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the golden phonograph record

#14: May - June 2004 (Non-Fiction)
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tarav

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the golden phonograph record

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In chapter 9 Sagan discusses how Voyager, "carried with it a golden phonograph record ...containing... greetings in 59 human languages and one whale language; a 12-minute sound essay including a kiss, a baby's cry, and an EEG...116 encoded pictures, ...and 90 minutes of the Earth's greatest hits...". Do you think it is a good idea that this record is carried on Voyager? Do you think these are appropriate things to include? What would you include? Sagan goes on to explain how the instructions are written in, "readily comprehensible scientific heiroglyphics". Does anyone know anything more about these heiroglyphics? I am very interested in knowing what such heiroglyphics would look like.
SunSprite86

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Tarav,That's a good question. I'd be interested in knowing about that, too. And who is to say what would be "readily comprehensible" to an entirely different culture or being?Karen
Tiarella

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I vaguely remember the newspaper coverage of that - he was much ridiculed.I googled Voyager; here's the website: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/Here's info on the record you refer to: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spac...enrec.htmlAnd here are the heiroglyphics! Ta dah! voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spac...enrec.html
ginof
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the golden record

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thanks for the url! I guess we now know why sagan things other beings would be able to figure it out, he headed the committee that did it! seriously, assuming we do want to communicate, I think this is the only way to try it (at least at the time). The odds against it ever being found are astronomical, but it is a potent symbol for us back on earth. Sort of like a funeral really being for the living....Overall, I think the selections for the record are good. You could always argue about what is there and why, but a selection of natural sounds and human sounds is a good choice.What about this thought: The craft is found in the future in a similar way that charlton heston found the statue of liberty in the planet of the apes (modified for space flight, of course)?
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tarav

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Tiarella- Thank you for posting those sites. I may just have to try to find "Murmurs of Earth". It would be cool to hear the CD-ROM replicate of the Voyager record.
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