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A rather cool article at BoingBoing on decoding the images on the Voyager golden records from scratch. The records contain "more than 100 images encoded as audio signals" and
Donating their time and expertise to the project, engineers at Colorado Video projected each Voyager slide onto a television camera lens, generating a signal that their machine converted into several seconds of sound per photo. A diagram on the aluminum cover of the Golden Record explains how to play it and decode the images. Four decades later, Ron Barry followed the instructions.
[...] are phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them. Those records are considered as a sort of a time capsule.
The article describes the decoding process and also links to a video showing the results of the decode in real time against the original soundtrack.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday September 06 2017, @08:34PM (5 children)
1) find isolated amazonian tribe.
2) give them copy of the records.
3) watch what happens.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 06 2017, @09:34PM (4 children)
Anybody who finds the record in interstellar space is going to almost surely know how to do a bit of advanced math.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:08AM (3 children)
But upon decoding this record, they would find the vast majority of content seems to be about primitive and mostly tribal people who clearly could have had nothing to do with putting that vehicle into space. One single image of a rocket among pictures of her of animals and feeding babies. Not a clue about actual technology of the day.
Seem the message was even more politically correct then it might be if it were done today.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:58AM (2 children)
Well, maybe the message they really wanted to send was: "OK, we can send stuff into space, you already know that from seeing this space probe, but otherwise we are still sufficiently primitive that we are no danger to you."
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Thursday September 07 2017, @07:33AM
"but otherwise we are still sufficiently primitive that we are no danger to you."
Let me fix that for you: "but otherwise we are still sufficiently primitive that we are easy pickings for you if you decide to do so."
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 07 2017, @02:08PM
"And we are fully prepared to help you serve man."
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves