WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Seven Day Week, Part 1 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.039 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.280 is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:13.640 That means the vault door creak it open, and we 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.480 bring you an older episode of the show. This one 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.480 originally published on March third, two and it is a 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.360 part one of our series on the seven day week. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.760 What do we have seven day long weeks? And where 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:29.560 does that come from? What are the effects of it? 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.319 So I recall the series being quite interesting, and uh, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:39.360 here you go with the beginning of it. Welcome to 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:44.640 s About to Blow your Mind production of My Heart Radio. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.800 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.360 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Rob Today, 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.120 I wanted to start off by hitting you with one 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.600 of my tenth greater thoughts. All right, let's have it. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.160 What do you guys? This is an idea had in 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.440 high school. I can't remember if I've ever talked about 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.320 this with you or not. Maybe maybe, maybe not, But anyway, 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.520 I remember when I was in sophomore year of high school, 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.760 I was sitting in a U S history class and 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.800 I was suddenly hit with a notion it was very 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:18.960 much like a like a stoner thought, though of course 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:20.760 I was. I was a very good boy, and I 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.280 was very sober in class. But um my thought was, 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.880 wait a second, why do we think about history in 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:35.479 terms of multiples of ten years? So in terms of 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.399 decades and centuries and I guess millennia, but primarily decades 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.520 and centuries. Why are those like the units of time 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.360 on which historical trends are judged to make sense or 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.080 or be valid. And if we used a different base 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.240 counting system, like if we didn't have ten fingers and 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.440 thus didn't count with base ten, would we think about 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.600 history in a totally different way with different sort of 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.520 groups of associations if it was like, you know, on 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:09.880 the basis of sixty three year periods or or eighteen 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:14.240 year periods or something like that. Yeah, like what what 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.600 would the nine seventies be without without decades? You know, 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.640 how would we think about that time period? What would 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.799 be the um you know, the barriers to it? And 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.320 how would we package that up? And I guess I'm 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.800 still prone to this kind of thinking because the idea 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.120 that I started uh getting getting really interested in like 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.560 last week was another question basically along the same lines, 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.480 which is like, how are we affected by the the 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.360 time units that we use to organize our lives And 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.600 if those time units were actually different lengths of time, 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.880 how different would our lives be? And this is going 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.679 to lead into the subject that we're going to be 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:57.880 looking at for the next couple of episodes at least, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:03.119 who knows how many we'll go to. But but right 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.200 we're getting into the subject of the week. And I 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.680 think this this one has a really interesting peg because 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.440 if you think about the major units of time that 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.840 divide our lives from say like day length and above. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.400 So the day is of course twenty four hours long, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.800 and it is roughly the time it takes the Earth 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.680 to make one full rotation on its axis. But then 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.520 you've also got the year. The year is of course, 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.760 you know, it's three six five days, and this is 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.320 roughly the time it takes the Earth to make one 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.800 full orbit around the Sun. And then you've got the months, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.880 and the month also has an astronomical basis this one 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.400 a little more roughly than the other two. There there's 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.000 a there's a larger difference, but you know, our months 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.480 are roughly thirty days long, and it takes roughly thirty 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.680 days for the moon to complete one full orbit around 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.640 the Earth. I think it's like twenty nine point five 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.160 three days or something. And then of course we we 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.800 make up for that with little adjustments, you different numbers 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.080 of days and stuff like that. Yeah, and now at 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.520 this point is probably worth remembering here for every for everybody, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:12.480 that most ancient calendars were based on direct observation. So 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.680 uh so, yeah, it makes total sense that these uh, 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.480 you know, a lot of these ideas about how we 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.080 should divide out our time are based on what we're observing, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.640 saying the night sky, sure, and there are somewhere. It's 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.200 pretty much inevitable. I mean, like you, we kind of 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.440 can't help but organize ourselves around day lengths, right, because 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.560 like what time of day it is or time of 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.640 night makes a dramatic difference on the way we interact 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.400 with our environment because of things like temperature and light, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.440 so that that's almost just totally imposed on us. We 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.720 really have no choice but to live by days and nights. Uh. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.479 You could make the case that maybe months are different, 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.560 but but you know, there's some natural rhythms that come 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.640 with the lunar cycle, and uh, and and certainly there 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.000 are things that come with the yearly cycle because of say, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.880 like the rotations of harvests and the seasons and stuff. 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.520 But then we come to the week. We look at 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.240 look at the seven day week, and if you look 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.640 for the seven day week and the stars and the 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.840 planets or the movement of the earth, you come up 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:17.720 with absolutely nothing. The closest I've seen is that some 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.560 people have said, well, uh, the seven day week is 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:26.760 a fairly rough quarterly division of the lunar month. So 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.400 if you take the length of a month and you 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.359 divide it by four, that gets you close to seven days. 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.600 That's like the closest whole number. Uh. But but then again, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.800 like why would you do that? Like why would you 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.400 not divide the month by five or divide the month 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.040 by six or something else. So so I don't think 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.440 that the length of the week is really something that 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:51.080 you can say naturally flows from anything that is physically 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.760 true about the world. I think we'd have to say 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.040 though there might be you know, historical, cultural, religious reasons 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.080 that feed into it. It's it's a somewhat are a 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.000 treary length. It's based on culture, and it's a human 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.239 invention it's not just a a an approximation of something 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.000 that's happening in the skies, right, and and I believe, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.520 I believe all the evidence where we've looked at really 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.960 backs that up. Though It's always worth remembering that if 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:22.120 you stray too far into the wilds of numerology just 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.080 about anything, it's possible, right. Sure. I'm always reminded of 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.640 the bid and Um. I forget which number too echo 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.120 work it was. It might have been fucos pendulum. It 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.919 might have been one of his essays. Perhaps you remember 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.200 this Joe where he's um he's talking about like all 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.000 the various numerology computations about the Great Pyramids and how 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.559 those you know, numbers relate to other aspects of life. 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.679 And the example was made that you can also torture 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.400 the numbers enough regarding I want to say, a phone 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.719 booth or something h even something far more mundane compared 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.200 to the Pyramids. But yeah, if you start getting wild 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.120 with what numbers mean and so forth, then you can 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.440 go crazy with that as well. Yeah. I think the 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.279 way I'd put it is that if you look hard 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.080 enough for patterns, you can find patterns in anything, and 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.359 that includes numbers. And like numerical relationships and say, like 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.320 the ratios of length and width of objects in the world, 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.360 or the length of different periods of time within one 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.960 another and stuff. Yeah, I mean, you can always find 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.240 patterns if you look hard enough, and some people work 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:24.640 really hard. But as far as meaningful patterns and meaningful connections, yeah, yeah, 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.920 I think I think almost all the evidence we're looking 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.280 at here today and the next episode, uh, you know, 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.400 comes back to the fact that, yes, seven seems to 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.560 be this thing that is not written in the in 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.480 the heavens, and and it isn't even like really written 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:43.320 inside us either, but it's something that emerges from other directions, 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:45.880 which we'll get into, right, So I don't know that 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.440 that start me is just like a really interesting fact 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:53.200 that our lives are guided by this this seven day 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.440 length of time, that we organize our lives into these 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.640 blocks of seven days, and that so much what we 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.640 do is based on the recurrence of those blocks and 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.320 the timing of the days within those blocks. And yet 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.920 it's not a necessary fact of nature. So what is 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.280 the seven day week? Where does it come from? How 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:17.120 culturally unique or culturally universal is it um? And what 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:18.920 is it doing? To us, like how does it work 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.000 on our brains? And how does it change the way 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.800 we live? And it is hard to imagine, you know, 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.200 certainly for us, it's it's hard to imagine living without 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.160 the seven day week, Uh, just because we're in it. 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.280 It's kind of like trying to imagine recent history without decades. 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.120 It's like it's just such a part of the fabric. 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.559 It's the this grid that we've we've we've we've we've 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:45.480 laid across reality, and it's just like, how how would 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.920 we function if we didn't have Monday's, Tuesday's, Wednesday, Thursdays, Friday, 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:54.440 Saturdays and Sundays. You can't take my Wednesdays away from me? Yeah, 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:56.600 if we don't have the hump day, right, the magical 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.280 hunt day that is the day where our victory over 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.440 the week be a parent on Tuesday, I guess you 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.679 know that it just seems impossible. Well, so, I want 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.120 to say, one of the first things I read on 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.680 this subject when when I was first getting interested in 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.199 it last week, actually was an article in Eon magazine 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.400 by a UC Berkeley professor of history named David Hankin, 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.160 who has written on this subject, who has written on 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:27.320 the artificiality of the week and it's and it's cultural 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.199 precedents and effects. And he starts off this Eon article 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.920 by mentioning something. So you may have noticed, I think, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.800 especially like in but maybe more commonly over the last 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.360 two years, a lot of kind of hack jokes on 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.640 the internet, uh, made especially by the subset of people 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.199 who had previously been working in an office but then 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.600 we're lucky enough to be able to convert to working 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.040 from home during the pandemic. And the joke was, nobody 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.520 knows what day it is, Like I, I can't keep 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.720 track of days. Every day is the same, it's blurs. 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.560 Day is the yuck yuck expression. Uh. And and I 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.320 noticed that this connects to things in some movies, like 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.760 you remember there's a scene in The Big Lebowski where um, 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.200 where I think Jeff Bridge's landlord comes to him and 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.480 is telling him what day something's gonna happen. Maybe is 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.720 when he's gonna come see his dance recital or something, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.160 and uh, and he says what day it is? And 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.760 um uh, and it's clear that you know that the 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.000 dude does not know what day of the week it is. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.520 And this is like a standard uh deployment of this 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.439 observation about a person, somebody who doesn't know what day 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.440 of the week it is is usually taken to be 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:42.520 sort of disoriented or disconnected from society or maybe unproductive. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.760 Yeah yeah, um, and you know you can make that 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.120 argument for the dude, but I don't know for my 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:56.000 own part. I would say there are rare moments, perhaps 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.160 during say vacation or travel, where I might have to 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.160 remind myself what day it is. More commonly, however, I'll 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.560 find that if there's a disruption in the week, it 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:11.559 may momentarially feel like today is a different day, you know, like, um, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.840 if it's a Monday on a three day weekend, then 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.160 that Monday kind of feels like a Sunday. But these 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.960 feelings generally don't hold up to even halfway you know, 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.320 close scrutiny. You know, it's it's one of those things 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:28.839 that immediately fades away. Um. So yeah, I you certainly 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.120 encounter it in media and you hear people make jokes 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.880 about it, but generally, I feel like the calendar mindset 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.120 is not far away. Well, I mean, the fact that 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.280 people were like posting on Twitter about this often enough 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.959 in that it was a thing people. It was a 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.720 trend people could observe seem to mean something. And I 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:52.240 think the standard assumption, the widely presumed explanation, was that 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.280 telecommuting was to blame. This is because, oh, well, now 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.240 a larger percentage of people are telecommuting. But you know, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.439 more people were telecommuting than had been before, and people 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:06.440 who were freshly telecommuting, uh, we're we're experiencing this. I 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.560 don't know what day it is feeling as a result. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.600 But Hankin actually goes back against that and says that 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.160 he doesn't see telecommuting as a as a very good 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.800 explanation for people since of the days blurring together. And 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.839 I have to say, as as somebody who often worked 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.320 from home even before COVID, that has never been my 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.640 experience of telecommuting, and I I also would be skeptical 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.720 of that explanation. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, though 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.360 part of that might be that we're typically I mean, 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:38.600 I think we've always been part of a publication schedule, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.040 so uh, you know, there's always what day it is 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.160 still matters even if you're not in the office, at 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.880 least in our line of work. Sure, but I would 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:48.760 I would think that would generally hold true with a 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.400 lot of different professions. Yeah, And the point that Hankin 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:57.400 makes at least is that telecommuting really disrupts normal divisions 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.480 of time within the day more than does across the 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.800 span of a week. Right, So, like it doesn't change 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.319 usually which days of the week people were working. I mean, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.920 it might in some cases, but that's not generally understood 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.400 to be how it worked. It would change like where 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.680 you were working within the day. Um, And of course 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.880 nobody was complaining about like not knowing what hour of 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.080 the day it was. And it's also interesting that the 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.360 line was not I don't know what day of the 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.600 month it was, it was I don't know what day 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.280 of the week it is. And ultimately the explanation that 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.080 he gives is that quote, weekly counts are reinforced by 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.800 the habits and rituals of other people. When those habits 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.800 and rituals were radically obscured or altered in the week, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.800 itself seemed to unravel. And I think I agree here. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.800 This seems likely to me that for people who felt 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.400 this way, like I don't know what day of the 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.960 week it is, I would suspect it probably had less 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.120 to do with telecommuting, and more to do with the 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.320 disruption in schedules of other things that people would normally 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.360 do at regular, recurring times throughout the week. So maybe 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:12.120 for example, recurring social get togethers or classes, or religious gatherings, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.520 or going out to dinner on Saturday night or things 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:20.120 like that. You know, people have pretty strong weekly rituals. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.440 Not everybody obviously, but lots of people do. And when 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.840 when those things get interrupted, I think that probably has 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:30.400 a strong effect on reckoning with the cycle itself. Yeah, 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.720 I think that makes sense because obviously there are two 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.680 To a certain degree, many people were able to transition 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.560 these things into the like the zoom age. They're able to, 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.320 you know, do their game night online to to turn 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:49.240 a particular in person social hour into a virtual social hour. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.880 But in other cases things simply went away, um you know, 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.880 after school practices and so forth. You know, in many 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.280 cases these just didn't happen for a year or more. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:03.640 You know, there's a totally different thing that I wonder 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.680 about that. It makes me wonder if if, um, confusing 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.360 which day it is in the week has become maybe 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.280 a little more common in recent years, and this would 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.800 have nothing to do with the pandemic, but it would 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:21.840 be um shifts in patterns of media consumption among people 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.960 getting a lower percentage on average of their media from 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.280 scheduled live broadcasts that are that occur at regular dates 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.600 and days and times throughout a week, like you know, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.480 you know that the TV show that you like comes 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.880 on at this time on this day, and instead shifting 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.240 towards more on demand uh consumption of media or just 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.680 algorithmically supplied media entertainment, which is, you know, always there 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.280 waiting for you and always on, rather than scheduled at 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.560 particular days and times. Mm. So that sounds like a 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.640 point in favor of what are they calling? And now 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.320 I'll meant television versus uh, like you know, just a 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.920 binge streaming and so forth. Oh, finally it's Friday and 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.520 I can watch this trash I've been waiting on. Well, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.960 you know, growing up very much in the TV age, 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.800 I mean, I remember that feeling that you know, it's 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.720 it's it's Friday or Saturday night, you know exactly you 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.040 know what, uh, you know what's going to be on 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.400 television Sunday morning, you know, you know what's gonna be 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.560 on then uh, you know there's a different character or 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.600 whatever's on TV. And if you did not have a 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.120 clock and did not have access to clock time, you 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.880 could tell if you know what you're doing, you know 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.200 what time it was, just based on what's happening on 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.800 NBC or what's happening on TVs. Uh, what what happens 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.160 to be playing on MTV, that sort of thing. I'm 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.400 not going to forget it Saturday because I know that 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.640 that at one am on the USA network, I'm gonna 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.520 get to watch Friday the thirteenth, Part eight. Yeah. Well, 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.000 this this is a leads to an interesting question that 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.080 I don't think we did not We certainly did not 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.400 prepared to answer. Are there any franchises that that have 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.600 seven entries, like an even seven? Oh? And then they've 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.640 said definitely no more ever, any one for each day, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.880 and that's it. I don't know. Are we at transfer 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.199 seven yet? I've just looked it up. Now we're at 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.040 transfer six, So one more and then we're good, okay, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.840 than than than well. So another question comes up though 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.240 from this, which is, um, okay, so seven days is 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.920 not strictly speaking a a time period that we derive 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.439 from astronomy or from anything physical that happens in the 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:42.000 world around us. It seems to be a cultural invention. Um. 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.160 But but could it possibly be based in some other 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.960 natural fact about the world other than say, you know, 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.879 the moon or the sun or the Earth. Could could 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.320 a period of seven days somehow lie within biology? Yeah? 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.880 I was wondering about this as well. You know, is 0:17:57.880 --> 0:17:59.720 is there anything that might connect the idea of the 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:04.680 seven day week to the biological world, particularly to human biology? 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.679 And I found uh an interesting and at times perplexing 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.600 at least to me paper flexing to me anyway. Uh, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.959 paper that was published in twenty six in the journal 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:22.000 Chronobiology International by Rheinberg at All titled seven day Human 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:27.320 Biological Rhythms An Expedition in search of their origin, synchronization, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:33.040 functional advantage, adaptive value and clinical relevance. This paper aims 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.480 to look at the quote seven day domain of the 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.879 biological time structure with special reference to human beings. Okay, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.119 so it seems like they're investigating exactly the question we 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.679 just raised, like, could there be any kind of rhythm 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.399 within the body of things that tend to happen in 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.360 cycles of seven days or so? Right? And uh? And 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.200 you know, first of all they do say this is 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.560 from the conclusions they stay quote, neither cosmic nor earthborn 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.000 signals seemed to be of sufficient strength to give rise 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.719 to the seven day rhythms of life forms of various 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.119 degrees of complexity. All right, fair enough that that matches 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:09.959 up with what we've said so far, particularly as far 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.520 as the heavens go. However, they also conclude that the 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:19.240 evidence quote motivates us to hypothesize weekly rhythms are endogenous 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.760 in origin. So, in other words, these researchers still think 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.600 that there is something about the power of seven that 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.080 emerges from within us. So they admit that the seven 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.800 day biological cycle is a little studied. But but they 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.280 make a point of saying what it does seem to 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.240 factor into various organisms, And they cite a list of examples, 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.639 including things like laboratory rats, domestic horses, and seemingly to 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.040 some degree, human beings. Though I should say that these examples, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.520 like for example, with the horse, the example is a 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.440 study on seven day cycles in semen volume, sperm motility 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:59.359 and supermatozoa concentration. Uh. And not not to say that 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.800 all all them are sperm related, but you know it's 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:06.600 it's things related to various processes inside of biological system. Well, 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.840 I guess if it's domestic horses and animals living within 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.440 human environments, I would be a little curious whether any 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.840 appearance seven day cycles could somehow be based on something 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.160 that's changing within their environment on the basis of human 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.159 and behavior, because humans live by seven day cycles or 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.680 not all humans do. But I'd imagine that the animals 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:30.360 used in the study probably belong to humans that do right, 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:35.080 and all scientists are humans. So um, yeah, this is 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.119 definitely an area where I would I would love to 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.199 read more on this topic and read some you know, 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.840 some some work from other researchers as well. Um, I 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.240 don't really know quite what to make of this paper 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.280 because on one hand, I am not it's intended audience, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.760 and I may be missing something important in their their 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.800 arguments here, So that's always certainly a possibility. But I'm 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:58.760 not sure how much stock I put in the concept 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.639 that there is something about seven day time period that 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.879 emerges within us, because for starters, I'm not sure it 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.560 really lines up with the history that we're going to 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.359 be discussing in this episode. In the next uh, you know, 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.560 seven becomes the standard and it wins out over other models. 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.800 But I'm not sure it's because it match something inside us. 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.320 I think they're there are other stronger arguments to be 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.720 made for other factors. Well, I don't know. Maybe we 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.000 can revisit this paper later if we if we get 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.520 some additional clarity on it. But but also maybe we 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.760 can trudge out of the swamp of confusion, but by 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.359 focusing on something a little more understandable in the moment, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.280 which is the question of Okay, just in in basic 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.760 functional terms, what does the week actually do? What do 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.040 we use the seven day week for? Hinkin actually outlines 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.639 four different things that he thinks the seven day week does, 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.720 and so I want to go through these with you, rob. Okay, 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.760 So the first one would be categorizing days into different types. 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:59.360 So the week organizes time into blocks of two fundamental 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.960 kind of days, week days and weekends, with the main 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:08.159 distinctions between the two being, um being the distinction between 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:13.639 work and leisure and the distinction between mundane and sacred. Yeah, 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.199 and you know you see this reflect like even if 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.920 if you were, say, someone who does not work, maybe 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.359 you're retired or you have a particular work schedule that 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.560 sets you apart from from many other people. Um, you 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.600 still see it reflected, say in what sort of businesses 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.880 are closed on the weekends, what sort of businesses are 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.560 are going to be swamped on the weekend, and therefore 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.040 it's better to go on a weekday. So even if 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:43.359