"The right thing" is, for example, simply `System.currentTimeMillis()` in Java. I don't have to think about what 0 means. All I need to know is there's a mapping from an instant to a number.
This representation is arguably closer to the essense of time. Barring relativistic effects, it's just an affine line. Dates and timezones are artificial structure that we put on this line.
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"The right thing" is, for example, simply `System.currentTimeMillis()` in Java. I don't have to think about what 0 means. All I need to know is there's a mapping from an instant to a number.
This representation is arguably closer to the essense of time. Barring relativistic effects, it's just an affine line. Dates and timezones are artificial structure that we put on this line.