but

WHY

so that we can have a unit of distance that is irreversibly tied to an eternal, unchanging entity

Distance based on time is much better

don't even get me started on time dear god

like the metric system

what the hell are we going to do when we have colonies in space

Starve to death

we'll need a different local time system for each one

We use atomic clocks silly

which will make everything the biggest pain in the ass imaginable unless we have a universal time scale

the only thing different would be night/day

an atomic clock would still have to be based on something

yes seconds

what the hell is a second

what is a second tied to

we can only measure time in arbitrary ways and i lose sleep over it

One second is the time that elapses during 9,192,631,770 (9.192631770 x 10 9 ) cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium 133 atom

that's arbitrary as FUCK

not at all

it's a consistent value

if we had a system of measure based on the size of hydrogen atoms we could then create a measure of time based on the speed of light crossing distances (in exact base 10s) of that measure

yes

lightyears

years

but also, we do that right now

with phases of radiation

between celsuis 133 atoms

and it works perfectly

based on the amount of time that the earth, an ever changing celestial body, orbits it's star, another ever changing celestial body

it works perfectly, but it is based on the 24 hour clock, which is based on the rotation of the earth in particular

that part of it is extremely cosmically irrelevant

no it's fucking not

you actual idiot

the clock isn't based on the night/day cycle

unless you are still using fucking sundials

it's based on the 24 hour day

no

**day**

it's not.

how in the fuck can you argue that the clock isn't based on the length of a day