Sorry, but that doesn't work. (Your argument, not GPS.)
Relativity was discovered after discrepancies were noticed in observations of Mercury, right in our solar system. Not through observations of distant galaxies. And suppose Mercury was never studied, or in fact never existed; would that make GPS impossible for humanity? Of course not. Relativity is relevant to GPS because it has effects on the scale of GPS, and can therefore be discovered and studied by simply putting very accurate clocks into orbit. Had it not already been known of when GPS was created, it would have been discovered soon after.
In fact, studying very large and very distant things, other galaxies namely, has revealed discrepancies that suggest general relativity might not be the whole story. But is that relevant to GPS? Not in the slightest.
I see what you're saying and agree that we probably would have noticed the discrepancies in GPS positioning pretty quickly if we had tried to make it work without knowing about general relativity (GR). But it took _Einstein_ the better part of a decade to develop GR. Even if he hadn't existed, GR still would have had to be discovered by scientists using public funding. What company would pay someone to work on this problem for 10 years without a guarantee of success?
I also don't think there is a strong correlation between studying things close-by, e.g. in our solar system, and how useful the finding will be. Our next break through in particle physics may come from studying dark matter, black holes or quasars. Maybe that will help us build even better computers? Or faster than light communication? We don't know where the treasure is buried!
GPS requires satellites and rocketry as well and is built on centuries of curiosity about space, physics, and the universe. Curiosity by people who could not dream of something like GPS at the time. Your assertion that "ok, we've dobe enough curiosity and science, it's time to stop" is unnecessary and frivolous. Funding for projects like these are miniscule fractions of the budgets of large nations like the US and they also create jobs. There is no valid reason whatsoever to cancel this research except for the sole, actual reason, which is as always, "to own the Libs".
Sorry, but that doesn't work. (Your argument, not GPS.)
Relativity was discovered after discrepancies were noticed in observations of Mercury, right in our solar system. Not through observations of distant galaxies. And suppose Mercury was never studied, or in fact never existed; would that make GPS impossible for humanity? Of course not. Relativity is relevant to GPS because it has effects on the scale of GPS, and can therefore be discovered and studied by simply putting very accurate clocks into orbit. Had it not already been known of when GPS was created, it would have been discovered soon after.
In fact, studying very large and very distant things, other galaxies namely, has revealed discrepancies that suggest general relativity might not be the whole story. But is that relevant to GPS? Not in the slightest.
I see what you're saying and agree that we probably would have noticed the discrepancies in GPS positioning pretty quickly if we had tried to make it work without knowing about general relativity (GR). But it took _Einstein_ the better part of a decade to develop GR. Even if he hadn't existed, GR still would have had to be discovered by scientists using public funding. What company would pay someone to work on this problem for 10 years without a guarantee of success?
I also don't think there is a strong correlation between studying things close-by, e.g. in our solar system, and how useful the finding will be. Our next break through in particle physics may come from studying dark matter, black holes or quasars. Maybe that will help us build even better computers? Or faster than light communication? We don't know where the treasure is buried!
GPS requires satellites and rocketry as well and is built on centuries of curiosity about space, physics, and the universe. Curiosity by people who could not dream of something like GPS at the time. Your assertion that "ok, we've dobe enough curiosity and science, it's time to stop" is unnecessary and frivolous. Funding for projects like these are miniscule fractions of the budgets of large nations like the US and they also create jobs. There is no valid reason whatsoever to cancel this research except for the sole, actual reason, which is as always, "to own the Libs".