Ars Technica: The Voyager Golden Record stands out as one of the most recognized instances of humanity’s endeavor to reach out to extraterrestrial life, led by the late Carl Sagan and others. Yet, what are the chances that, despite our earnest attempts, any extraterrestrials will ever manage to interpret our “message in a bottle”?
Daniel Whiteson: I conducted a casual experiment by printing an image of the Pioneer plaque and presenting it to several graduate students who were unaware of it. This represents Sagan’s audience: humans biologically identical, sharing the same brain and culture, physics graduate students—none could grasp what the plaque was intended to signify. NASA allotted him two weeks to devise that design. I can’t claim I would’ve succeeded any better. It’s easy to fault others.
These individuals were making a genuine effort. They aimed to detach from our cultural context. They avoided using English and even shunned mathematical symbols. They recognized the arbitrary nature of those elements and sought something they believed would be universally understood. Ultimately, however, nothing can truly be universal since language relies on symbols, and the selection of those symbols is influenced by culture and is arbitrary. It’s impossible to select a symbol that can be interpreted in only one way.
At its core, the book seeks to challenge our preconceptions. I find it incredibly motivating that the narrative of physics is filled with instances where we’ve had to let go of firmly held beliefs when presented with sufficient data to point otherwise. Therefore, we must remain genuinely open to whether these beliefs are valid, whether they are essential for scientific progress or technology, or if there is even a singular explanation for existence. We might be taken aback by what we learn.
