UNIX time, UTC, and datetime: Jussivity, prolepsis, and incorrigibility in modern timekeeping

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the three entangled systems of the UNIX time data format, the UTC time standard, and the various administratively defined datetimes used to give specific moments in time names. Due to the increasing prevalence of Linux and Unix‐based systems, a large majority of computing devices, from phones to Web servers, utilize these interlocking systems to structure time. The assemblage as a whole is briefly described, from UNIX time integers to the empirical measurements of atomic vibrations and the earth's rotation within its celestial frame, to the open source Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintained time zone database, which declares a distinct name for each instant within the hundreds of administrative time zones world wide. Three theoretical concepts of jussivity, prolepsis and incorrigibility are operationalized to distinguish each system's contribution to the computational assemblage of modern timekeeping. Bowker's conception of the jussive Archive is used to frame the inquiry, foregrounding the things that these timekeeping practices help us exclude and forget. Calendrical prolepsis is examined as what Siegert calls a cultural technique, one that enables each of these systems to extend its reach into the past and condition our conception of any possible future. Each of these systems utilizes the unique and under‐appreciated abilities of digital systems to enact a kind of incorrigibility, which I argue is inextricably linked with what Hayles has called the cognitive nonconscious. By better understanding the jussive, proleptic, and incorrigible powers deployed in the massive cognitive assemblage that arrays vibrations of atoms alongside celestial mechanics to locate our present, past and future, we open up new possibilities for intervening in these technics. Understanding these dynamics may allow future temporal information systems to therapeutically influence our cognition and our consciousness of time. This paper is intended to provide theoretical support for such efforts.