Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (without architects), or: Why Infrastructure Won't Save Us

Or: Weird Shit That In Theory Should Seem Incongruous with the Desert Landscape but is Actually Perfect.

The VLA has to exist here. Sure, the satellites­—which are constantly in motion, swinging and traveling this way and that to ensure the clearest solar signals—necessitate the flat, high landscape of the Plains of San Augustin. And, of course, the numerous mountain ranges encircling the plains block terrestrial radio signals from interfering with such delicate equipment.

The unlikely combination of radio astronomy and an otherwise untouched landscape calls to mind Buzz Aldrin’s visual correlation between the high desert and the “magnificent desolation” of the lunar landscape. But, not surprisingly, Cormac McCarthy provides the strongest portrait of the landscape: “Below them in the paling light smoldered the plains of San Augustin stretching away to the northeast, the earth floating off in a long curve silent under looms of smoke from the underground coal deposits burning there a thousands years. The horses picked their way along the rim with care and the riders cast varied glances out upon that ancient and naked land.”