Agreed, I think it's worth a point-by-point takedown of the article's concerns:
> causes the question "What time is it there?" to be useless/unanswerable
necessitates significant changes to the way in which normal people talk about time
This is a significant benefit actually. The answer to the question would be: It's exactly the same time everywhere.
> convolutes timetables, where present
If convolute means simplify then agreed. Flights would no longer sometimes arrive yesterday or go back in time. Sure the position of the sun might be different at your destination but you can be assured that you will not land in the past.
> means "days" are no longer the same as "days"
Fair criticism but already days are not days. If a team on the other side of the globe tells you they will get it done today, are they referring to your time zone or theirs? This is easily solved by simply saying "I will get it done by 0500 (utc)" which is more precise and probably better anyway.
> complicates both secular and religious law
It's already complicated. When does fasting end if you live in the artic circle for example? It's easy enough to map the solar day onto the utc time. Sunrise and sunset fluctuate anyway based on latitude, longitude, local laws, and even terrain.
> is a staggering inconvenience for a minimum of five billion people
Why?
> makes it near-impossible to reason about time in other parts of the world
You already need to consider the offset to your local time, knowing a single offset to UTC rather than having to subtract two offsets is far from near-impossible, it's actually far simpler.
> does not mean everybody gets up at the same time, goes to work at the same time, or goes to bed at the same time
What flights go back in time? I guess if you take off near the edge of one timezone and land near the edge of another. But so what? Why is that an issue?
Most times I'm dealing with things local, I didn't really care what time it is elsewhere. And this is said by someone who just had several calls with people from around the world. Id rather deal with trying to figure out what time somewhere else is every once in a while rather than trying to understand what time midday is.
Generally when they cross the international date line - for example when traveling from Sydney to San Francisco, I can take off at midday and land at ~7am on the same day local time.
> causes the question "What time is it there?" to be useless/unanswerable necessitates significant changes to the way in which normal people talk about time
This is a significant benefit actually. The answer to the question would be: It's exactly the same time everywhere.
> convolutes timetables, where present
If convolute means simplify then agreed. Flights would no longer sometimes arrive yesterday or go back in time. Sure the position of the sun might be different at your destination but you can be assured that you will not land in the past.
> means "days" are no longer the same as "days"
Fair criticism but already days are not days. If a team on the other side of the globe tells you they will get it done today, are they referring to your time zone or theirs? This is easily solved by simply saying "I will get it done by 0500 (utc)" which is more precise and probably better anyway.
> complicates both secular and religious law
It's already complicated. When does fasting end if you live in the artic circle for example? It's easy enough to map the solar day onto the utc time. Sunrise and sunset fluctuate anyway based on latitude, longitude, local laws, and even terrain.
> is a staggering inconvenience for a minimum of five billion people
Why?
> makes it near-impossible to reason about time in other parts of the world
You already need to consider the offset to your local time, knowing a single offset to UTC rather than having to subtract two offsets is far from near-impossible, it's actually far simpler.
> does not mean everybody gets up at the same time, goes to work at the same time, or goes to bed at the same time
People already don't do this