Voyager Golden Record Decoded

Here is another thing to consider...

Why does an Interplanetary species have to be thousands of years ahead in technology?

Maybe they make a breakthrough like we did during WWII for some sort of interstellar travel yet they still have not harnessed the atom or other tech. Maybe they are just like us with Waring factions. Why do they have to be more advanced to have space travel?

I do not think they do, but we would certainly believe they did, much like the cargo cults we could only be a few years or decades behind...

a reply to: Elton

Quite obviously the audio portion is designed to enrage the listener thus encouraging them to destroy the originating civilization.

Luckily in the vast void of Space, no one will find Voyager and how to decode. We basically left a map on how to find us. Remember how the "Advanced" Europeans treated all the "Primitive Savages" in our own recent history? Hawking is right, we should probably fear the "Gods" that will come down out of the sky.

a reply to: Elton

originally posted by: abeverage
Here is another thing to consider...

Why does an Interplanetary species have to be thousands of years ahead in technology?

Maybe they make a breakthrough like we did during WWII for some sort of interstellar travel yet they still have not harnessed the atom or other tech. Maybe they are just like us with Waring factions. Why do they have to be more advanced to have space travel?

I do not think they do, but we would certainly believe they did, much like the cargo cults we could only be a few years or decades behind...

The odds of them being of similar tech is rather slim. Either they are less advanced, in which case, no worries as they won't have a clue. However any more advanced Species seeing this will either laugh and avoid us or look at us as easy pickings.

Considering the Known Age of the Known Universe, I seriously doubt we are the most advanced civilization out there and if we are, Lord help the Universe.

No alien civilization, most likely way different than us, would be able to figure the disc out, it was made with human intelligence/features in mind. Still, it's a fascinating and, to me, odd piece of information.

originally posted by: DarkestConspiracyMoon
No alien civilization, most likely way different than us, would be able to figure the disc out...

Why not? If you think about it, there aren't many ways to decode information that's clearly meant to be decoded.

For example, you realistically have audio, visual, writing, or mathematics. If a space fairing alien civilisation finds voyager you can be reasonably certain they'd be aware of all four. Probably not hard at all.

a reply to: Phage

A bit arrogant, perhaps, to place oneself in the place of ET. Images of war could be construed as, "Watch out. We're coming to getcha!"

Nah, just observing the voyager probe itself would convince them how technical we are.

Especially the radioactive cloud of decayed RTG PU its enveloped in.

They'll capture it and cite us for trying to poison them.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Elton
Heh, complete with a chart on how to properly carve a human for Thanksgiving.

Hopefully them aliens won't be as smart as Ron. Sort of like putting your social security number, date of birth, and mother's maiden name on facebook, but in code.

Very cool though.

I wondered, what if AI came across this first?

well don't worry it will be alest 50,000 to 70,000 thousand years till Voyager even passes close to another star ( close being 1.6 light years .

No billions of years till it pass through another star system close enough to maybe be found .
the first star trek movie was stupid .
Star trek is some ware around 2350 ad . So Voyager not only managed to get light years away in taht time but a alien robot found it liked it and went to find its makers all in 370 years lol .

Heck even our TV and radio singles have not gotten far if you want to count form the very first made at most 150 or 160 years .
that is light years ( not very many stars even in that range form us we live in the bonnies )

And our galaxy is over 125 thousand light years across so string as earth and making a circle it will be some time before any one even has a chance to hear us .

Check back in 10,000 years .

Just to add Star trek Warp speed (the cube of the warp factor times the speed of light
at 5.4 is 157 times the speed of light so that means any star within 157 light years you can get to in a year or less .
starting to see the problem yet ?
Forget the speed of light you may as well be sitting still 4.5 year trip to the next nearest star .
Forget 150 times the speed of light .
5 million times the speed and the galaxy is in your grasp ( forget anything else )
100 million time Nope still stuck in the milky way .
A billion times Well mite be worth going to the next nearest galaxy .
the seeable universe is Trillions of light years .

originally posted by: smurfy
I wondered, what if AI came across this first?

That was the exact plot of the first Star Trek film.

originally posted by: abeverage
Here is another thing to consider...

Why does an Interplanetary species have to be thousands of years ahead in technology?

Maybe they make a breakthrough like we did during WWII for some sort of interstellar travel yet they still have not harnessed the atom or other tech. Maybe they are just like us with Waring factions. Why do they have to be more advanced to have space travel?

I do not think they do, but we would certainly believe they did, much like the cargo cults we could only be a few years or decades behind...

Many breakthroughs for space travel have prerequisites for earlier technology.

As far as hoping they're friendly goes. Any space faring civilization is going to have the technology to put engines on asteroids and send them at us. If they're not friendly, we're pretty much screwed.

I'm proud to say I helped fund the Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Box Set from Ozma Records via Kickstarter. It's a beautiful way to share and appreciate the story of the Voyagers. The audio is spanned over 3 180-gram vinyl discs and the pictures are laid out in a hardback book. It showed up in the mail on September 5th, 40 years to the day after Voyager 1 launched.

One thing bothers me though... Of all the images chosen to portray humanity, minus religion and war, why no reference to the Apollo astronauts? There's a picture of Ed White's first spacewalk, but nothing of Neil and Buzz?

a reply to: johnsequitur1221

True, good insight. Apollo would be much more appropriate because of the way the whole world watched and listened and recognized it as a pinnacle achievement.