Metrology (not meteorology)

Indeed, the intended subject is measurement, accuracy, precision, and units – not weather phenomena.  Accurate scientific experimentation, proper exchange of economic value, and knowing just how much you weigh (though your bathroom scale can give you a pretty good idea) all require precision in units.  How do we know how much a kilogram is?  We could say it is the average of a certain subset of measurements taken that are all about a kilogram…but perhaps you are starting to see the infinite regress forming.  How much is ‘about a kilogram’?  Historically, in barter and exchange economies, weights were used to show just how much grain or cloth or wool one should be given in exchange for a fixed amount of money – which is why Proverbs says God abhors inaccurate weights (sort of like loaded dice, used so that the seller would not have to give the buyer as much goods as he owed them). To solve the problem, we have ‘the kilogram’, that is, the International Prototype Kilogram, housed in Paris (which may be one of the few absolutes we should be comparing against within the borders of France).  Made mostly of platinum, not because ‘The Kilo” would be an excellent rock band name and instantly sell 50 million records, but because platinum is nearly entirely non-reactive and will not change with air contamination or micro-chemical reactions.  The fact is, even if it does change very minutely – on the order of 0.00001% - it is still exactly one kilogram.  Why, you may ask?  There is no higher standard to judge or compare it to.  If IPK is not exactly one kilogram, all $2.5 million of it, then nothing is.  It is even kept in several layers of inert gas to further prevent reaction.  If nothing else, the International Prototype Kilogram, and other standards like it, reveals that we recognize there are some things that are not arbitrary.  We not only want an absolute standard, we need it.  We are paralyzed without it.  Sure, society would still crack on, science would still take place, economic exchange would still ensue, but mismanagement, misrepresentation and ultimate ignorance would be rampant…and that’s just without an absolute kilogram!  Imagine, as John Lennon beckoned us to, a world without absolute morality.