Our most sublime such effort is a global collaboration to build, over the course of decades, a network of more than 30 radio observatories that work together to situate our planet within a mind-bending volume of space.
With the help of a complex fiber network, these instruments all voltron together to form the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS).
The mere existence of the IVS reveals something else, something profound about what is happening here on the Earth’s surface. However fractious this moment in our history, geopolitical foes can still unite in a common cosmic purpose. Ancient light is pouring in from the far corners of the universe. The peoples of this planet are pooling it together to better understand our shared home, in a newly expansive context. Science has its evil uses, but there are times when it gives us a little glimpse into what a global civilization could be like. This, too, is a kind of orientation. It points a way forward.
How We Find Our Place in the Universe
I didn’t know about this. Given recent events, it is a hopeful reminder that, maybe, we can cooperate enough to survive. As Carl Sagan said, the question he most wanted to ask aliens was how they survived the first 10,000 years of their technological infancy.