Ithaca Bound: Voyager: Our Bottle in the Cosmic Ocean

"...the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet." Carl Sagan on the Voyager 1

I mentioned in the podcast yesterday the Voyager spacecraft, which was sent into space in 1977 and which is now further out than the orbit of Pluto. I know I promised real hard science but I feel like the story of this craft is really inspiring and thought provoking.

Voyager 1

The Voyager spacecraft carried a golden record containing various images and sounds from the Earth and from our civilization. This "Golden Record" is really amazing and deserves some attention. Most of all, the idea of representing humanity as one united civilization is one that gives me a lot of hope for the future.

The Golden Record, which was onboard Voyager 1

What's all the gibberish on the front of the record?

I'll let the official NASA documentation explain all this. It's really fascinating to think about how to communicate with beings that may be completely different from us. Some really smart people worked up a way to try to give the beings instructions for playing the record.

How do we represent ourselves to these beings?

I feel like this is the really interesting question that this record and the Voyager mission brings to light. In the midst of the Cold War, all of humanity took it upon themselves to present a united front to any being that will find this record in the distant future. We weren't trying to represent America, or the USSR, or any specific people or country as special. For the first time in the history of humanity, we had to think about ourselves as one, united species.

This is a message on the record from the Secretary General of the United Nations at the time, Kurt Waldheim:

"As the Secretary General of the United Nations, an organizations of the 147 member states who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet earth. I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship, to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of the immense universe that surrounds us and it is with humility and hope that we take this step."

What a beautiful message! I love the idea of people being able to think of themselves as human inhabitants of the planet Earth, instead of just Germans, Russians, Americans, etc.

Here is a message from US President at the time Jimmy Carter:

"We cast this message into the cosmos . . . Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some - - perhaps many - - may have inhabited planet and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe."

Community of Galactic Civilizations? I don't think I need to say how touching these messages are.

There were also visual and audio representations of human civilization on the record. I'll leave you with some of my favorites and a link where you can see all of the rest of them. As you look at these pictures, be proud to think of yourself not as a German, Russian, American, etc., but as a human being.