# Voyager 1 - Did anyone argue against the info disc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622 "2012-08-06T15:59:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/41 "2012-08-07T18:47:31Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “Perhaps the safest thing to do [in contacting alien life] at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.” - Lewis Thomas, 1974 Inexcusable. ZZ Top was available for at least 5 years when he made this statement. ---
**Author:** ![Orionizer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orionizer/32/4442_2.png) [@Orionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orionizer)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/42 "2012-08-07T19:49:57Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I think you are conflating the [golden plaques](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pioneer10-plaque.jpg)sent out with Pioneers 10 and 11 in 1972 and 1973… According to those plaques, Pluto is still a planet! All the more reason to bump it back up! Or, when they get here, we could say “nope, we only have 8 here. Wrong solar system…” ETA: Saw foolsguinea had already made a point of this earlier. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/43 "2012-08-07T20:04:08Z")
Well it was 1977, so I argued against the info disc. I thought it was much more likely aliens could play an 8-track tape. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/44 "2012-08-07T20:07:26Z")
> [@Orionizer](#): > > According to those plaques, Pluto is still a planet! All the more reason to bump it back up! > > Or, when they get here, we could say “nope, we only have 8 here. Wrong solar system…” Most likely, the aliens are establishing a forward invasion base on Sedna, since they think we haven’t discovered it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/45 "2012-08-07T21:10:28Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “Perhaps the safest thing to do [in contacting alien life] at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.” - Lewis Thomas, 1974 True. J. S. Bach’s music would show not only our compassion for aesthetic beauty but also our love for structure and mathematics. Comparing Bach to ZZtop? ☹ Who’s going to remember ZZtop 20 years from now? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/46 "2012-08-07T21:46:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The intended recipients of the message have already read and acknowledged it. It was never meant to be a message to aliens; it was meant as a message to other humans. Yeah, it seems silly that you’d need to launch an engraving a gazillion miles away from the nearest humans in order to get their attention, but we’re weird that way sometimes Wierd? It sounds like a regular twist for television science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/47 "2012-08-08T05:02:20Z")
> [@Lazlo](#): > > [Oh I think we already know what they want](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097257/). “Earth is invaded by tiny icky green Betelgeusian bugs who want our women, take a few, and leave.” – From random science fiction story generator, which has been around in one version or another since at least as far back as early 1970’s. See one version at [SF story generator](http://www.j-paine.org/cgi-bin/spin.php) – Each time you reload the page, you’ll see a different little sci-fi story. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/48 "2012-08-08T06:03:26Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > True. J. S. Bach’s music would show not only our compassion for aesthetic beauty but also our love for structure and mathematics. > Comparing Bach to ZZtop? ☹ Who’s going to remember ZZtop 20 years from now? The message I expect that we’ll get back: **53656e64206d6f726520436875636b204265727279** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/49 "2012-08-08T06:05:30Z")
Maybe they’re already among us, watching… ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/50 "2012-08-08T13:03:00Z")
I recall seeing a cartoon-showing the crashed Voyager on Mars. A martian guy dressed in a 3 piece suit is explaining to his wife:…“the earth people are like us…they just don’t wear clothes”.😃 ---
**Author:** ![shstrang98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@shstrang98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shstrang98)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/51 "2012-08-08T17:34:43Z")
What did Stephen Hawking have to say about it? Hasn’t he always been opposed to contacting extraterrestrials? The quietest animal in the jungle gets to live the longest, right? First of all they could have waited a little while longer (1978) and sent an optical disc (laser video disc) that would have been less pathetic looking. I’m guessing they didn’t send something magnetic is due to the unfriendly nature of space. But more importantly why did they need to include any biological info about humans at all? They could have sent out info that didn’t detail where we are and give info about our planet that could be used against us hundreds of years from now. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/52 "2012-08-08T17:48:17Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > If we don’t know who they are, what they are, where they are, or have even the slightest idea what they want or need, how can we be sure we’re so uninteresting to them? Because there are only a finite number of different things that exist on our planet, which is what we have been discussing. Other than life and resources created by it, there is nothing else on Earth that isn’t found elsewhere. Just because we’re positing advanced aliens doesn’t mean we’re throwing off all logic. We know pretty well what our planet contains. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/53 "2012-08-08T18:53:25Z")
> [@shstrang98](#): > > But more importantly why did they need to include any biological info about humans at all? They could have sent out info that didn’t detail where we are and give info about our planet that could be used against us hundreds of years from now. Hundreds of years from now? Even 500 years from now, the Voyagers will have covered only 0.5% of the distance to the next nearest solar system. And of course, they aren’t headed in that direction, so even that figure understates their proximity to earth. Any civilization capable of intercepting the Voyagers will have travelled _at least_ 99.5% of the distance between their home planet and earth. (Most likely they will have travelled far more–think 99.999%.) For all practical purposes, they will _already be here_. The notion that they would cover that vast distance, not bother to check out earth, but then be motivated to _change their mind and do so_ because of a plaque on a spacecraft indicating the planet was (500 years ago) inhabited by what to them will be primitive beings, is risible. In the unlikely event the Voyagers are intercepted, it will almost certainly be millions, or even billions of years from now, by which time human concerns will be either nonexistent or very, very different. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/54 "2012-08-08T19:21:26Z")
Then too, consider that Voyager is is moving at a mere 13km/s relative to the Sun. The Sun itself is moving ~220km/s in orbit around the galaxy, ~20km/s relative to the average neighboring star and ~370km/s relative to the Cosmic Background Radiation. The average star is moving faster than this probe. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/55 "2012-08-08T19:23:39Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Any civilization capable of intercepting the Voyagers will have travelled _at least_ 99.5% of the distance between their home planet and earth. (Most likely they will have travelled far more–think 99.999%.) For all practical purposes, they will _already be here_ Hence my line about rolling a marble out onto your front porch and then worrying about someone several towns away finding it. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/56 "2012-08-08T20:11:40Z")
It was pointed out a decade or two ago that if the earth exploded, only 3 names would survive - written on a plaque on the moon are “we came in peace for all mankind - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and president Richard M. Nixon”. Oh, and on that Voyager disc there’s a recording of UN’s Kurt Waldheim identifying himself and inviting aliens to come visit us… That’s our legacy to aliens. Yeah, I got a kick out of that Star trek movie about Voyager, since it would barely be 1/1000th the way to the next star by stardate whatsis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/57 "2012-08-08T21:54:04Z")
To be fair, that was Voyager 6, which may well be traveling considerably faster. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/58 "2012-08-09T03:59:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To be fair, that was Voyager 6, which may well be traveling considerably faster. Yeah, canonically it fell through a wormhole and came out at the other end of the universe (& possibly traveled back in time as well). One of the later films had a Klingon battlecruiser finding on of the earlier Voyager probes and dismissing it as space junk before blowing it up. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/59 "2012-08-09T07:43:31Z")
Reader’s Digest mentioned a debate as to whose song should be recorded: Elvis Presley’s or Chuck Berry’s. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622/60 "2012-08-09T08:19:21Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > The message I expect that we’ll get back: **53656e64206d6f726520436875636b204265727279** 😃 Took a long time for that product key to come back. You really should get off dialup. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-1-did-anyone-argue-against-the-info-disc/630622.md?page=4)