Every 80’s and 90’s kids remember their favorite childhood blockbuster E.T, the Extra-Terrestrial. The story of an alien who was abandoned in California and had to experience the curiosity, love, compassion, friendship as well as the aggressive, threatening, and horrible aspects of humankind. This 1982 Universal Pictures film is a science fiction movie, but does it have to be science fiction? Could there be a day that we, the human species, find and communicate with an extraterrestrial being? Well, that day may come sooner than later as astronomers, artist, linguistics, anthropologist, mathematicians and other professionals are fabricating messages to send into outer space.
The idea of sending messages into …show more content…
The Voyager Golden Record was more of a time capsule, “intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrial” (“The Golden Record”). According to NASA the “12-inch gold played copper disked [contained] sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on earth” (“The Golden Record”). Dr. Carl Sagan’s committee selected 115 images ranging from sunsets with birds to modern highways to x-rays and the Taj Mahal. The sounds contained in the disk includes a “variety of natural noices such as those made by surf, wind, thunder, birds, whales, and other animals” as well as selected music from different cultures and time periods (“The Golden Record”). There are also greetings from Earth recorded in 55 different languages and messages from President Carter and the United Nations Secretary General Waldheim. Each of these recordings are incased in a protective aluminum case. Symbolic instructions, a cartridge and a needle are provided to explain the how to play the record and where the records came from, Earth. This time capsule will take approximately 40,000 years before it reaches another planetary