We Can Dream, Can't We?

From a piece on the debate over replacing the artifact-based measure of the kilogram with a definition based on a natural phenomenon, linked to by Old Oligarch:

"A meteor could strike Paris - destroying the prototype," Mohr pointed out. "The watt balance can always be recreated."

The collapse of the metric system and the gruesome death of millions of Frenchmen? My birthday will come early that year.