# Voyager Golden Record: Are aliens going to understand the inscriptions?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 25, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751 "2012-03-25T10:27:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751/21 "2012-03-26T18:16:27Z")

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I don’t know - I think their very irregularity will be a clear hint that unlike everything else in the probe, they’re supposed to indicate something organic. The leap from there to a representation of a the sender’s form won’t be that large; at least, they’ll probably consider it a likely theory.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751/22 "2012-03-26T18:20:47Z")

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> [@Alessan](#):
>
> I don’t know - I think their very irregularity will be a clear hint that unlike everything else in the probe, they’re supposed to indicate something organic. The leap from there to a representation of a the sender’s form won’t be that large; at least, they’ll probably consider it a likely theory.

I’m sure they will figure it out – I’m saying that it’s not clear to me that they’ll restiore it _correctly_.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751/23 "2012-03-26T18:26:41Z")

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> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Arguably, the most obscure thing will be what appears most naturally to humans – the drawings of the human beings. I think any hypothetical aliens will eventually dope ouut that the weird thing on the giant planet are rings. But what are they to make of our bodily features? Eill it be obvious that those paired things in the head are eyes? I suspect the penis-and-scrotum on the male might look like a weird loop. With no referents, it’s problematical how they will interpret those two-dimensional perspective drawings, so unlike the schematics elsewhere on the plaque.

I think the best we could hope for is it looks to them a lot like the [Voynich Manuscript.](http://www.voynich.nu/)

Perhaps symmetry, paired-limbs and all, and segmentation, frequent evolutionary trends here, are not universal or common. This could change the body shapes tremendously.

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**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:** [March 26, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751/24 "2012-03-26T19:44:44Z")

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Bah, [we all know](http://xkcd.com/593/) what the Voynich manuscript is.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-golden-record-are-aliens-going-to-understand-the-inscriptions/616751/25 "2012-03-26T20:14:01Z")

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> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I suspect the penis-and-scrotum on the male might look like a weird loop.

It always has to me.

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