I've come to accept that there's no way to turn off Notification Center, but I'd at least like it to not disturb me.
You can schedule a Do Not Disturb time, but there doesn't seem to be any way to make it 24 hours a day. If I make it 0:00 to 0:00, it's never on. If I make it 0:00 to 23:59, it floods me with notifications at the tick of midnight.
Unfortunately, on the Mac, Do Not Disturb turns off automatically at midnight.
Is there any way to permanently enable DND?