When we think of the life of Humans, apart from all the misery inflicted upon us and the misery we inflict upon other species, it is short. The average human life is 79 years old whereas a Bowhead Whale can live for more than 200 years and Aldabra tortoise can live up to the age of 250 years.
Our universe is 13.8 billion years old. The civilization that we know today is only about 6,000 years old, and industrialization started in the 1800s. It is very bold of us to assume that we are the most intelligent being in our universe where the truth is that we can not even observe the whole universe there is. It is so big (read infinite) that it almost appears flat when it actually is a sphere. How can we be so sure that no other life exists outside our planet Earth? We are not. That is why NASA had launched two "Voyager Disc" back in 1977 into the space that is never-ending.
So, what is it?
A voyager disc is a 12 inch wide Golden Record Disc which contains information on our civilization. It includes sounds, images, and greetings from the people.
· The sound starts with changing orbital velocities of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter (the velocity is changed into sound. Don't ask me how. I do not have a clue).
· Then, there are sounds from volcanoes, earthquakes, thunderstorms, and bubbling mud of the early Earth.
· We then have wind, rain, and waves of oceans, followed by living creatures—crickets, frogs, birds, chimpanzees, wolves.
· We also have the footsteps, heartbeats, and laughter of early humans.
· Then there is a message in Morse Code (to boast of our early intelligence)
· A brief sequence on modes of transportation runs from ships to jet aeroplanes to the launch of a Saturn V rocket.
You know what is the track of final sounds? -It starts with a kiss, then a mother and child, then an EEG recording brainwave, and, finally, a pulsar—a rapidly spinning neutron star giving off radio noise.
There are 116 images depicting scientific knowledge, human anatomy, human endeavours, and the terrestrial environment. The greetings are in 55 languages. Some languages are even extinct but it is present in the disc for aliens to figure it out.
Here is the beautiful, intricate, out of our wits disc for you-
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Whose brain-child is this?
Many people were instrumental in the design, development and manufacturing of the golden record. But if we have to pick a name; it's Carl Sagan. He was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, and what not. Carl and his team collected all the data to be incorporated in the disc.
His project hit a small hurdle when his team decided to write "To the makers of music—all worlds, all times" on the disc. NASA initially found it inadmissible since it was not in the project to write this. But Carl gave a valid argument that this would be the proof of our handwriting and it should be included. (Could not he also convert this into a sound? Just saying)
