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NASA found it simpler to explain numbers with hydrogen atoms than peano arithmetic for their voyager.
by Bancakes 5y ago
NASA found it simpler to explain numbers with hydrogen atoms than peano arithmetic for their voyager.
- babelfish 5y agoInteresting. Any source or context on this?
- Frost1x 5y agoNot OP but I'm guessing OP is referring to the Voyager Golden Record attached to the first Voyager probe, specifically the playback instructions using hydrogen atom to derive time units for playing the record: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record#Playback https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record#Playba... Many of the ideas for the record came from Carl Sagan and a committee he lead working with NASA.
- mrfox321 5y agoDoes "easier" equate to "universal". I think it does, just thinking about your statement out loud. Since to humans, explaining numbers with hydrogen would be harder, I think. The common ground between humans is larger, so we can rely on something less fundamental and abstract.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoThis was about finding some kind of common understanding to anchor the rest of the message to. Hydrogen, being the most abundant element in the universe, is likely to be known and studied by any civilization advanced enough to detect Voyager or its signals.