Thanks Rob,
I received an announcement but cannot attend. Here are a few of my thoughts
on the subject.
This is important meeting, as important as the meetings before the Gregorian
correction of the calendar and the introduction of standard time. I know
enough about the issue to understand the different agendas. The rotation of
the earth related to the sun lacks the long term precision possible and
required by modern time and location technology. Just like standard time, we
are being railroaded into the modern era. But our sense of time in relation
to the sun is very important, from a historical, cultural, physiological
and psychological perspectives. Read Isaac Asimov's short story "Nightfall"
for a perspective.
Consider SAD, Seasonally Affected Disorder. We are in tune with the sun. We
have an important circadian rhythm tuned to the sun. This is the essence of
time as we experience it. High noon when the sun is at its apex is midday,
halfway between sunrise and sunset, not 13:23:34 DST (Digital Daylight
Standard Mean Civil Clock Time). We cannot get past our innate sense of
solar time, the rhythm and duration of solar cycles. It is part of our
being. This is what sundials show, true solar time.
Granted the change to atomic time is a minor adjustment from solar
astronomical time, at this time. But the difference is cumulative. The
difference will accumulate through the centuries. In the future we would be
getting up in the morning at 12:00 or whatever abstract number is defined by
vibrating Cesium atoms. The odd leap second can adjust for the slower
rotation of the earth. Is this better than the riots when an abrupt shift
like the Gregorian correction is required. Computers are easier to
reprogram than people. "Cogito ergo sum". Thinking people rule, technology
serves.
Regards,
Roger Bailey
Walking Shadow Designs
"Life's but a Walking Shadow......."
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Rob Seaman" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2011 6:26 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Future of UTC / leap second
Hello,
I'd like to thank Wolfgang Dick for circulating the announcement a few
weeks ago of our meeting, Decoupling Civil Timekeeping from Earth
Rotation. While primarily a meeting on the implications of redefining UTC
for astronomical and astronautical applications, the organizers would very
much welcome submissions discussing the impact on sundials and related
technologies and their usage and stakeholders:
http://futureofutc.org
I'd also like to thank Tony Finch for circulating the link to our
preprint, and have a few comments to add to what he wrote at the time:
See also this preprint from American Scientist.
The official, more elegantly formatted, preprint is available from:
http://www.agi.com/downloads/media-center/in-the-news/Future-Of-Time-American-Scientist-July-Aug-2011.pdf
Note that the people involved in both the article and the colloquium are
in favour of keeping leapseconds.
Rather I'd say we are all in favor of preserving Coordinated Universal
Time as a representation of the actual Universal Time. Leap seconds are a
means to an end. We're willing to discuss other possible means, as has
been proven many times (over more than a decade :-) on the leap seconds
mailing list:
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
The ITU-R has also issued another questionnaire to its member states on
this issue.
The Earth Orientation Center of the IERS has its own very brief
questionnaire:
http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/questionnaire/questionnaire.html
Humans, not just "member states" are encouraged to take a few moments and
fill it out. Your community will be affected - your community should have
a voice.
It has remained controversial at every level as it has progressed through
the ITU's bureaucracy. The final stage will be a vote at the
radiocommunication assembly next year.
Controversial indeed, however, the scope of our upcoming meeting (5-6 Oct
2011, Exton, PA USA) is to discuss the impacts and contingent
reengineering if the ITU does vote to redefine UTC. It should make for a
very engaging agenda. Of interest to the sundial community there will be
a presentation on the vision and architecture (eg, solar synchronizer and
equation of time cam) of the 10,000 year clock (http://longnow.org/clock/)
by one of their project engineers. We are also organizing a visit and
talk at the analemmatic sundial at Longwood Gardens (http://bit.ly/omBqrE)
following the meeting. Ken Seidelmann provided its accurate calibration;
the ITU's redefinition of Coordinated Universal Time would render
calibration rather a moot issue for this and all sundials.
Finally, for those in Europe and the UK, the British Royal Society is also
holding a meeting on the redefinition of UTC on 3-4 November 2011:
http://royalsociety.org/events/UTC-for-21st-century/
Contact the organizers regarding their meeting's scope and agenda (and
what they favor, for that matter).
Thank you!
Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Tucson, AZ
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
