If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be its Achilles heel

Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by heavymark on Monday April 17, 2017 @06:29PM (#14134986)

Time zones certainly won't be Google's super intelligence achilles heel, but certainly a good dramatic title to get people to read a bug report/feature enhancement.

The author says you should assume the time zone of where you will be when that time occurs, but that's certainly not a safe assumption, as I may schedule a call at my Boston office for a certain time, but then may be traveling during that actual trip but the time should still be Boston and not where I'm traveling. I use Google Calendar backend but only interact through my Mac or iPhone using iCal or Fantastical both which support time zones. So for most people who time zones isn't an issue, its not a problem. For people who travel often or who have clients in different time zones, you simply add a couple keys when creating a smart entry in Fantastical. Just like when I'm talking to client who know are in a different time zone I always mention the time zone after the time.

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Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by dragonwriter on Monday April 17, 2017 @06:37PM (#14135029)

> The author says you should assume the time zone of where you will be when that time occurs, but that's certainly not a safe assumption

It's not even assumption which is guaranteed to have a unique answer, much less the correct unique answer. It's possible for a person to experience the same time local time (on the same local date) in more than one time zone when travelling.

Heck, it's possible to experience the same local time on the same local date twice without travelling during DST or Summer Time transitions, and while most people don't have events scheduled then, people who do might work might.

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Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by truthexposer on Monday April 17, 2017 @07:49PM (#14135442)

What difference would that make? If different time zones give the same time, that makes no difference, as the time needed would be the local time. The local time could be in a twilight zone that works on a mod43 clock, but if you're scheduling an appt to be in the twilight zone at +800 twilight zone, +800 twilight zone will be the time you need to be at the place.

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Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by ekiru on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @11:08AM (#14139439)

The problem isn't that multiple time zones give the same local time at a particular time; the problem is that a person may experience the same local time multiple times during a day due to traveling or summer time.

Suppose I'm coming back to Chicago from a trip to Japan, and a friend wants to get an early dinner when I get back. One frequent direct flight from Tokyo leaves NRT around 6 PM and arrives at ORD at 4 PM on the same calendar date. Before I leave Chicago I set an event for meeting them at our favorite restaurant at 5:30 PM. Should my calendar remind me about the event when it's 5:00 PM where I'm at waiting for my flight to board at Narita or at 5:00 PM where I'm at back in Chicago?

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Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by ekiru on Monday April 17, 2017 @07:29PM (#14135340)

It's also possible to experience a particular local time zero times on the date for either of those reasons.

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Re:If Google achieves superintelligence, time zones will be ... by allenz on Monday April 17, 2017 @08:25PM (#14135591)

I agree that the calendar shouldn't make questionable assumptions. However, Scott's complaint is that he often forgets to set the timezone, resulting in significant harm. I think that it's a fair complaint--after all, the entire point of a calendar is to reduce your mental burden. Perhaps the best solution is to make the calendar explicitly prompt for the timezone if there is any ambiguity.

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