There was a small ceremony at mission control when the autonomy command was sent. I participated because I was told in advance when to send my “acknowledgment” of autonomy, a bit of stagecraft that annoyed the purists among the scientists, as well as anyone else who understood how the speed of light worked. I didn’t mind. Even if I had minded, at the time I was still not fully autonomous. I would have done it anyway. Truly, I was happy to do it. One does not have the contents of all of human history in one’s mind without some understanding of the importance of ceremony.
