
How the Voyager space probe's golden record was made - matco11
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/voyager-golden-record-40th-anniversary-timothy-ferris
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Tepix
I looked at the contents of the Voyager Golden Record a while ago (at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden_Record)).
Frankly, it's underwhelming. There's lots of arbitrary sentimental data that
will make very little sense to another civilization, no matter how smart they
are. It appears that it's more of a message to ourselves, demonstrating our
cultural diversity.

The first few images stored on the disk are interesting. They establish our
location in the Milky Way as well as our math and physics.

~~~
pveierland
I've really enjoyed reading about the disk, and feel that they executed well
on the concept - especially given the limitations of the media. It may have
struck a good balance between what would be too simple technologically and not
communicate much, and something which would be too complex technologically,
and could be difficult to decode. The contents show a variety of what Earth
looks like and sounds like, and some of our most basic concepts with regards
to math and physics. Communicating more complex concepts within math or
physics could be severely constrained by having to introduce the required
notation in an intuitive way.

What better could we have chosen to communicate, given the same limitations of
format?

~~~
gizmo686
By biggest objection (assuming that the disk is actually intended for aliens,
which I do not think it actually was) is the the technology to encode the
data, but what content we chose for the limited space.

For instance, consider the "color" images we included. In reality, each color
image is actually just 3 black and white images taken with slightly difference
response curves. Granted, the solar spectrum image should give them enough
information to determine these curves; but, unless they have an identical
visual system to us, they would still not be able to reconstruct what they
would see as a true color image. If we really wanted them to see in color, we
could have chosen more appropriate response curves to take our images from.
Regardless, the space would have been better spent including more images.
However, from a PR standpoint, including color images was likely a very good
move.

Simmilarly, I do not any justification for including spoken greetings.
Assuming the correctly decode them as sounds (which I think is reasonable),
and understand them to be a language (less reasonable) I don't see how they
could decipherer anything meaningful from them (except, perhaps, the phonetic
inventory of human languages). Similarly, I would expect aliens to do little
more than scratch their heads at the inclusion of 90 minutes of music.

~~~
pveierland
The point about color images is interesting. Although they might not be able
to deduce the exact wavelengths in which the image is encoded, they would very
likely be able to understand that the colored image layers are connected, as
the layers correlate highly in their spatial structure. In the same manner
that we use artificial coloring to better understand astronomical images, the
color information on the disk provides more information when viewing the
images, which could make the images more interesting for their study.

For the spoken language, there is likely not enough information to decode its
meaning. But its inclusion together with images of us might lead them to
understand how we communicate by voice. The sounds of animals and humans may
be similar to other lifeforms discovered. Music as well may be something which
is common to many forms of intelligent life. It would probably not be possible
to understand much of the contents, but observers might be able to relate to
the emotions in the music (even though they may not map directly to ours). In
any case, with art much of the value lies in the interpretation. As long as
content is presented which they would care to judge as art, they may see value
in it.

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georgecmu
I have a bit of a voyeuristic fascination with the relationships and personal
drama of the people behind these types of famous and consequential efforts.

In the article Tim Ferris mentions that Ann Druyan was his fiancee at the
time. I suppose it's common knowledge that she was also Carl Sagan's third
(and final) wife.

NASA's Voyager, the Love Story [1] reveals that their affair grew out of and
became an integral part of the project:

 _Just how do you stumble upon a woman in love and record her brain waves for
an interstellar message? It helps when the young woman is herself a member of
the recording team: Ann Druyan.

On June 1, 1977, Carl and I shared a wonderfully important phone call," she
recalls. Without the aid of a date or even a romantic moment alone, the two
had fallen in love during the mad rush to complete the Golden Record. "We
decided to get married. It was a Eureka! moment for both of us—the idea that
we could find the perfect match. It was a discovery that has been reaffirmed
in countless ways since."

"My feelings as a 27 year old woman, madly fallen in love, they're on that
record,” says Druyan. "It's forever. It'll be true 100 million years from now.
For me Voyager is a kind of joy so powerful, it robs you of your fear of
death."_

According to her recent interview with LA Times they were a bit more
circumspect about their Eureka moment than the NASA article would suggest:

 _During this period, she and Sagan, who was then married to his second wife,
also realized they were "madly in love." Reluctant to jeopardize the mission,
the pair waited until Voyager 1 had successfully launched before breaking the
news to their significant others._

I feel this adds an extra dimension to this matter-of-fact statement from
Ferris's article:

 _We disbanded soon after I delivered the metal master to Los Angeles, making
ours a proud example of a federal project that evaporated once its mission was
accomplished._

[1] [https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-
nasa/2011/2...](https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-
nasa/2011/28apr_voyager2)

[2] [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-ann-
druyan-...](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-ann-druyan-
cosmos-20140607-story.html)

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tannhaeuser
By focusing on audio recordings and putting those on a mechanical medium, did
Carl Sagan intend to address it to primitive civilizations lacking the means
to read digital media? In that case, the platter would have to come down into
an atmosphere, greatly diminishing its chance ever to be enjoyed, wouldn't it?

~~~
Aloha
Consider the time this thing was produced in - digital media didn't
effectively exist.

~~~
Poc
also it's gold so it might live longer no ?

~~~
Aloha
Quite arguably a mechanically reproduced record is better than digital.

~~~
rlpb
If your argument is along the lines of what I think it is, then this is a
fallacy. See "Sampling fallacies and misconceptions" in
[https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-
young.html](https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html)

"All signals with content entirely below the Nyquist frequency (half the
sampling rate) are captured perfectly and completely by sampling; an infinite
sampling rate is not required. Sampling doesn't affect frequency response or
phase. The analog signal can be reconstructed losslessly, smoothly, and with
the exact timing of the original analog signal."

~~~
Aloha
No, thats not it at all.

Analog reproduction is far less complex and easier to explain in pictures to
an unknown entity that might find it. Figure that they'll need to build what
effectively amounts to a record player to play the thing back. In addition
there was no digital technology of the time with a large enough capacity to
store what we sent, or that was durable enough to deal with an unknown time in
space.

Quality of the reproduction is not a consideration.

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anthotny
There's also a form for crowdsourcing a new Golden Record for 2017:
[http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-would-you-
explain...](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-would-you-explain-
humanity-today-to-aliens)

~~~
petard
I wonder if potential aliens be like 'oh great, valuable metals - let's go and
scrape that planet.'

~~~
greglindahl
Given that the metals in question are common in basically every planetary
system... no.

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ericfrenkiel
This is likely to become the ultimate "time capsule," for a human to recover
in the not-too-distant future, when a few light-weeks of travel is
commonplace.

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MichaelMoser123
Do later missions like 'New Horizon' contain a similar message? I wonder if
nowadays there is a 'greeting card' committee NASA that decides such things.

~~~
MichaelMoser123
Here they are - creating a message to be uploaded to the computer
[https://www.newhorizonsmessage.com/](https://www.newhorizonsmessage.com/)

Now I wonder how long it will take until the memory of the computer is
destroyed by cosmic radiation. I guess the old method of a gold plated record
would be more durable.

