Comments on: Dear Earth: Send More Chuck Berry

Dear Earth: Send More Chuck Berry

Hadroed — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:29:11 -0800

The Golden Record: Hear what the aliens will hear.
30 years ago today, a collection of images and sound recordings engraved on a record was launched toward the stars. The playlist covers an amazing collection of music, and has been called the Mix Tape of the Gods.

By: Hadroed

Hadroed — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:29:54 -0800

Contributions from the USA include Chuck Berry , Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [audio requires Real Player], and the excellent Blind Willie Johnson (previously on MeFi). Canada is represented by Glenn Gould, whereas Russia, France and the US can fight over who gets to claim the version of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, from a record that might have the greatest album cover of all time.

By: Hadroed

Hadroed — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:30:34 -0800

Other previous MeFi threads on the Voyager missions: Earth 1977, explained to an alien Voyager at 90 AU

By: Hadroed

Hadroed — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:32:02 -0800

I could listen to the stuff from this record all day, and I think I'll do just that.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:33:22 -0800

Surely this...

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:42:51 -0800

Your favorite interstellar bands suck.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:43:30 -0800

(Seriously, cool post! Thanks!)

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:47:29 -0800

Great post...

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:51:14 -0800

Very cool.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:58:53 -0800

I sure hope the aliens have a spare record player laying around. And that they know the exact speed to play it, too.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:00:43 -0800

Given today's limitations (say, 1 DVD-R at 8.5 GB), what would you include and how would you instruct the recipient on accessing the information?

By: conch soup

conch soup — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:10:39 -0800

I hope the aliens are smarter than me. The third pane of that second link-- the one that explains mathematical definitions, copywright Frank Drake-- I'm getting the three dots... and the number three... but what are these damn line thingies that equal both!? Ok, just looked at the next few frames. I hope aliens like math. (and Chuck Berry)

By: Hadroed

Hadroed — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:11:39 -0800

And that they know the exact speed to play it, too. From what I've read, they recorded everything at half the normal speed (16 2/3 rpm?) to double the available recording time. So even most folks today with turntables couldn't play it properly.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:15:22 -0800

The story told by Carl Sagan's widow Ann Druyan, who managed the recording project with him, was the most romantic thing I've heard in a long long time. You can listen to her talk about it and about them here on Radio Lab (my recently-discovered favorite new radio show).

By: bunglin jones

bunglin jones — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:26:30 -0800

I'd forgotten how utterly, utterly beautiful that Beethoven String Quartet (number 13) is. What a terrible disappointment the aliens would face if they thought it came from a planet full of people like LVB. Great post. Really, really great post. Thanks.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:37:02 -0800

"Hello from the children of planet Earth." Okay that gave me goosebumps. CarsonB: "Given today's limitations... what would you include..." I'm not so sure I'd do what we did on Voyager today. First off, the odds of any alien race ever encountering Voyager are about as good as you winning the lottery ten times in your lifetime. Or maybe twenty, Actually, comparatively speaking, you really should buy a lottery ticket. Secondly, IF an alien race encountered the record, provided they could figure it out, we have no idea their intentions. I'm not presuming they'd be a war-faring race, nor would I pretend to know they'd be peace-loving. Maybe they're into basket-weaving. We have no idea. Maybe it'd make them smile, frown, or do something with their apendages that'd denote a need to excrete waste deposits. We haven't a clue. This was an attempt to send an olive branch ahead of ourselves, and a hope that long after we cause our own extinction, there'd be some record of our existence in the cosmos. That's all very noble and all that. I think it may be a better idea in the future to wait until we can sense the target of our communication, before we start talking to them. Besides, any recording meant to chronicle the important achievements of mankind which doesn't have The Ramones in it, is simply not up to date.

By: Snyder

Snyder — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:53:34 -0800

Space: Above and Beyond fan, Zachsmind?

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:22:28 -0800

posted by carsonb Given today's limitations (say, 1 DVD-R at 8.5 GB), what would you include and how would you instruct the recipient on accessing the information? Badger Badger Badger, The Picard Song, Numa Numa, and the Everything Is Gay kid.

By: markdj

markdj — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:41:01 -0800

If we tried to do this now the RIAA and MPAA would slap DRM on it and make the aliens send back the licence agreement before they could listen to it.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:44:07 -0800

Great post, thanks alot. Though what a horrible fucking music track interface...am I playing some balancing game on Newgrounds?

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:49:28 -0800

posted by ZachsMind I think it may be a better idea in the future to wait until we can sense the target of our communication, before we start talking to them. So we should talk to them before we talk to them. Got it.

By: the number 17

the number 17 — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:56:31 -0800

Kudos to Hadroed for a great FPP, but the aliens are lucky they won't have to deal with the flash interface for the playlist. They would probably think human entertainment consists of watching lines of text go flying by.

By: rhymer

rhymer — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:57:08 -0800

I can't believe there's no corporate sponsorship on it. WTF? Surely it would be more representative to have the "Sounds of the Earth, bought you by Starbucks" or "Images of the World, in association with Visa for all your payment solutions."

By: Henry C. Mabuse

Henry C. Mabuse — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:17:23 -0800

Isn't this the one with the intro from Kurt Valdheim?

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:23:33 -0800

"So we should talk to them before we talk to them. Got it. And LOOK at them. LISTEN. Maybe SMELL. I dunno. I don't recommend touching without their permission, but maybe we'd take that first look at them - first impression of the aliens - and realize that Chuck Berry was a bad choice - Jimi Hendrix might be more their style. Or Chuck Mangione. Or maybe they'd be more impressed by Andy Gibb. We won't know until we meet them. Just seems kinda forward and presumptive of us. There IS still the possibility, however remote it may be, that we are ALONE in the universe in the most literal sense. That there's no sentient life aside from us. So making that record was essentially going up to the grand canyon, shouting "hello!" and listening for an echo. Who wouldn't do that, given their first visit to the Grand Canyon? Still. It's stupid.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:41:29 -0800

Seems to me since we're the ones out there exploring and looking for life, we're the ones who ought to introduce ourselves. What would you suggest we do instead, Zach? Should we say hello, or stay silent?

By: greycap

greycap — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:42:05 -0800

Brilliant post. That's my listening for today sorted. There is a moment in an early X-Files episode - I think it's in the second series - where Mulder chats to a US senator and they discuss the fact that the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 is the first piece of music (as opposed to other sounds) that any alien finding the probe would hear. What a wonderful place they would think the earth is, says the senator. I still think about that scene whenever I read about the Voyager probe, or whenever I listen to the Brandenburg concertos. Strange, the power that a cheap, popular TV series can retain on your imagination a decade on.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:03:25 -0800

and realize that Chuck Berry was a bad choice YOU SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH Any alien race that's not down with Chuck Berry better be prepared for some major interstellar war.

By: Roman Graves

Roman Graves — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:08:28 -0800

Seems to me since we're the ones out there exploring and looking for life, we're the ones who ought to introduce ourselves. So if you and a small party were living out in the wilderness of a hostile land you had barely explored with no clue as to who or what was out there in dark, would you be shouting at the top of your lungs and sending up smoke signals? Yeah, we can assume that a race so technologically advanced as to be able to reach us would be peaceful. And I'd sure like to think that. But I'd like to think a lot of things that ain't true. Seems like an awfully big gamble for what basically amounts to a symbolic gesture. It's kind of moot, anyway. They'd find us from stray communications long before they'd find a probe.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:16:20 -0800

I don't think the record is quite the equivalent of shouting at the top of your lungs in the wilderness of a hostile land. The record doesn't automatically start playing full blast if the probe is discovered. I think Voyager is more like a friendly greeting card tucked inside a sealed bottle, tossed into the ocean.

By: carbon

carbon — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:23:58 -0800

Thanks Hadroed I knew this must exist somewhere on the internets. I think UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim must have been listening to "Bobby and Betty go to the Moon" before he recorded his greeting. To my ear it sounds too similar to Professor Von Tulo's Lunar Party speech to be a coincidence.

By: etaoin

etaoin — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:40:59 -0800

Wonderful post. Thanks very much. Now, does anyone know how to slow down the text as it zooms by? I'm trying to listen to some items 10 or 11 lines down but can't land on them. Still, what a wonderful collection. And I don't think it's really meant to start a dialogue with aliens. It's a record of humankind before we destroy ourselves.

By: chillmost

chillmost — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:42:42 -0800

what would you include? 8.5G of Goatse will probably guarantee that they never ever come this way. Unless they are a bunch of alien ass freaks.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:54:44 -0800

"Voyager is more like a friendly greeting card tucked inside a sealed bottle, tossed into the ocean." Big ocean. "What would you suggest we do instead, Zach? Should we say hello, or stay silent?" We should meet our conversation partner before we start talking to them. It's impolite to start a conversation with someone before they've had a chance to meet you. "It's kind of moot, anyway..." Agreed. They will judge us on Honeymooners and I Love Lucy long before they notice the bottle we threw out in that big ocean - IF they ever notice the bottle. The disc on the probe was perhaps a sincere gesture on our parts, but also a hollow one. Provided of course we don't cause our own extinction (which is MUCH more likely than our ever achieving peace, or meeting extra-terrestrials, or **** ever getting laid), centuries from now we will look back on that as an example of our naivette and vanity, and I hope we will laugh at ourselves good-naturedly. I'm doing that now, but then I do that most of the time. "****" is a name of someone else in this thread who is NOT me and is NOT you, but that YOU think never gets laid. This is Do-It-Yourself-Comedy.

By: flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:07:52 -0800

Awesome. I'm scrolling through all the music, listening. It's joy.

By: localroger

localroger — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:14:11 -0800

ZachsMind, my take on the Voyager record (I remember reading about its development in real time) is that nobody seriously considered it an introduction to actual aliens. It was much more a chance to look at ourselves, from an outside perspective, and it was much more of a message to the human race than to anybody else.

By: Artaud

Artaud — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:25:00 -0800

I'll bet this baby would fetch a few bucks on ebay.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:37:03 -0800

Among the number of Voyager Metafilter threads, Bravocharlie's within-two-years-and-dead-on-topic Voyager's Golden Record especially makes this a very Brady double post.

By: Sparx

Sparx — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:41:44 -0800

I hope they remembered to include information about what atmosphere to play it in for maximum effect.

By: wheelieman

wheelieman — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:44:24 -0800

I'm sorry but I have to agree with Karl on this one.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:49:22 -0800

localroger makes an important point.

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:51:50 -0800

greetings aliens: We earthlings are just like any other species. We put our pants on one apendage at a time. Of course, once our pants are on, we make Gold Records!

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:53:53 -0800

So this is just in case the Vogon Construction Ships have a hard time finding us?

By: carbon

carbon — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:57:06 -0800

I apoligise for not reading your posts before reading this one, y2karl

By: tehloki

tehloki — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:00:36 -0800

I think the speed at which any extraterrestrial being would play the record, assuming they figured out how to play it, would depend on their audible frequencies and their metabolism. So, we might be greeted by some tiny, jumpy aliens speaking perfect english at six thousand words per minute, 12 octaves above the range of the human ear, or by large, whale-sized creatures lowly moaning english at one word per day. It's kind of strange to think about.

By: NewBornHippy

NewBornHippy — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:08:54 -0800

Given today's limitations (say, 1 DVD-R at 8.5 GB), what would you include and how would you instruct the recipient on accessing the information? pr0n, and lots of it. No instruction needed.

By: pjdoland

pjdoland — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:14:59 -0800

By the way, the directory listings are open: http://www.goldenrecord.org/mp3/disc1/ http://www.goldenrecord.org/mp3/disc2/

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:39:42 -0800

You know, its a good thing Carl Sagan didn't go to AskMe for advice on what to include on his Mix Tape of the Gods. And that whole part about NASA rejecting the disk on the grounds that it was a nonstandard part is just silly.

By: PHINC

PHINC — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:05:52 -0800

But is it wise to provide aliens with this kind of information?

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:23:47 -0800

The humility and eloquence of the 'Greetings from the Secretary General of the UN' is seven shades of awesome.

By: octobersurprise

octobersurprise — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:35:58 -0800

The disc on the probe was perhaps a sincere gesture on our parts, but also a hollow one. Given that the chances of this record ever encountering anyone/thing at all are, quite literally, astronomical, of course the project was a gesture: a glorious, romantic, naïve, hopeful gesture by a few humans at a particular historical moment. Voyager was a scientific project; but the Voyager record was an art project.

By: Yer-Ol-Pal

Yer-Ol-Pal — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:37:09 -0800

Thanks pjdoland, thats what I've been looking for!

By: foxy_hedgehog

foxy_hedgehog — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:48:49 -0800

If you ever have a chance to visit the Griffith Observatory in LA, don't miss their exhibit on the contents of Voyager's message to other life forms, including an intriguing photo collage representing the diversity of human life on earth and samples of human endeavors. NASA has links to the individual images.

By: Henry C. Mabuse

Henry C. Mabuse — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:53:49 -0800

We should have included our flavour.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:41:33 -0800

We should have included our flavour. Um, no. (They might like it.)

By: djgh

djgh — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:56:07 -0800

Thank you, Hodroed, and thank you pjdoland. I'm enjoying listening to these at the moment.

By: patricio

patricio — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:59:31 -0800

Thanks for that link foxy. Is this a photo of a meet-up?

By: pantufla

pantufla — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:37:50 -0800

I've been looking for this for years. Thanks!

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:48:34 -0800

But is it wise to provide aliens with this kind of information? Are you looking at the images of the various systems in the human body and thinking it's a perfect diagram of "how to butcher a human"? Because that's the first thing I thought.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:54:29 -0800

That shakuhachi piece is amazing.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:16:29 -0800

They're going to kill us anyway. Our television broadcasts show us murdering ourselves in various ways and have been streaming out from the planet now for a long time--they'll just assume it's how we greet each other. Or if they figure out that we despise each other, they'll just wipe us out to save us the trouble. And if not that, they'll realize that in the majority of examples of our species running into visitors from space (as illustrated by our entertainment) we try to eliminate the visitors, which might make them a bit defensive. On the other hand, we gave them Chuck Berry, so there is that.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:27:20 -0800

...assuming they figured out how to play it From the NASA website:

Each 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. I'm assuming this is the "how to play" diagram etched into the surface of the record itself. Now...if I'm looking at this right, the instructions seem to be relying on the numerical codes that are revealed in some of the images on the record. So...in order to know how to play the record, you need the numerical codes that are on the record...but to get the numerical codes that are on the record, you need to know how to play the record, etc. etc. Hope I'm wrong about that...

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:37:37 -0800

Am i morbid but wouldn't a freeze dried baby or fetus say a lot more about humans than just a record or some drawings. It would be a real sample with real DNA. Whether that remains in tact is another story. As for what we would include today. Well, sending them a DVD seems like a technical problem. How can we easily transcribe how digital optical media works? The old analog stuff pretty much guarantees that they'll get it to work. If we did go that route it woudl make sense to send the genome as well as the sample. They could grow their own humans and put them in some controlled habitat if they were truly interested in seeing what we are like.

By: richlach

richlach — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:11:17 -0800

The only album in history to go Gold the very day they made it

By: eatdonuts

eatdonuts — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:17:26 -0800

Is there a place to purchase this on CD?

By: 235w103

235w103 — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:39:18 -0800

Oh, wow- I'm sort of half-doing a really bizarre rock 'n' roll space musical based on this concept. A bunch of erstwhile astronauts stumble upon a deserted planet and find only one of these records playing on a makeshift turntable. On the way back to earth, they realize that the planet was inhabited by microscopic, hive-mind bacterium- which start inspiring the astronauts to rock out. I'm so glad I can listen to the record now! Thanks, Hive Mind!

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:42:56 -0800

The aliens would have killed us if we set them up with the Spice Girls! If Sammy Davis Jr. was alive today...there'd be a Sammy and the Spice Girls albums. So consider yourself lucky you alien bastards!

By: interrobang

interrobang — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:45:50 -0800

Marvellous post. Thank you.

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:03:54 -0800

"They could grow their own humans and put them in some controlled habitat if they were truly interested in seeing what we are like." Unless.......*gasp!* That's already happened! ...It sure would explain a lot. But seriously, the aliens aren't coming back, after we shot down their craft at Roswell, remember?

By: localroger

localroger — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:07:35 -0800

Thorzdad, the instructions are meant to be based on basic physical constants and the dimensions of the record and case IIRC. Including part of the instructions in the image set is for verification that you're decoding it correctly.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:02:48 -0800

For the record, and I'm not diminishing Chuck Berry AT ALL. Quite the contrary. The Magic Flute El Cascabel Cranes In Their Nest Melancholy Blues Beethoven's Fifth a night chant by the Navajo Russian bagpipes Rite of Spring I'm just sayin'... objectively, or perhaps subjectively speaking, this is some amazingly good shit. Even if we're the only ones who will ever hear it. Chuck Berry is in awesome company here. I mean okay. Maybe this was us giving ourselves a dress rehearsal. Playing what if. Maybe we put millions of dollars into a project where we send a space probe out like it was a message in a bottle not expecting it to really get seen. What would we do if aliens popped by one sunny Sunday morning and said, "so you're humanity huh? show us what you got." This disc is the ultimate throw down. This is our best foot forward. For better or for worse, this disc represents the sum total of what makes humanity unique, special, fun, and worthy neighbors to have. Bloodshed and bad manners aside, we're really not all that bad. I mean, any species that can generate someone as precious as Valya Balkanska surely can't be all wrong.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:03:57 -0800

I apoligise for not reading your posts before reading this one, y2karl What you really need to apologize for is your proofreading.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:11:45 -0800

If those directories close, I made a self-extracting ZIP archive (110Mb) of all the music. Feel free to email me and I'll upload it for you.

By: rfbjames

rfbjames — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:33:56 -0800

Someday if we inhabitants of Earth blow ourselves up, it still makes me smile that somewhere out there in space is a record of our existence...and it contains Chuck Berry.

By: philoye

philoye — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:50:42 -0800

It figures that a record label had to spoil the party. From Wikipedia:

Sagan had originally asked for permission to include "Here Comes the Sun" from the Beatles' album Abbey Road. While the Beatles favoured it, EMI opposed it and the song was not included.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:56:08 -0800

Hadroed, why didn't you include the Navajo contribution in your list of contributions from the USA?

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 12:59:06 -0800

I'm listening to CBC Radio One's Quirks and Quarks right now, and they are playing a segment on the Golden Records! For anyone interested, this episode is archived on the website here. (Last segment before the end of the show.)

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:42:43 -0800

"EMI opposed it and the song was not included" Well finally a decision by a major record company I can agree with. ...I kid. I'm a kidder. I know EMI's reason was entirely economic. They knew they'd never get a return on their investment cuz any alien that's gonna pick that probe up out in space is not then gonna rush all the way back to Earth just to buy something from a music store. Blackbird maybe, or Come Together. I Am The Walrus never gets old. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da almost matches Chuck Berrys' timelessness. I mean out of all their songs, they pick Here Comes The Sun? Come on! Don't get me wrong, I love Beatles music, but none of their stuff holds a candle to what's currently on the golden disc. Really. I challenge you to find a single one of their songs that is as haunting and hypnotic and delicious to the ears as Valya Balkanska's contribution. Let's be real. Bach. Stravinsky. Blind Willie Johnson. The NAVAJO! Beethoven. Louis Armstrong. Glenn effin' Gould, man! The Beatles didn't belong on the golden record. The Ramones shoulda been on it, but the Beatles didn't deserve it. It's elementary.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:53:11 -0800

... "The Los Angeles Times received "angry letters" from readers that accused NASA of wasting taxpayer money to send obscenities into space." You have GOT to be kidding me!