Golden Record Sounds
Note: The first sounds are straight out of the X-Files, and the Mozart Magic Flute aria is astounding. This woman manages to sound like either a violin or an extremely high-pitched horn instrument . . . which is an awe-inspiring sound I have never heard a human voice do before and I think I actually opened my mouth and made a gasping noise when I heard it.
There is actually an official NASA page on the Golden Record as well:
NASA Golden Record Voyager Intersellar Mission
In addition, I acquired a book from the UIUC library called "Murmurs of the Earth" written by Carl Sagan, F.D. Drake, Ann Druyan, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg, and Linda Salzman Sagan.
This, by the way, is the book cover. I actually thought the pressed gold circle on plain black fabric was kind of breath-taking. And it makes me want to stick a gold circle on my painting.
The book is all about the Voyager project, and specifically the creation of the records. I have some brief notes, quotes, and commentary below.
"For future times and peoples" is the title of Carl Sagan's introductory essay, which I think is a really lovely phrase. I think that is what we're all doing with art, in a way. . . or at least I feel that I am. That much less permanent drawings or paintings are just futile gestures to the future and an attempt to "survive our time so that we may live into yours." (Jimmy Carter on the record).
- the fundamental realities of the universe are math and physics. I think this is fascinating, that since the laws of physics and math are presumably the same throughout the universe, those will be the only constants we can expect to encounter. Biology may be completely different, atomic structure or molecules he says, but not the laws of math. So . . .
"Because of the relationship between music and mathematics, and the anticipated universality of mathematics, it may be that much more than our emotions are conveyed by the musical offerings on the Voyager record." 14
I think this is fascinating . . . that perhaps so much is encoded in our musical language . . . or perhaps that their communication will be completely meaningless, like a string of 1's and 0's to someone who doesn't translate binary. . . hmmm. This goes back to trying to reach for universals, to find something transcendent. "I want to believe" in something.
". . . they are now irretrievably set on trajectories that will take them out of our solar system." 7 So lonely and empty.
"This plaque also contains a sketch of two representatives of the human species greeting the cosmos with hope." 8 (referring to the previous plaques on. . . Pioneer maybe?
Why copyright law and beaurocracy is maddeningly ridiculous
They wanted to send "here comes the sun" by the Beatles, and "all four Beatles gave their approval. But the Beatles did not own the copyright, and the legal status of the piece seemed to murky to risk." 19."By late May 1977 the general configuration of the musical selections was becoming clear. Each selection to be included would have to have a copyright release, because the International Copyright Convention restricts the reproduction of a piece of music "for any purposes whatever," presumably including extraterrestrial purposes." 22
"There was no way that NASA was going to launch full frontal nudity to the stars." 35
A few reasons why I really wish this were a movie
25. I liked how he switched from a paragraph about delegates from all the countries leaving long commentary to this. page break, and then "Roger Payne of Rockefeller University is a zoologist who has performed important studies of great whales in the free ocean. From a small boat he has trailed hydrophones beneath the surface of the ocean and recorded the tantalizing, enigmatic, haunting "songs" of the humpback and other whales. . . ." If I were to make a movie . . . well, I'd want to see one on this whole process. Why is this not a movie?
"After weighing the matter for about a day, NASA decided it was essential to include on the Voyager record at least the names of a large number of senators and representatives, especially those whose committees had cognizance of NASA activities. As a result, 4 additional pictures were added at the very last moment to the Voyager record with the information that is contained int he boxes on pages 30 and 21. So in case the reader wonders who it is, say, that Senator John Stennis of Mississippi has his name aboard the Voyager record, I suppose it goes back to Kurt Waldheim and the nature of beaurocracies." 29. amazing. they also had this amazing story of how to accommodate these new images, because there was a special recorder lent to them from Honeywell and the picture transcription had to be supervised by personel at Cornell, so someone had to fly with the recorder back to Boulder, CO at this video place that did it for them before, . . .29. totally amazing little rush story about it. and since the turnaround was so short, they had to reserve a seat for the recorder on the plane since it wasn't safe to put it in cargo. "It turns out that airlines have difficultly coping with concept of a seat for a piece of equipment. The solution, we found, was to reserve a seat for an individual named "Mr. Equipment." Since Mr. Equipment was under the age of ten, he was able to fly at half fare." 32 I LOVE IT.
I think it is interesting, and a little note to why artists and writers and people who make their living by using their imaginations are important. :)
"Because some science fiction writers with backgrounds in the sciences have been thinking about such problems longer than most of the rest of us, I also queried my friends Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein." 11 (for work on the plaque)
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