Abolishing Time Is The right Way to Go Returning to a More Natural Life (Sky Clock)

Source: GIZMODO

A Norwegian City Wants To Abolish Time

by Ryan F. Mandelbaum | Jun 16, 2019

Kjell Ove Hveding (second from left) and others destroying a clock. (Photo: Kjell Ove Hveding)

Every day, the Earth rotates. The Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, and then some time later, it sets. We've built our lives and societies around this periodicity, with days that are divided into hours, minutes and seconds, all kept track of by clocks.

But in some places on Earth, the Sun rises only once per year, and sets once per year. With their concept of a day already so estranged from the rest of the world's, one Arctic population started thinking: What if we ditched the concept of time altogether?

That's the idea of Norwegian Kjell Ove Hveding, who lives north of the Arctic Circle in a town called Sommarøy. The idea has since taken off, and has been featured by Norway's state news agency and at least one of the country's large national newspapers.

This week, Hveding met with his local member of parliament to hand over a petition to get rid of time in the town. The driving motivator, it seems, is to make Sommarøy a place where people can do whatever they want, whenever they want.

"You have to go to work, and even after work, the clock takes up your time," Hveding told Gizmodo. "I have to do this, I have to do that. My experience is that [people] have forgotten how to be impulsive, to decide that the weather is good, the Sun is shining, I can just live." Even if it's 3:00AM.

The proposal is sparse on details, and to be honest, I'm still not quite sure how serious it is. But it was in part connected to the discussion over the usefulness of daylight saving time, which the European Union scrapped this year. These discussions are of no consequence to the people of Sommarøy, since the Sun only sets once per year.

Without time, stores would be open whenever the storekeeper wanted, people could go outside whenever they wanted, and rather than by appointment, people could just meet up impulsively. This kind of lifestyle is obviously not for everyone, and Sommarøy has only 321 residents as of 2017.

It still made me wonder — can humans truly ditch clocks? The answer, in short, is no. Most importantly, we live in a society that relies on days broken into hours and minutes. Removing the clocks might make things feel more flexible for a group that chooses to live outside these rules, but ultimately labour, schooling and transportation all rely on time.

Hveding himself was about to catch a flight after our phone call, something that would probably not be possible without clocks.

Please go to GIZMODO to read the entire articlee.
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