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I like that we sent unsolicited nudes. An act I could likely be convicted for if I sent it to a neighbour no matter how nice the gold disk or long the journey..

I like that we sent unsolicited nudes. An act I could likely be convicted for if I sent it to a neighbour no matter how nice the gold disk or long the journey... ... but now I look at the pictures on wikipedia and see there are no nudes or even a Vitruvian Man. How strange to have a belief of many decades suddenly corrected. Seems that I have mentally fused the earlier Pioneer plaque with Voyager. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque > After NASA had received criticism over the nudity on the Pioneer plaque (line drawings of a naked man and woman), the agency chose not to allow Sagan and his colleagues to include a photograph of a nude man and woman on the record. Instead, only a silhouette of the couple was included.[15] However, the record does contain "Diagram of vertebrate evolution", by Jon Lomberg, with drawings of an anatomically correct naked male and naked female, showing external organs.[16] The person waving on the diagram was also changed: on the Pioneer plaque, the man is waving, while on the "Vertebrate evolution" image, the woman is waving.

heresie-dabord 3y ago
> After NASA had received criticism over the nudity on the Pioneer plaque Let's just think about this for a moment. Some people were sufficiently prudish and/or puritanical to make a formal objection about an illustration of our species -- an illustration being sent into the Cosmos -- into the Cosmos where there are _no other humans_ -- an illustration, I say, that was destined to leave our Solar System and likely never be seen again. And 50 years later, in 2023, I am sure that there has been little improvement in the public discourse of the society that somehow produced these great NASA missions. In fact, the social discourse is _worse_ today. > "According to astronomer Frank Drake, there were many negative reactions to the plaque because the human beings were displayed naked.[19] When images of the final design were published in American newspapers, one newspaper published the image with the man's genitalia removed and another newspaper published the image with both the man's genitalia and the woman's nipples removed.[20] In one letter to a newspaper, a person angrily wrote that they felt that the nudity of the images made the images obscene. > "Sagan said that the decision to not include the vertical line on the woman's genitalia (pudendal cleft) which would be caused by the intersection of the labia majora was due to two reasons. First, Greek sculptures of women do not include that line. Second, Sagan believed that a design with such an explicit depiction of a woman's genitalia would be considered too obscene to be approved by NASA.[10] According to the memoirs of Robert S. Kraemer, however, the original design that was presented to NASA headquarters included a line which indicated the woman's vulva,[11] and this line was erased as a condition for approval of the design by John Naugle, former head of NASA's Office of Space Science and the agency's former chief scientist. If humans ever establish a colony beyond Earth, it will not be like Star Trek. It will be Puritans in Space.
- defrost 3y ago
  > If humans ever establish a colony beyond Earth s/humans/USAians/ I'm pretty sure many parts of the globe are fine with full commando. Most French, any average Australian, Brazil, etc. very likely sent in zero (0) letters of outrage.
  - nozzlegear 3y ago
    s/USAians/Americans/
    - defrost 3y ago
      I don't think the south American Brazilians are anywhere near as prudish as the central north American USofA denizens.
      - nozzlegear 3y ago
        And I didn’t think South Crossers were never told what the A in USofA stands for but here we are.
        defrost 3y ago
        Indeed, in a time when seemingly many basement Canadians struggle with Venn diagrams and naming a country that starts with the letter 'U'.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ordu 3y ago
  > Some people were sufficiently prudish and/or puritanical to make a formal objection about an illustration of our species -- an illustration being sent into the Cosmos -- into the Cosmos where there are _no other humans_ -- an illustration, I say, that was destined to leave our Solar System and likely never be seen again. It is not exactly correct. This illustration is widely known now. People look at it, not aliens. I'd say the whole idea to send a picture is directed not at aliens but at humans: it is plainly improbable someone will see the original plaque. I can imagine that someone finds this plaque, but it will be space archaeologists from Earth. Once again: humans. This plaque was made for humans. They keep saying that it was made for aliens, but they like to daydream.
ponector 3y ago
Wikipedia is full of nudes. From classic pictures with Venus to parts of the body, like labia.
- debo_ 3y ago
  I don't know, photos of labia are really only lip service to nudity. /joke
mzs 3y ago
golden record images: https://www.lost-painters.nl/atlas/ https://www.lost-painters.nl/atlas/ greetings: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/greetings/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-reco... sounds: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/sounds/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-reco... music: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/01/alan-lomax-and-the-voyager-golden-records/ https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/01/alan-lomax-and-the-vo...

heresie-dabord 3y ago

> After NASA had received criticism over the nudity on the Pioneer plaque Let's just think about this for a moment. Some people were sufficiently prudish and/or puritanical to make a formal objection about an illustration of our species -- an illustration being sent into the Cosmos -- into the Cosmos where there are _no other humans_ -- an illustration, I say, that was destined to leave our Solar System and likely never be seen again. And 50 years later, in 2023, I am sure that there has been little improvement in the public discourse of the society that somehow produced these great NASA missions. In fact, the social discourse is _worse_ today. > "According to astronomer Frank Drake, there were many negative reactions to the plaque because the human beings were displayed naked.[19] When images of the final design were published in American newspapers, one newspaper published the image with the man's genitalia removed and another newspaper published the image with both the man's genitalia and the woman's nipples removed.[20] In one letter to a newspaper, a person angrily wrote that they felt that the nudity of the images made the images obscene. > "Sagan said that the decision to not include the vertical line on the woman's genitalia (pudendal cleft) which would be caused by the intersection of the labia majora was due to two reasons. First, Greek sculptures of women do not include that line. Second, Sagan believed that a design with such an explicit depiction of a woman's genitalia would be considered too obscene to be approved by NASA.[10] According to the memoirs of Robert S. Kraemer, however, the original design that was presented to NASA headquarters included a line which indicated the woman's vulva,[11] and this line was erased as a condition for approval of the design by John Naugle, former head of NASA's Office of Space Science and the agency's former chief scientist. If humans ever establish a colony beyond Earth, it will not be like Star Trek. It will be Puritans in Space.

defrost 3y ago
> If humans ever establish a colony beyond Earth s/humans/USAians/ I'm pretty sure many parts of the globe are fine with full commando. Most French, any average Australian, Brazil, etc. very likely sent in zero (0) letters of outrage.
- nozzlegear 3y ago
  s/USAians/Americans/
  - defrost 3y ago
    I don't think the south American Brazilians are anywhere near as prudish as the central north American USofA denizens.
    - nozzlegear 3y ago
      And I didn’t think South Crossers were never told what the A in USofA stands for but here we are.
      - defrost 3y ago
        Indeed, in a time when seemingly many basement Canadians struggle with Venn diagrams and naming a country that starts with the letter 'U'.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ordu 3y ago
> Some people were sufficiently prudish and/or puritanical to make a formal objection about an illustration of our species -- an illustration being sent into the Cosmos -- into the Cosmos where there are _no other humans_ -- an illustration, I say, that was destined to leave our Solar System and likely never be seen again. It is not exactly correct. This illustration is widely known now. People look at it, not aliens. I'd say the whole idea to send a picture is directed not at aliens but at humans: it is plainly improbable someone will see the original plaque. I can imagine that someone finds this plaque, but it will be space archaeologists from Earth. Once again: humans. This plaque was made for humans. They keep saying that it was made for aliens, but they like to daydream.

ponector 3y ago

Wikipedia is full of nudes. From classic pictures with Venus to parts of the body, like labia.

debo_ 3y ago
I don't know, photos of labia are really only lip service to nudity. /joke

mzs 3y ago

golden record images: https://www.lost-painters.nl/atlas/ https://www.lost-painters.nl/atlas/ greetings: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/greetings/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-reco... sounds: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/sounds/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-reco... music: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/01/alan-lomax-and-the-voyager-golden-records/ https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/01/alan-lomax-and-the-vo...