Read The Interstellar Age Online
Authors: Jim Bell
Upon decoding the Golden Record, the first image that would pop out would be the calibration circle. After that, it would be time to learn a bit of our scientific language. Images were constructed to show how our numbers work and to define things like distance and mass in terms of universally (in the true sense, it was hoped)
known quantities like the mass of the hydrogen atom and the wavelengths of radiation emitted when hydrogen changes energy states. In that way, it would later be possible to convey more complex ideas, such as how many masses of hydrogen atoms make up the mass of a human being (it’s a huge number with twenty zeros at the end). Providing this dictionary of sorts was the key to labeling many of the photographs in meaningful ways, such as marking pictures of all of the planets in our solar system with their diameters in kilometers.
In keeping with the idea of sending pictures that are somehow unique to Earth, the group decided that they would have to include diagrams showing the structure of DNA. After all, it is the recipe for all life on Earth. It is fascinating to ponder whether all life must necessarily use the same building blocks, and whether DNA is universal. This question is a great driving force behind the current push by the astronomy, planetary science, and nascent astrobiology communities to develop missions to search for evidence of life, or at least evidence of habitable environments, in our own solar system. Without any examples beyond Earth, such questions are presently not much more than speculation. The DNA images would certainly convey our understanding of our brand of life, but possibly also our inability to yet grasp our place in the galaxy and beyond.
A small number of photographs of other planets in our solar system were included to show our “neighborhood,” but by far the bulk of the photographs were meant to depict the variety and uniqueness of life on Earth. These included pictures of trees, flowers, animals, seascapes, and mountains, as well as those depicting
the many cultures and behaviors found across the globe. Everything from how we eat (there is a picture of a man eating grapes in a field and another of a woman eating grapes in a supermarket) to how we learn, dress, dance, run, socialize, and build is represented. Some of the great architectural and engineering accomplishments of our planet are represented by the Sydney Opera House, an airport, a radio telescope, and the Taj Mahal. The way our bodies move is depicted by a stroboscopic picture of a gymnast performing her routine on the balance beam. A time scale of five seconds is thoughtfully included on this photo to announce that we move around in a matter of seconds as opposed to milliseconds or years, for example. This level of detail is typical of the concerted mental effort that was devoted to choosing each photograph. Even a shimmering picture of a sunset over the ocean—presumably chosen simply for its beauty—had an educational component to it, since an educated alien with an understanding of the physics of optics and fluid mechanics could use the colors and patterns in the sky and the ocean to deduce some aspects of the pressure, chemical composition, and other properties of our planet’s atmosphere and oceans. Regardless of whether any future decoders of the Golden Record would infer all the layers of information intended, it is fun and at the same time mind-blowing to imagine what they might conclude about our home world when armed with only this limited set of pictures and sounds.
Photos and Diagrams on the
Voyager
Golden Record
The music on the Golden Record, on the other hand, was less of a cerebral exercise. Who knew whether intelligent beings from across the galaxy would have a means for experiencing music. Could they even hear? Nonetheless, music represents the emotional side
of humanity, and the pieces were chosen to convey the maximum feeling. Portraying the variety of human musical traditions was important, but when choosing a single piece from a culture, the emotion conveyed by the piece was paramount. The Golden Record’s final musical repertoire is detailed in the table on pages 96 and 97. When looking over the list of musical selections chosen to represent our world, many will feel dissatisfied. After all, music is such an individual choice. Try explaining why you are moved by Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata (which I would like to have seen included, but I suppose the Fifth Symphony is also a decent choice). It is often impossible to articulate, but we can feel it in our hearts.
Many musical experts were consulted by Sagan and Ferris when choosing the final list, and the team’s dedication to the requirement that the chosen music must touch the heart as well as the mind was striking in such scientific people. The decision to include multiple pieces by the same composer (three by Bach and two by Beethoven) is also interesting. In addition to the fact that Bach and Beethoven have produced some of humanity’s finest works, it was thought by some, Lomberg included, that the inclusion of multiple pieces by the same composer would help illuminate our intent for the music, which was ultimately to convey mood and feeling. Even so, not everyone’s personal favorites could be included. In addition to the omission of the Beatles, for example, Jon Lomberg was also disappointed that the music of Bob Marley was not represented. “At that time he didn’t have the stature he did later, but still, his was real Third World music, and we needed more of that.”
Music on the
Voyager
Golden Record
THE NEXT LEVEL
The NASA
New Horizons
spacecraft, launched in 2006 and headed for a flyby past Pluto in July 2015, is also on an escape trajectory out of the solar system—the first such spacecraft on an escape trajectory since the
Voyagers
, and following a path similar to one of the Jupiter-Pluto missions that Gary Flandro and others charted in the mid-1960s. It is destined to continue on through a zone of thousands of small, icy planets beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt and enter interstellar space sometime in the next few decades. But it was launched without an interstellar message like
Voyager
’s on board. Perhaps this is a sign of a more anxious age.