Should AA "Tetons" be on Voyager 1 + Voyager 2 (launched 1977)?

[Heroique]

Chances are you’ve heard about the Voyager Golden Record placed on Voyagers 1 and 2 – a playable golden disc with sounds & images to help educate any intelligent life about the life and geographical features of our planet, especially its human civilization.

Its contents were selected for NASA by a group headed by the popular scientist, Carl Sagan.

However, did you know that among its 116 images (actually 115, since the first is for calibration), image #43 is AA’s “The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming” (1942)?

I presume the Sagan-led team chose this image to communicate, or suggest, what the earth’s geographical features “look like,” and if so, I may not be the only one who’s curious whether the team considered the image’s significant manipulation (or “considerable printing control,” as AA explains in The Print). Many of us, that is, might consider this image quite a “departure from reality,” and at risk of misleading, to some degree, any intelligent life that might come across it. On the other hand, AA does say that he tried to keep all its values “logical,” and perhaps this is what helped the image pass the audition, get on board, and fly among the stars. :D

But setting aside the prickly “Reality” word for now – if you were a member of Carl Sagan’s team and asked to recommend a single AA image for inclusion, would you have chosen this particular image – or another? What reasons would you give for your selection?

[dsphotog]

Oh no, aliens will think this planet has 10 zones, but no color!

[Daniel Stone]

Not sure about another Ansel Adams shot for sure, maybe 'Monolith', since it shows such a sense of grandeur and sheer scale:

http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/02/adams.jpg

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Now, if (I) were an alien looking for a new planet to call home, and the "Tetons and Snake River" was a representation of "Earth", I'd probably move on to the next galaxy :p

But if they included a picture of a young Ursula Andress on the disc, I might reconsider giving earth a 2nd look :D

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-Dan

[Vick Ko]

ha ha, this thread did motivate me to see the other photos. "Teton" seemed to fit right in.

[Vaughn]

Daniel, Grand Tetons, to be sure! :cool:

[Brian C. Miller]

Interesting that the United Nations building is on the disc twice. Maybe they figured the aliens would get lost in New York, and needed a land mark. (Of course, a lot of photos are "courtesy" of the UN.)

"Tetons" is fine by me. What I would have done, though, is not used any stock (snap-shot quality) images. These discs will be the remainder of the human race. So why cheap out on it?

[BrianShaw]

... a playable golden disc ...

Playable on WHAT? I read on the internet that aliens are well beyond both analogue and digital technologies.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I do not know what they were thinking. They could have put a B&W and a color image (not of AA's) to inform them that we see in certain colors.

As for decoding ... oops. More later. :)

[Heroique]

Daniel, Grand Tetons, to be sure! :cool:

That was hilarious! Maybe the “Snake” has a symbolic role to play too.

Now, about decoding and play back:

Here’s what NASA says about the format for the images & sounds – and how intelligent life is supposed to play the disc:


...The golden record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute...

Wow – the images, including “Tetons,” are analog. I thought they’d be digital. The analog format will likely cause a condescending remark or two from the intelligent alien who comes across it.

[paulr]

The analog format will likely cause a condescending remark or two from the intelligent alien who comes across it.

If the aliens are hipsters they'll think we're the coolest planet ever for sending them an LP.

But seriously, I'm distressed by this. Bill Clinton's family vacations to the Tetons raised the popularity (and the prices) of the valley beyond what I'd ever imagined. Now we're going to add rich extraterrestrials to the crowds.

[Jim Graves]

I've never liked the Tetons print ... it just looks over the top ... almost kitschish ... and reminds me of all those over saturated color photos that fill up photography magazines that I hate.

[BrianShaw]

Hipster aliens appear to have already visited the Tetons:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/visualnews/crop-circles-in-the-snow-most-likely-work-of-hips-7fbr

[Per Madsen]

Not sure about another Ansel Adams shot for sure, maybe 'Monolith', since it shows such a sense of grandeur and sheer scale:

http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/02/adams.jpg

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Now, if (I) were an alien looking for a new planet to call home, and the "Tetons and Snake River" was a representation of "Earth", I'd probably move on to the next galaxy :p

But if they included a picture of a young Ursula Andress on the disc, I might reconsider giving earth a 2nd look :D

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-Dan

Regarding Ursula Andress it is dependent on the alien. They will possibly think that she is missing a couple of tentacles.

[AtlantaTerry]

I recently read Carl Sagan's final book. He has funny stories to tell about the drawings of the "necked" male and female characters etched into the gold plaque itself. Some folks thought the drawings to be pornographic. My, my, how things have changed!

[BrianShaw]

Regarding Ursula Andress it is dependent on the alien. They will possibly think that she is missing a couple of tentacles.

Oh dear God... I mis-read this the first time. I'm glad I read it again!

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

I'm quite sure that Carl Sagan intended to challenge extra-terrestrial intelligence by the following legal question for ET lawyers:
"Dear ET people, are you free or not to copy those AA-copyrighted images, according to Copyright Laws actually enforced on Proxima Centauri?"

[Ari]

Regarding Ursula Andress it is dependent on the alien. They will possibly think that she is missing a couple of tentacles.

No matter; I'm sure there's an intergalactic version of "hubba-hubba!" or "va-va-voom!" out there.

[Kodachrome25]

A friend of mine has two photos on that spacecraft, we were both wondering if copies were ever produced for people to buy, it would be cool to have a copy...

[paulr]

Hipster aliens appear to have already visited the Tetons:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/visualnews/crop-circles-in-the-snow-most-likely-work-of-hips-7fbr

Wow. Those are cooler than the Ansel image.

[Drew Wiley]

Dosn't matter ... when the aliens get curious and land, Grand Teton Natl Park will be closed anyway. They'll have to come back after congress gets its act together,
which might still be a couple dozen light years away ...

[Brian C. Miller]

Hmmm... in 30,000 years Voyager 1 will leave the Oort cloud, and in 40,000 it will be 1.6 light years from Gliese 445.

Maybe we should affix a few more picture discs to satellites (http://phys.org/news/2012-10-artist-picture-disc-orbit-capsule.html). I'm sure that all the archival prints will be well decayed by then, and hopefully Moonrise will be up there.

[eddie]

all aliens will stay far away from the virus called humans......i am sure they are on a definite "no fly zone" around our galaxy.......god knows what will happen if the human virus escapes the solar system to destroy other places like they did to earth.......

[ROL]

Oh no, aliens will think this planet has 10 zones, but no color!

It doesn't?!? (...spoken like a true Zoney :D)


That old fashioned, out of date, technologically irrelevant disc should have been wrapped in the AA printed selenium toned GSP, since it would certainly (;)) survive both longer and without ambiguity than the disc, which I have no doubt would be summarily discarded by intellectually superior aliens as some sort of packing support for the real universal greeting, the GSP. (...spoken like a true GSP printer :D – or an alien???)

[Drew Wiley]

Maybe those aliens are discs!

[Heroique]

Since the Voyager 1 + 2 launches in 1977, NASA has sent-up another spacecraft that will, eventually, follow them into deep space – the New Horizons probe.

It was launched 2006 to study Pluto – its arrival date is 2015. After a glance at Pluto, off into interstellar space it goes, following on the trails of Voyager 1 + 2.

However, count on intelligent life to be disappointed if they discover the New Horizons spacecraft – especially if, by then, they’ve discovered the golden disc on the two Voyager spacecraft, viewed the “Tetons” image with delight, and harbor high expectations for more.

For the New Horizons spacecraft is apparently empty of such things! :(


“After we got into the project in 2002, it was suggested we add a plaque and I rejected that simply as a matter of focus,” says Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal investigator. “We had a small team on a tight budget and I knew it would be a big distraction. I didn’t want to see us being distracted from the project and find ourselves derailing the project or getting into flight and finding we had some problem and wishing we’d been more focused during development.”

If and when disappointed aliens arrive on earth seeking explanations, I just don’t think Stern’s remarks will fly. We better have a few AA prints to hand-out as a gesture of apology and conciliation. Or it’s War of the Worlds for real this time. (I’d suggest a flawless print of “Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, 1960.”)

[ROL]

However, count on intelligent life to be disappointed if they discover the New Horizons spacecraft – especially if, by then, they’ve discovered the golden disc on the two Voyager spacecraft, viewed the “Tetons” image with delight, and harbor high expectations for more.

For the New Horizons spacecraft is apparently empty of such things! :(


Indeed. Sadly, my body work was ignored, despite the fact many have indicated that it is best viewed at great distance, preferably from beyond the outer solar system. Go figure.;)

[Brian C. Miller]

It was launched 2006 to study Pluto – its arrival date is 2015. After a glance at Pluto, off into interstellar space it goes, following on the trails of Voyager 1 + 2.

YouTube cat videos (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/google-x-neural-network/). That's what would have been on it. So of course the mission director didn't want the crew to lose focus! And the aliens won't be upset with a lousy DVD of cat videos.