The Interstellar Age (12 page)

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

1. Calibration circle
   
2. Solar location map
   
3. Mathematical definitions
   
4. Physical unit definitions
   
5. Solar system parameters
   
6. Solar system parameters (continued)
   
7. The sun
   
8. Solar spectrum
   
9. Mercury
   
10. Mars
    
11. Jupiter
    
12. Earth
    
13. Egypt, the Red Sea, and the Nile
    
14. Chemical definitions
    
15. DNA structure
    
16. DNA structure magnified
    
17. Cells and cell division
    
18. Anatomy 1 (skeleton, front)
    
19. Anatomy 2 (internal organs, front)
    
20. Anatomy 3 (skeleton and muscles, back)
    
21. Anatomy 4 (internal organs, back)
    
22. Anatomy 5 (heart, lungs, kidneys, and main blood vessels, back)
    
23. Anatomy 6 (heart, lungs, kidneys, and main blood vessels, front)
    
24. Anatomy 7 (rib cage)
    
25. Anatomy 8 (muscles, front)
    
26. Human sex organs
    
27. Diagram of conception
    
28. Conception
    
29. Fertilized ovum
    
30. Fetus diagram
    
31. Fetus
    
32. Diagram of male and female
    
33. Birth
    
34. Nursing mother
    
35. Father and daughter (Malaysia)
    
36. Group of children
    
37. Diagram of family, with ages
    
38. Family portrait
    
39. Diagram of continental drift
    
40. Structure of Earth
    
41. Great Barrier Reef of Australia
    
42. Seashore
    
43. Snake River, Grand Tetons
    
44. Sand dunes
    
45. Monument Valley
    
46. Forest scene with mushrooms
    
47. Leaf
    
48. Fallen leaves
    
49. Snowflake over Sequoia
    
50. Tree with daffodils
    
51. Flying insect with flowers
    
52. Diagram of vertebrate evolution
    
53. Seashell (
    Xancidae
    )
    
54. Dolphins
    
55. School of fish
    
56. Tree toad
    
57. Crocodile
    
58. Eagle
    
59. Waterhole
    
60. Jane Goodall and chimps
    
61. Sketch of bushmen
    
62. Bushmen hunters
    
63. Man from Guatemala
    
64. Dancer from Bali
    
65. Andean girls
    
66. Thai craftsman
    
67. Elephant
    
68. Old man with beard and glasses (Turkey)
    
69. Old man with dog and flowers
    
70. Mountain climber
    
71. Gymnast
    
72. Sprinters
    
73. Schoolroom
    
74. Children with globe
    
75. Cotton harvest
    
76. Grape picker
    
77. Supermarket
    
78. Underwater scene with diver and fish
    
79. Fishing boat with nets
    
80. Cooking fish
    
81. Chinese dinner party
    
82. Demonstration of licking, eating, and drinking
    
83. Great Wall of China
    
84. House construction
    
85. Construction scene (Amish country)
    
86. House (Africa)
    
87. House (New England)
    
88. Modern house (Cloudcroft, NM)
    
89. House interior with artist and fire
    
90. Taj Mahal
    
91. English city (Oxford)
    
92. Boston
    
93. UN Building, day
    
94. UN Building, night
    
95. Sydney Opera House
    
96. Artisan with drill
    
97. Factory interior
    
98. Museum
    
99. X-ray of hand
    
100. Woman with microscope
     
101. Street scene, Asia (Pakistan)
     
102. Rush-hour traffic (Thailand)
     
103. Modern highway (Ithaca, NY)
     
104. Golden Gate Bridge
     
105. Train
     
106. Airplane in flight
     
107. Airport (Toronto)
     
108. Antarctic expedition
     
109. Radio telescope (Netherlands)
     
110. Radio telescope (Arecibo)
     
111. Page from Newton’s
     System of the World
     
112. Astronaut in space
     
113. Titan
     Centaur
     launch
     
114. Sunset with birds
     
115. String quartet
     
116. Violin with music score
     

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

1. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F, first movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
   
2. Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
   
3. Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
   
4. Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
   
5. Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
   
6. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
   
7. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
   
8. New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
   
9. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (Crane’s Nest), performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
   
10. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita no. 3 in E major for violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
    
11. Mozart,
    The Magic Flute
    , aria no. 14, “Queen of the Night,” Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
    
12. Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
    
13. Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
    
14. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
    
15. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
    
16. Stravinsky,
    Rite of Spring,
    “Sacrificial Dance,” Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
    
17. Bach,
    The Well-Tempered Clavier,
    Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, no. 1, Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
    
18. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, first movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
    
19. Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
    
20. Navajo Indians, “Night Chant,” recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
    
21. Holborne,
    Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and Other Short Aeirs
    , “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
    
22. Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
    
23. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
    
24. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
    
25. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
    
26. “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
    
27. Beethoven, String Quartet no. 13 in B flat, op. 130, “Cavatina,” performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37
    

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.