So a few days ago, Friday I think, I caught a program on the Science Channel about probes or something to that effect. I don’t quite remember all of it. I was half awake, flipping through channels and I saw it was about space. Then they had Pete Conrad from Apollo 12 talking and I stopped flipping (hey he's cool) and watched some it. I don’t remember if it was that program or the next, but they started talking about Voyager 1 and 2 and about how they were still heading out of the solar system, having done their job over 30 years ago, taking pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I think it missed Pluto, but I could be wrong. Anyway, they mentioned that they had this disc on board, what looked like a gold-plated record, and how it contained a bunch of information about humans, in the odd chance some alien would be interested in it. I mean it’s space junk floating, but hey, if something like that came towards Earth, we’d probably either check it out or blow it up, but that’s kind of beside the point.
But I’m sitting there, half awake, thinking, a record. Come on. I know it was built over 30 years ago and it’s kind of a time capsule. That in itself is cool, but it’s highly doubtful any of our future generations are ever going to see it. Besides, if the Internet has its way, in 10 generations now, Wikipedia will still be going strong and they can read how stupid we were. But I digress…
They filled a record-type thing with images, songs, whales singing (preclude to Star Trek 4), and sent it on its merry way to take some pictures of our outer planets and basically let it drift/float out of the solar system. I looked online (not on Wiki) and it’s still sending back its whereabouts to its creators. But I’m thinking to myself, who the heck would really care about what our planet was doing in the 70s. You know, the end of love and peace, the mind trippin’ drugs, but in the back of ny mind, what happens if in 50 years, some alien race finds that, and comes looking for us, thinking we’re going to be groovy and we’re not. Look at how much time has changed our lives in the last 30 years. The Internet, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, the Punk Scene, wireless communications, our cell phones, our home computers, even Facebook. A culture that was hell bent on being heard is broadcasting through the airwaves. (Although a bunch of us are still deaf as to what’s going on in the world, but I digressed again…)
I guess what I’m saying is that it kind of scares me in a way to know our history up to the 70s is floating around space, half haphazardly waiting for an alien species to pick it up and make a visit, if they can figure out how to use the damn record. But then, maybe that’s a blessing…
But I’m sitting there, half awake, thinking, a record. Come on. I know it was built over 30 years ago and it’s kind of a time capsule. That in itself is cool, but it’s highly doubtful any of our future generations are ever going to see it. Besides, if the Internet has its way, in 10 generations now, Wikipedia will still be going strong and they can read how stupid we were. But I digress…
They filled a record-type thing with images, songs, whales singing (preclude to Star Trek 4), and sent it on its merry way to take some pictures of our outer planets and basically let it drift/float out of the solar system. I looked online (not on Wiki) and it’s still sending back its whereabouts to its creators. But I’m thinking to myself, who the heck would really care about what our planet was doing in the 70s. You know, the end of love and peace, the mind trippin’ drugs, but in the back of ny mind, what happens if in 50 years, some alien race finds that, and comes looking for us, thinking we’re going to be groovy and we’re not. Look at how much time has changed our lives in the last 30 years. The Internet, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, the Punk Scene, wireless communications, our cell phones, our home computers, even Facebook. A culture that was hell bent on being heard is broadcasting through the airwaves. (Although a bunch of us are still deaf as to what’s going on in the world, but I digressed again…)
I guess what I’m saying is that it kind of scares me in a way to know our history up to the 70s is floating around space, half haphazardly waiting for an alien species to pick it up and make a visit, if they can figure out how to use the damn record. But then, maybe that’s a blessing…
