Turks and telescopes search the seas and sky
This was going to be a post about a telescope, or rather a computer that mimics a telescope. Specifically Microsoft Research’s Worldwide Telescope, which uses data from the Hubble telescope, as well as ten other earth-bound telescopes, to allow users to fly through outer space, zooming out or swooping in as close as the data will allow.
But when I read on Microsoft’s website that the Worldwide Telescope project was dedicated to Jim Gray, my world tipped a bit off-kilter. Jim Gray was an award-winning research scientist at Microsoft who, on a short solo sail just off the coast of San Francisco, was lost at sea in January of 2007.
I became aware of Jim’s disappearance when a friend from Seattle asked if I could help with the rescue efforts. Through Amazon’s human-powered, computer-managed Mechanical Turk service, I and countless other people from around the globe scanned thousands of satellite images of the ocean near where Jim was last seen — looking for the tiniest sliver of white that could possibly be a boat.
The Mechanical Turk, named after an 18th century chess-playing “robot” that turned out to be a human in disguise, served up image after image of the ocean, which I dutifully scanned and logged. It also displayed a sample photo of what the boat might look like, should it be there. The satellite images were the same endless, patternless gray swirls. A few times, there was a small blip of white buried deep within an image and I logged that, too — nervous it could be a false alarm but hopeful that it might not be.
Reading Jim’s name on the Worldwide Telescope site made me again think of his last hours, and the huge honor and responsibility it was to have looked for this lost man from the safety of our offices and homes. According to Coast Guard reports, he disappeared on a calm, clear night. I wondered if he found any comfort in the stars he studied for so long. And where, on Earth, did he go?
Sadly, Jim’s boat was never found. In May 2007, UC Berkeley held a tribute in honor of his life and accomplishments, which were many.
Jim’s legacy lives on through his work. The Worldwide Telescope project enables us to gaze into space, shot through bright threads of wonder and hope, just as I once searched pictures of the sea looking for Jim.
Photo credit: Latitude38.com
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