[LEAPSECS] a modest proposal

[Rob Seaman]

Steve Allen wrote:


> For the purposes of satellite navigation there is not need for the  

> terrestrial reference frame to be tightly tied to the celestial  

> reference frame.  Achieving accuracy of 1 meter certainly doesn't  

> care about rapid changes of earth orientation parameters with  

> respect to the quasars, only with respect to the satellites.  So it  

> could be argued that the need for VLBI campaigns would become a  

> scientific extravagance no longer relevant to civil life.


With the passing of Arthur C. Clarke (inventor of the geosynchronous  
satellite, of course), I'm reminded here of his "City and the  
Stars" (reworked from "Against the Fall of Night").

Billion year old Diaspar (talk about sustainable technology!).  Lonely  
city on a lonely (mostly) planet in a lonely galaxy.  Incarnation by  
mainframe.  (I suppose if you only have one computer, timekeeping is  
simplified :-)

We can retreat from the universe.  Clarke, for one, was confident that  
the universe won't (ultimately) retreat from us.

Extravagance is what makes civil life relevant.

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory