Different Strokes for Different... Planets?
The aliens may not appreciate our great cultural achievements!, says Michael Seringhaus in the Yale Daily News:
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The two Voyager deep-space probes each hold gold-plated copper discs -- called the "Golden Record" -- to be played in a record player (supplied on board) and containing a snapshot of information from Earth. Assuming the aliens can assemble the player and figure out the instructions, they're in for quite a treat: a deep-space personal ad for the entire human race, assembled under the direction of Carl Sagan.
Initially, I found the Golden Record fascinating. How, indeed, do you communicate across untold distances to creatures with no knowledge of your language, writing, symbols, numbering or math?
But while the first couple of plaques are neat -- these deal with basic number systems and offer cryptic heiroglyphic instructions on how to play the records -- the remainder of the album, I am sorry to report, is pretty poor.
I spent quite some time drilling around NASA's Voyager Web site (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov), examining the Golden Record. I listened to the "Greetings From Earth" in all 55 languages. I studied the accompanying music selection. The dozens of images depicting life on our planet. The innumerable, confusing line drawings. The list goes on. The result? The collection, overall, is a pretty bland harvest of circa ten thousand years of civilization.
_______
The two Voyager deep-space probes each hold gold-plated copper discs -- called the "Golden Record" -- to be played in a record player (supplied on board) and containing a snapshot of information from Earth. Assuming the aliens can assemble the player and figure out the instructions, they're in for quite a treat: a deep-space personal ad for the entire human race, assembled under the direction of Carl Sagan.
Initially, I found the Golden Record fascinating. How, indeed, do you communicate across untold distances to creatures with no knowledge of your language, writing, symbols, numbering or math?
But while the first couple of plaques are neat -- these deal with basic number systems and offer cryptic heiroglyphic instructions on how to play the records -- the remainder of the album, I am sorry to report, is pretty poor.
I spent quite some time drilling around NASA's Voyager Web site (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov), examining the Golden Record. I listened to the "Greetings From Earth" in all 55 languages. I studied the accompanying music selection. The dozens of images depicting life on our planet. The innumerable, confusing line drawings. The list goes on. The result? The collection, overall, is a pretty bland harvest of circa ten thousand years of civilization.
posted by hellisotherpeople at 9:41 AM
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