created to reliably predict increments of the only three natural cycles that we can accurately observe: The day, the lunar month & the solar year. ‘Time’ didn’t exist as a commodity until we made machines (clocks) that could regularly mark a predicted integer number of machine-events for a day. Before then time was only referred to by morning, dusk, noon, day, month, season & year. The modern day clock is no longer mechanical, but atomic. All global time is referenced ultimately against atomic clock time. In the real world, we all get our time from a computer, television or a radio receiver. But these time sources get their time source from one of the many world time servers. World time servers get their time from a UTC Time Server, & all UTC time servers get their time from an atomic clock. 

The second is the basic time parameter for domestic & commercial use. It is the same second all over the world. For example the 34th second is the 34th second anywhere in the world. Accessing the worlds’ second value to within one second of accuracy is usually difficult because of internet routing, networking & electronics latency & other cumulative factors. But for the commercial & domestic sectors, this is accurate enough. It is only where companies or governments require extreme, nanosecond accuracy,  that International Atomic Time is referenced directly instead of UTC time. The two hundred or so atomic clocks now communicate with each other using satellite & GPS signals, to maintain stable time. Some people think of quartz for atomic time, but quartz hasn’t been used for several decades. Atomic clocks now use cesium for time calibration.

Time is only ever local to you & is an offset from UTC (Universal Time Code) time. But the basic building blocks of time follow a universal incrementation of time that is itself governed by natural cycles. Because natural cycle times change or vary, ‘natural’ time is difficult to manage, which is the reason we have leap years. Atomic time doesn’t vary, & is now the basis that under-pins our global time reference for domestic use: UTC.

Evolution of Time over 3,000 years. Article by Erthbeet

While the creation of time was initially for convenience, its primary use is now commercially driven. While the concept of time remains the same, it’s practical use is remarkably different for the modern world. Time is a commodity. Time is money. Workers know when to arrive & when to leave work. People are paid for their time. Entertainers charge for their time. Everyone charges for their time. The modern capitalistic economy uses time accurately, and so time is now a precious commodity that is wielded by governments, corporations & business. There is an abundance of both scientific & general information available on the profound subject of chronology.

Web page technology has emerged that auto-populates local time on web pages & has certainly helped to alleviate time zone confusion to a small extent.  However, this mechanism doesn’t address the far greater need for one global time zone that delivers a single unambiguous global time that can be used & handled in everyday life independently of a specific web-page context.

A Brief History of the Concept of Time