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I'm sure I could make better use of your home by demolishing it and erecting a homeless hostel. Isn't that more important than your prior claim to live there?
by cstross 7y ago
I'm sure I could make better use of your home by demolishing it and erecting a homeless hostel. Isn't that more important than your prior claim to live there?
(This is a m-e-t-a-p-h-o-r, not a literal proposal, but what Starlink is doing to astronomy on a global scale is pretty much equivalent. The onus should be on Starlink to (a) not do that, or (b) pay for complete relocation or replacement of the telescopes they've just wrecked. Yes, that's a lot of money. Boo hoo ...)
- shadowgovt 7y ago> The onus should be on Starlink to (a) not do that Why? Astronomers have no more claim to ownership of the sky than Starlink does.
- pintxo 7y agoAstronomers are not changing anything IN the sky, Starlink does?
- shadowgovt 7y agoThe sky changes all the time. Astronomers are observers, and it seems the onus should be on the observer to change the way they interpret the observation if the observable changes. We didn't kill radio stations (or microwave ovens) to make sure that radio telescopes can do their jobs [https://xkcd.com/2226/ https://xkcd.com/2226/].
- pintxo 7y agoIsn't there a "security-zone" around the large radio-telescopes where usage of most electronic devices is forbidden?
- 019djen2lsls 7y agoIt's hardly equivalent, you're just backpeddling because your metaphor was bad. The homeless are bad for the regions they occupy by virtually every metric local residents might care about. Presumably the same is not true of ground based telescopes.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago>Presumably the same is not true of ground based telescopes. There can be plenty of controversy for telescopes. Check out the protests against the 30m Telescope in Hawaii.
- 019djen2lsls 7y agoI won't lie, this has been a fascinating rabbit hole so far!