this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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47
Somebody moved UK's oldest satellite, and no-one knows who or why (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"It's still relevant because whoever did move Skynet-1A did us few favours," says space consultant Dr Stuart Eves.

"It's now in what we call a 'gravity well' at 105 degrees West longitude, wandering backwards and forwards like a marble at the bottom of a bowl. And unfortunately this brings it close to other satellite traffic on a regular basis.

"Because it's dead, the risk is it might bump into something, and because it's 'our' satellite we're still responsible for it," he explains.

So basically, you can't park there mate!

[–] No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston 9 points 5 days ago

'oi mate you have a loicense to move that spacr junk'

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It was manufactured by the Americans, put into space by the Americans, controlled by the Americans until they handed over control to the RAF, and was stated in the article to be "dual control". It was clearly the Americans.

Why is an event that happened in the 1970s getting an article now?

[–] obinice 6 points 5 days ago

Because space history and space archaeology is super cool :-D

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Skynet

Ruh roh

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The BBC have preempted your joke

It might be tempting to reach for a conspiracy theory or two, not least because it's hard to hear the name "Skynet" without thinking of the malevolent, self-aware artificial intelligence (AI) system in The Terminator movie franchise.

But there's no connection other than the name and, in any case, real life is always more prosaic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It is somewhat depressing that everybody's understanding of artificial intelligence and technology in general is derived from a sensationalist movie, which made no effort to be even remotely realistic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

WARNING: This is exactly what a T-1000 would say

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Let's face it though, the movie never made a lot of sense.

They replaced humans with artificial intelligence, an artificial intelligence capable of independent thought (why did it need to be capable of independent thought).

All they needed to do was literally replace the humans with remote control relays, there's absolutely no reason for it to be an AI. If you are giving artificial intelligence access to weapons, then you are the problem, not the artificial intelligence.

I wish we could have a sensible conversation about AI without assuming that it's going to kill everyone because it happened in some movie. AI's biggest threat to humans is that it will replace everyone by doing a better job, and our entire economic system will fall apart, not that it's going to start Armageddon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

and our entire economic system will fall apart, not that it’s going to start Armageddon.

Is there a difference?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah one can be prevented the other can't so let's worry about the thing we can prevent.

If AI is going to kill us all the only thing we could do to stop that is not make AI which is basically not going to happen. We can alter society so that it's no longer based on the assumption that everyone will be able to find employment.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Would there be any sort of logs either from the systems used to move the satellite, or aboard the satellite itself, to help answer the who question, if nothing else?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I know absolutely fuck all about satellites but I have to assume on something this old, that it's extremely unlikely.