Yesterday, I was listening to this podcast about the Voyager and Voyager 2 spacecraft. I was really into the Voyagers when I was a space-obsessed kid while the two ships were sending us pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. I had a replica of the plaque in my room even though it was embarrassing at that age because of the naked people.
I hadn't thought about those spacecraft in a quite a while, until yesterday. What I once knew, and was reminded by the podcast, is that the Voyagers each have a "golden record" that contains a recording of some music, sounds of Earth, and greetings in 55 languages.
While I was totally on-board with the idea when I was 9 years old, the decision to include so many greetings now seems like a really bad idea if we want to communicate with aliens. If we found an alien recording with the sound of voices on it, assuming we recognized it at voices, we would analyze the recording and try to figure it out. By constantly switching languages, we are making it much harder for anyone to ever figure those messages out. How will they know that each utterance is a totally different language, each with a different vocabulary and grammar? If we really want to communicate, stick to a single language and give the aliens a lot of different statements in that language to work with.
I understand that they probably went with a series of short greetings in a bunch of different languages so that the probes would represent a broader swath of humanity, and not just one particular ethnic/linguistic group. But doing it this way undercuts the purpose of actual communication and makes the whole exercise seem more like an earthling vanity project rather than an actual effort to communicate.
I hadn't thought about those spacecraft in a quite a while, until yesterday. What I once knew, and was reminded by the podcast, is that the Voyagers each have a "golden record" that contains a recording of some music, sounds of Earth, and greetings in 55 languages.
While I was totally on-board with the idea when I was 9 years old, the decision to include so many greetings now seems like a really bad idea if we want to communicate with aliens. If we found an alien recording with the sound of voices on it, assuming we recognized it at voices, we would analyze the recording and try to figure it out. By constantly switching languages, we are making it much harder for anyone to ever figure those messages out. How will they know that each utterance is a totally different language, each with a different vocabulary and grammar? If we really want to communicate, stick to a single language and give the aliens a lot of different statements in that language to work with.
I understand that they probably went with a series of short greetings in a bunch of different languages so that the probes would represent a broader swath of humanity, and not just one particular ethnic/linguistic group. But doing it this way undercuts the purpose of actual communication and makes the whole exercise seem more like an earthling vanity project rather than an actual effort to communicate.
