How the quest to find our place on Earth fueled both discovery and destruction
In short: Navigation has evolved from tracking stars to tracking satellites, transforming how we traverse the globe. Yet, the same precision that guides ships safely past shoals also enables the targeting of missiles. Reginald Victor Jones explores how the fundamental human need to measure our position shapes both progress and peril.
The challenge of navigation began at sea, where captains needed to avoid hazards and reach destinations. By recognizing the Earth as a sphere, they could define any location using latitude and longitude. While latitude was easily determined by observing the sun and stars, longitude required a precise measurement of time. The invention of the chronometer in the 1760s finally allowed sailors to maintain Greenwich time, solving a critical problem for maritime safety.
Modern technology has replaced the mechanical chronometer with radio waves. By transmitting signals from three distinct points, we can calculate our position through time intervals, a technique similar to hyperbolic gun location. Today, satellite systems like the American NAVSAT can pinpoint a location to within ten meters, even while those satellites orbit thousands of miles away at speeds of eighteen thousand miles an hour. This capability overcomes the physical limitations of radio waves, which cannot naturally bend around the Earth's curvature.
However, these advancements carry a dual nature. The principles that enable precise global navigation are identical to those used to guide bombs and missiles to their targets. This tension reflects a broader theme in measurement: while it is essential for scientific and technological advancement—from controlling space probes near Saturn to unlocking atomic energy—it has limits. As Reginald Victor Jones noted in his 1981 Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, despite Plato’s assertion that man is the measure of all things, qualities like love and courage remain beyond the reach of measurement. We must therefore be careful not to extend the domain of measurement into areas where it does not belong, even as we marvel at its power to map our world.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Measurement and navigation in war - Reginald Victor Jones' 1981 Christmas Lecture 5/6
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