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A comment on Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years. Parent comment

Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by dredmorbius on Sunday February 09, 2020 @09:57PM (#22286063)
From a favourite Reddit thread:

- Why in the hell would a date value-- particularly one that's an offset-- be signed?

- - How were you planning on indicating dates prior to 1970-01-01?

- - - What date before 1970? We just all assume those do not exist.

- - - - "Now you've made me feel old." "How old are you?" "Let me put it this way: when I was born, time didn't exist."

https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2b4kpg/conspir...

The full context is ... kind of fun:

https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2b4kpg/conspir...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by unlinked_dll on Sunday February 09, 2020 @10:37PM (#22286251)
Well if we bite the bullet and use a 512 bit unsigned int we can represent time zero as the Big Bang and we should be good until the heat death of the universe, based on my napkin math. But I'm no physicist or kernel contributor so unsure of the implications.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by mekster on Monday February 10, 2020 @07:36AM (#22288541)
No way. Do we know exactly when big bang was or that a second has always been a second since then?

We don't want time implementations based on some definition of big bang version 1.1.3 and all other versions as physicians change the definition of time since big bang.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by apodysophilia on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:34PM (#22291231)
If the big rip theory is correct, then 64 bits will suffice.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by war1025 on Sunday February 09, 2020 @10:53PM (#22286309)
What happens when we revise the moment of the Big Bang? Maybe need signed 1024 bit just in case.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by unlinked_dll on Sunday February 09, 2020 @10:54PM (#22286315)
Might as well just make it signed at that point. We'll never need more than kilibit to represent time.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by throwaway2048 on Monday February 10, 2020 @07:08AM (#22288412)
Instead we now assume dates past 2038 don't exist...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by dredmorbius on Monday February 10, 2020 @11:19AM (#22290419)
Time is an illusion.

Lunchtime doubly so.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by Izkata on Sunday February 09, 2020 @10:46PM (#22286287)
Huh, just realized - time ends at pi-o'clock.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux 5.6 is the most exciting kernel in years by skrebbel on Monday February 10, 2020 @05:58AM (#22288031)
This is how I usually compute pi.
[ Parent | on HN ]