Title doesn't match submission: it's not really a "coordinate" in 3D space, you "adopt" a pixel from the early imagery taken by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Maybe that can be reverse-projected back to something like a coordinate (if you know the distance), but it's not the same thing.
It's a coordinate on the celestial sphere, which is just as good a coordinate as anything else. Now, if the title had said something like "place" you might have a case that the expectation is that a specific spacetime point is being defined.
It's not even that though if we are going to be nit-picky: it's a coordinate (not quite sure what the pixel extent would subtend to solid-angle-wise, but...) based off the coordinate frame of where the space telescope will be when the image is taken in spherical coordinates.
That's not "exclusive". The "pixel" is the exclusive bit.
With much charity I can imagine you meant: "but what if Roman points at the same bit twice and they assign the same patch of sky to different people?". Well, in that case they probably messed up because to me it seems clear they intend to assign each patch of sky to a distinct identity.
However, as written it sounds like you are essentially objecting that an address along Central Park (in New York city) is "not exclusive" because there are other "Central Park"s in the USA.
that's only true if Roman were to do a continuous stare. However, it (as with any telescope) has to re-point from time to time in order to look at different targets.
Maybe we could map a discrete GUID to some amount of cubic volume of the universe and say that you 'own' that GUID and cubic volume of space.
Referencing how many possible GUID can exist:
The total number of theoretically possible GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) is 2¹²⁸, which equals exactly 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. This is approximately 3.4 × 10³⁸ (340 undecillion) unique values
a really quick calculation says that if you assigned every cubic area of the universe (ignoring that it's spherical?!) to a single GUID, each GUID would 'own' a cube of space about 680 AU on each side. So there's not really that many GUID.
This is a complete tangent, but how would you identify which cubic volume you own?
Would it:
1. Somehow remain static as stars and planets moved through it?
2. Be relative to some coordinate system that we define?
3. Follow some object like an asteroid or planet?
Option (1) is literally impossible. We tend to think of space on Earth as something you can reliably divide up statically, e.g. you can divide the space inside a box up into cubic segments, and that works fine. But in that case, you've defined a coordinate system relative to the box, which is of course moving through space relative to everything else. You eliminate the motion issue by making everything relative to the box.
We can't meaningfully do anything similar for the space between astronomical objects. Everything is moving relative to everything else, and there's no way to "stick a pin" in space. In a very real sense, there is no such thing as a fixed, static volume of space - space is relational, it's what exists between separated objects, it's not an object that can be divided up statically. All the relevant physical theories - special and general relativity, and quantum physics - confirm this.
For option (2), we can try to define a box - a coordinate system relative to Earth, or the Sun, or the Milky Way galaxy, or the Local Group of galaxies, or the Laniekea supercluster, etc. But those are all moving relative to everything else, so any location we identify with coordinates based on that will similarly be moving. One day you might own a piece of space on one side of the Andromeda galaxy, the next day it would be out in intergalactic space (because at those distances, radial coordinates move fast!)
You might think that perhaps we can define coordinates relative to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) rest frame - the reference frame in which the CMB radiation looks uniform and identical in every direction, i.e. not redshifted or blueshifted. In a certain cosmological sense, this is a good candidate for the rest frame of the universe. But the problem is, how do you assign coordinate values to that? You're left with the same basic problem - any point you pick either can't be reliably identified, or is moving along with some chosen object.
Option (3) ends up being the most sensible, for the relational reason I mentioned: we can, in many cases, reliably identify a particular object in space. Now we're back to the "star registry" kinds of scenarios, where you "own" a star. Owning a piece of space can't really work.
They do this reachout all the time. I've got my (and family members) names on a usb stick held inside it and Mars lander (the non-mobile seismograph, who's name escapes me)
It’s something of a pity NASA doesn’t offer that chance to crush 1,000 independent peace loving democratic galaxies in my brutal rise to power as my soldier fanatics sweep the universe.
I’d pay for that. More exciting than owning a pixel.
I don't think there is a wrong pixel, each of them maps into thousands of galaxies but many of them may be outside of our visible sphere of the universe. The fact that even light from those subjects can't reach you is surely just a minor technicality
In fairness, nothing about the initials "non fungible token" ever really required a blockchain.
Though I suppose the only things which I'm aware of which actually benefit from a blockchain was version control systems like git.
(I heard there's some cases where self-executing contractual obligations are a money saver versus proving you're not engaged in unlawful collusion with the counterparty, but as this didn't come from a lawyer I don't even know if that was true).
Maybe that can be reverse-projected back to something like a coordinate (if you know the distance), but it's not the same thing.
That's not "exclusive". The "pixel" is the exclusive bit.
However, as written it sounds like you are essentially objecting that an address along Central Park (in New York city) is "not exclusive" because there are other "Central Park"s in the USA.
Referencing how many possible GUID can exist:
The total number of theoretically possible GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) is 2¹²⁸, which equals exactly 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. This is approximately 3.4 × 10³⁸ (340 undecillion) unique values
a really quick calculation says that if you assigned every cubic area of the universe (ignoring that it's spherical?!) to a single GUID, each GUID would 'own' a cube of space about 680 AU on each side. So there's not really that many GUID.
Would it:
1. Somehow remain static as stars and planets moved through it?
2. Be relative to some coordinate system that we define?
3. Follow some object like an asteroid or planet?
Option (1) is literally impossible. We tend to think of space on Earth as something you can reliably divide up statically, e.g. you can divide the space inside a box up into cubic segments, and that works fine. But in that case, you've defined a coordinate system relative to the box, which is of course moving through space relative to everything else. You eliminate the motion issue by making everything relative to the box.
We can't meaningfully do anything similar for the space between astronomical objects. Everything is moving relative to everything else, and there's no way to "stick a pin" in space. In a very real sense, there is no such thing as a fixed, static volume of space - space is relational, it's what exists between separated objects, it's not an object that can be divided up statically. All the relevant physical theories - special and general relativity, and quantum physics - confirm this.
For option (2), we can try to define a box - a coordinate system relative to Earth, or the Sun, or the Milky Way galaxy, or the Local Group of galaxies, or the Laniekea supercluster, etc. But those are all moving relative to everything else, so any location we identify with coordinates based on that will similarly be moving. One day you might own a piece of space on one side of the Andromeda galaxy, the next day it would be out in intergalactic space (because at those distances, radial coordinates move fast!)
You might think that perhaps we can define coordinates relative to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) rest frame - the reference frame in which the CMB radiation looks uniform and identical in every direction, i.e. not redshifted or blueshifted. In a certain cosmological sense, this is a good candidate for the rest frame of the universe. But the problem is, how do you assign coordinate values to that? You're left with the same basic problem - any point you pick either can't be reliably identified, or is moving along with some chosen object.
Option (3) ends up being the most sensible, for the relational reason I mentioned: we can, in many cases, reliably identify a particular object in space. Now we're back to the "star registry" kinds of scenarios, where you "own" a star. Owning a piece of space can't really work.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton
... poor sap: The sword was amongst the very few possessions found in his rented room when he died, suddenly and peniless.-
I’d pay for that. More exciting than owning a pixel.
Imagine the headlines NASA To Sell the Universe.
And there's definitely cheaper approaches than sending a $2.7b telescope to L2.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage
Like a plain old database ?
"NFT without the Blockchain" is a weird thing to say
Though I suppose the only things which I'm aware of which actually benefit from a blockchain was version control systems like git.
(I heard there's some cases where self-executing contractual obligations are a money saver versus proving you're not engaged in unlawful collusion with the counterparty, but as this didn't come from a lawyer I don't even know if that was true).