“We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some – perhaps many – may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe”.  ~ U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 1977

One shared truth known amongst all lifeforms is that nothing lasts forever. And much to our despair, the existence of human-kind is no exception. In response, humanity’s denial of loss has birthed a second life beyond death – one’s legacy. Meaning that while a deceased’s flame has already been extinguished, an imaginary warmth continues to burn indefinitely in the minds of family, friends, or even history. Material legacies like: the inheritance of worldly possessions; a written will on paper; books on the dead’s extraordinary feats back when they were brimming with life – these will all prevail along generations to come, and not to be forgotten for a while until their second (final) death. For example, records of our great grandparents, pioneering discoveries of Sir Issac Newton, or timeline of the industrial revolutions are still preserved for us to remember. Following this culture of memorial, space engineers have acted on ways to preserve the story of humans that used to roam on planet Earth. 

But when no humans are left on Earth, who is there to remember? The answer only remains speculative. 

It could be viewed that extinction is destiny for the human species. Scientists have narrowed down on possibilities such as a self-inflicted downfall due to anthropogenic climate change or nuclear warfare. Alternatively, natural causes like asteroid crashes and insuperable pandemics. Even if humans grit their teeth and endure these fatal trials, a NASA supercomputer prophesied our final calamity in 5 billion years when the Sun ages into a ‘red giant’ so luminous that it scorches Earth and evaporates its oceans. While nothing is ever certain, the innumerable ways that converge towards Earth’s destruction unfortunately makes the chance of salvation improbable. 

Then why do societies across decades put their minds together, keenly investigating methods to carry humanity’s legacy forward? 

Perhaps, it could be a love for planet Earth. Our first home that shelters our ancestors and predecessors, overseeing our wake and sleep. Alternately, the wisdom of humanity could be guiding our species to leave no stone unturned. Hoping that 5 billion years later, our messages will be uncovered and man’s dream for complete understanding of the universe’s truth will become a reality. Otherwise, society of recent decades were deluded by their vanity: with such a short 300,000 out of 13.8 billion years of anthropological trace in the universe, homo sapiens would be profoundly arrogant to think that our brief arrival is productive in the grandness of existence.

Whether in light of the altruism or vanity of mankind, I write this article to appreciate the ambition of humankind to overturn our tragic death. I will explore the Voyager Golden Record and Arecibo message as means to carry on humanity’s legacy onto extraterrestrial beings, by understanding how it works and deciphering its message contents. Concluding with some final thoughts.

Voyager Golden Record

A ‘time capsule’ is a container which carries items representative of one’s unique existence, evident to be the inspiration behind the Voyager Golden Record. In this subject, the Voyager Golden Record is among the most famous interstellar messages sent into space, possibly being humanity’s first message to an alien civilisation. In 1977, American astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan intended for the Golden Record to serve as a message to extraterrestrial civilisations who might find it.

Voyager’s Golden Record is a phonograph record, that is, an analog storage medium consisting of a flat disc and spiral groove which takes advantage of physical undulations to store sounds. Gold-plated in copper and encased in an aluminium cover, the 12-inch long Golden Record is electroplated with the isotope uranium-238 to serve as a ‘radioactive clock’ (determines the record’s age). It contains sound recordings, images, and various cultural artifacts symbolic of us as former earth-dwellers. Binary instructions instruct how to play both audio and visual recordings, moreover, encoded diagrams represent the intended setup to play the record on the Voyager.

Two copies of the 12-inch Golden Record are fitted onto the exterior of each Voyager probe and launched out into space. Probes, unlike orbiting satellites, are designed to travel as far beyond Earth’s reach as possible – in an attempt to traverse other planets and celestial bodies. As you read this article, Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their adventure deeper within interstellar space, working as our couriers to deliver the Golden Record into the cosmos.

Space engineers make a daring assumption by designing the record for a civilisational entity capable of understanding such instructions, as well as being equipped with the necessary technology required to play the messages.

Extraterrestrial civilisations are greeted in 55 global languages, which inaugurates humanity’s poignant letter regarding our brief history in this beautiful blue planet. Natural sounds like the sweet singing of birds, calling of whales, roaring of thunder, 116 photographs depicting the human anatomy’s complexity and majesty of the solar system bares the audience to human’s understanding of nature’s command. Carl Sagan and his selected committee figured to continue the record by showcasing our society’s many cultures and traditions stretching from the Baroque compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, to listenings of the Wu Chinese dialect. Encoded in the record were also details about Earth’s location in the Milky Way galaxy, the chemical composition of life forms and binary code for interpreting the contents. The ribbon which ties all these pieces together is former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s speech symbolising the human voice.

However, comparable to time capsules, the Voyager Golden Record confronts challenges associated with being a physical record. All material items will eventually lose their form to decomposition. In the case of the Golden Record, degradation from interstellar impacts, radiation and dust have pointed to damaging the cosmic message in a billion to 4.51 billion years (half-life of the uranium-238). While this duration is commendable, the largest problem still stands: a negligible chance for distant civilisations to discover the Golden Record within the infinitely expanding universe. In other words, if extraterrestrial lifeforms do evolve, it is very unlikely that they will be situated near the vicinity of Earth, instead, a different region within the vast universe. Which is especially the case in billions of years into the future. Hence, a chance of encountering this interstellar time capsule would be highly improbable.

Arecibo Message

To overcome the constraints associated with launching material legacies into space, the transmission of waves are far more reliable as they are not only ‘unperishable’, yet also, spans across a wider field in space. Following this logic, a radio message known as the ‘Arecibo Message’ (1974) was sent into space from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. In this project, engineers implemented the use of binary-encoded messages to communicate with potential extraterrestrial entities.

By beaming a radio signal containing binary code towards the Globular Cluster Messier 13 25,000 light years away, the Arecibo radio telescope transmitted a series of 1,679 bits of binary code. Being a semiprime, additionally, a number of factors (can be arranged into a 23×27 grid) meant that the number 1,679 earned its place for easier decoding.

Consequently, provided that the binary code was broadcasted on a frequency of 2.38 GHz, the Arecibo Message will be expected to take 25,000 light-years to reach the M13 star cluster, plus another 25,000 light-years for any potential reply to return. Summing up to a total of 50,000 light-years waiting in anticipation.

Directly juxtaposing the culturally nuanced Voyager Golden Records, information carried by the Arecibo message are simple representations of notable discoveries humans made during our time on Earth. Which could be more helpful for foreign cosmic civilisations to understand the significance of our existence in a comparatively factual and pragmatic perspective. 

In the success of decoding the Arecibo message, alien societies would be rewarded with initial understanding of the numerical system – numbers 1 to 10 represented in binary. Progressing along, the group of Arecibo scientists included the helical structure of DNA and its constitutional elements, which introduces the basis of life on planet Earth. This builds up to the illustration of a human stick figure characterised with its comically reductive head, body, arms and legs. As though narrating a story, an image of the nine planets (including Pluto) zooms out the scope – shifting from the position of humans on earth to where Earth finds its place in the solar system. Finally, a depiction of the Arecibo telescope itself makes its way into this story of humanity’s legacy, bowing down to conclude the transmission of the Arecibo message.

I find the desire of humans to etch a mark in the universe truly admirable. From the symbolic Voyager Golden Record to the reliable Arecibo Message. Societies across generations come together in a brazen attempt to bend fate to our liking, proving to an uncompromising universe that our legacy matters, and fleeting existence to be meaningful.

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