4 ms·

Here's a photo album of producing the original golden record, followed by its visual contents. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl/sets/72157676187916186/ ht

Here's a photo album of producing the original golden record, followed by its visual contents. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl/sets/72157676187916186/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl/sets/7215767618791618...

dandare 9y ago
I would love to read a story about aliens finding the records and trying to decode them. Personally, I find the image encoding impossible to understand.
- jvm_ 9y ago
  There was a reddit post today showing the picture of the naked humans and the quasar map to earth... the caption was - maybe the reason aliens haven't contacted us is that we sent unsolicited nudes and directions to our house.
  - Turing_Machine 9y ago
    A related, but slightly different take: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/monkey https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/monkey
  - JKCalhoun 9y ago
    Googled, but couldn't find the cartoon that showed an alien family (looking every bit like Ward Cleaver's family) looking at the Pioneer plaque while one of the alien children says, "They look like us except they don't wear any clothes." Maybe an old Scientific American or issue of OMNI magazine....
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Isn’t that what the whole first Star Trek movie was about? It created a miscommunication, to say the least.
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    There was also a great original series episode with a similar plot, in which Spock performs a Vulcan mind meld with a machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(Star_Trek:_The...
tommoor 9y ago
After reading the Three Body Problem It feels like encoding our exact location might not have been the smartest move :)
- john_wang_doe 9y ago
  Imagine an alien race on brink of destruction and they have the same temperament as human for war. Would make an awesome Sci Movie
- perl4ever 9y ago
  An earlier HN link discusses the idea that the pulsar map is useless anyway. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15044698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15044698
- lloeki 9y ago
  IIRC Hawking expressed concerns about that: if we were to be found by a more advanced civilization, then we would in all likelihood be ultimately destroyed, because there seems to be a recurring pattern showing that this is what happens when a higher civilization meets a less advanced one. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/esp_vida_alien_18zzk.htm http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/esp_vida_alien_...
  - sporkologist 9y ago
    I'd be inclined to agree with #11, in that domination is always motivated by resources, and aliens visiting earth would likely already have all the resources they need. I'd hope they are motivated by curiosity more than trying to get hydrocarbons or whatever.

dandare 9y ago

I would love to read a story about aliens finding the records and trying to decode them. Personally, I find the image encoding impossible to understand.

jvm_ 9y ago
There was a reddit post today showing the picture of the naked humans and the quasar map to earth... the caption was - maybe the reason aliens haven't contacted us is that we sent unsolicited nudes and directions to our house.
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  A related, but slightly different take: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/monkey https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/monkey
- JKCalhoun 9y ago
  Googled, but couldn't find the cartoon that showed an alien family (looking every bit like Ward Cleaver's family) looking at the Pioneer plaque while one of the alien children says, "They look like us except they don't wear any clothes." Maybe an old Scientific American or issue of OMNI magazine....
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Isn’t that what the whole first Star Trek movie was about? It created a miscommunication, to say the least.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  There was also a great original series episode with a similar plot, in which Spock performs a Vulcan mind meld with a machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(Star_Trek:_The...

tommoor 9y ago

After reading the Three Body Problem It feels like encoding our exact location might not have been the smartest move :)

john_wang_doe 9y ago
Imagine an alien race on brink of destruction and they have the same temperament as human for war. Would make an awesome Sci Movie
perl4ever 9y ago
An earlier HN link discusses the idea that the pulsar map is useless anyway. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15044698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15044698
lloeki 9y ago
IIRC Hawking expressed concerns about that: if we were to be found by a more advanced civilization, then we would in all likelihood be ultimately destroyed, because there seems to be a recurring pattern showing that this is what happens when a higher civilization meets a less advanced one. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/esp_vida_alien_18zzk.htm http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/esp_vida_alien_...
- sporkologist 9y ago
  I'd be inclined to agree with #11, in that domination is always motivated by resources, and aliens visiting earth would likely already have all the resources they need. I'd hope they are motivated by curiosity more than trying to get hydrocarbons or whatever.