NASA is broadcasting "Across the Universe" from Let It Be to the North Star, Polaris. All well and good until the aliens arrive and we find out they're Stones fans...
- Log in to post comments
More like this
"Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the Earth." -Ptolemy
As regular readers here will know, earlier this month I went to Glacier National Park, meeting up with an old…
"The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow outvalues all theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of…
"I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." -Jack London
Most of you have seen a shooting star before, also known…
"Continue to surprise those who would put you in a neat demographic. Be insistently curious." -Gordon Gee
Twenty years ago, our Solar System was the only one we knew of that we were certain had planets orbiting around a main-sequence star.
Image credit: retrieved from Universe-Review.ca.
Perhaps…
NASA will do anything to make itself look relevant to [insert your generation here] generation.
Aren't they a bit late? The time to do this might have been when us Boomers were getting into taxable jobs, say the 1970s or 80s. Now it's just sad.
But if they broadcast Lennon's "Just Gimme Some Truth", now that might make a few people sit up and take notice...
Friends and I saw this last night: http://www.u23dmovie.com/. It is showing in the U.S. and Canada, but I'm not sure if it is anywhere else yet. Go see it when it gets to your country. A good, if temporary, remedy for what ails you.
The Stones are aliens...
So sad. And I am a boomer.
-------- From a book referring to alien communication----
How would an terristial cryptographer try to decode the message from space which he has currently received ? At first he would, preferably with a computer, try to find patterns in the message, deviations which may give him a clue to the meaning. [...]
He knows that the sender of the message will have done *everything* in his power to make the message as *easily* discernable and as generally *understandable* as possible.
Professor Freudenthal, a mathematician from the University of Utrecht, has developed Lincos, a complex language for intergalactical communication, developing arithmetic and
symbolic logic.
-------------------------------------
Do you feel the slight irony if you imagine the green tentacoloids on Polaris who will receive our message ?
Sun turnin' 'round with graceful motion
We're setting off with soft explosion
Bound for a star with fiery oceans
It's so very lonely, you're a hundred light years from home
Freezing red deserts turn to dark
Energy here in every part
It's so very lonely, you're six hundred light years from home
It's so very lonely, you're a thousand light years from home
It's so very lonely, you're a thousand light years from home
Bell flight fourteen you now can land
See you on Aldebaran, safe on the green desert sand
It's so very lonely, you're two thousand light years from home
It's so very lonely, you're two thousand light years from home
From the first LP I ever bought. Along with the music from the Bravia ad...
-We are receiving a very distressing signal from Terra.
-It's about time they started noticing their alarming situation.
-Well, our decoder indicates a near delirious state. They have started singing now.
-You mean they are not freaking out and calling for urgent help?
-Um... no, I'm afraid not. Really sad situation. They say nothing's gonna change their world...
-We'll see about about this. Honestly, if it wasn't for our beloved ones, I'd let them meet their doom.
-So are we going to take action to save our cetacean fellows finally?
-I think this last signal doesn't leaves us any alternative. Get all our mass-psychiatrists ready. We'll need a fleet of hospitals to hold about 6,5 billion patients and a planetary repair unit.
-This will be about 500 hospitalization units, and our Eden service mega-station.
-And pack them with provisions for at least 10 years. We'll have plenty of ground repairs, while we get all the loose screws fixed.
Given how long it'll take to get there, surely Led Zep's The Song Remains the Same would be appropriate.
OTOH, The Birdie Song would be a blast. We'll be long gone by the time the intergalactic humanitarian operation gets here.
Bob
This seems to assume that the aliens will be developed enough to "listen" to what we're broadcasting. The only reason why we hear the the music is because of the way our ears are evolved. I guess if the momentary detection of the wave is picked up and the aliens that may or may not be there figure out that it is at least some 'created' pattern ... it will basically be a like finding a pottery shard from an ancient civilization. It is a wave 'hello' but without the context and more pieces of the puzzle, it would be tough to figure out what it means.
I should clarify - I'm sure NASA and others realize what I mentioned above - but the average populace doesn't. Aw, hell, I shouldn't respond to anything at 4AM without sleep ...
That O.K. Elvis, whose been living on Alpha Centauri since he split, will explain it to them.