this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
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But what's that time's point of reference? And is it really feasible, given that time is relative?
No, not necessary. But given that the human body doesn't experience a natural day-night-cycle and nobody would actually have night shifts, you could better distribute the use of resources like lab equipment.
To the first, whatever the federation wants.
It’s be like syncing modern militaries up to GMT or whatever time that military decides. (Probably, they call it “stardate”)
When I tell people to get on zoom at 8 am GMT, everyone knows what time it is even though one place it might be 2 am and another 9 pm.
For relativity, being inside the warp field apparently simplifies that since the ship isn’t moving at FTL speeds. It’s handwaving, but whatever. We could also just constantly update clocks with a reference time like we do with GPS satellites (because those wouldn’t work if we didn’t, heh.)
As for the second, I suspect the limitation is rather in the space available for experimentation rather than the actual equipment. Look at all of the experiments Wesley did in his bedroom. Remember, they can probably fabricate any equipment they need.
The other limitation, potentially, is on the crew available to do it, which won’t matter here.
In any case, research is collaborative. Having more people on the same schedule means they can collaborate better and more effectively. It doesn’t need to be all-or-nothing, but you’re going to have lopsided rotations.
As a side though, the physical day night cycle would be achieved by lighting in different parts of the ship- it becomes day as you get up and go to work with the lighting gradually getting brighter and night as you leave.
Rather than changing that and running into conflicts; the halls just stay at one setting and the main spaces are brighter while crew quarters darker. That’s not exactly what seen on screen, but it’s how I’d do it. “Day-” “night-“ then becomes an analog for which shift is which, to distinguish them. (We could also go with a/b/c/d or whatever. Submarine shifts in the USN are some what whonky, but highly researched.)
It might be just for that, as a point of reference. If 5 different ships from 5 different sectors running on 5 different timezones, how would they agree on a time to meet at a particular location? The Stardate could be just a generalized point of reference for time and maybe it's up to the ship to determine their own shift schedule and "local time"