# You're an alien. Can you decipher the Pioneer or Voyager plaques? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990 "2017-02-16T17:57:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/21 "2017-02-16T23:37:39Z")
Send more Chuck Berry! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/22 "2017-02-17T00:12:02Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > Send more Chuck Berry! No Bach, though, that’s just showing off. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/23 "2017-02-17T00:18:16Z")
It could be interpreted as a promo for the next episode of _Single Female Lawyer_. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/24 "2017-02-17T01:01:01Z")
Well, I knew some bits like the hyperfine thing, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember the details. The |s and -s are clearly a binary encoding. The third planet is ||-|- whatsits away from the star, while the eighth is ||----||–. That’s 26 vs. 780 in our provincial encoding system, or a ratio of 30. So the eighth planet is 30x farther away than where the probe came from, which is in fact correct (Neptune is ~30 AU from the sun). I knew already that the star chart has something to do with pulsars, and with a decent star database I’m sure I could position the Earth in that space. It would be a pretty short computer program to find which star was the right distance from each of those pulsars. Heck, even not knowing that they’re pulsars, and just assuming they’re observable objects of some kind, they’re enough of them to pick out a particular location. I don’t need to know what one unit of a whatsit is; the relative ratios are enough. So it doesn’t seem like anything that a team of alien scientists of diverse backgrounds couldn’t decipher. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/25 "2017-02-17T01:31:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Plus, the aliens will never find us - they’ll be looking for a system with 9 planets! That was the first thing I thought of too. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/26 "2017-02-17T02:45:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Nice tits! The space setting reminded me of a sci-fi manga of the 70’s, a Japanese neighbor kid introduced me to the world of Japanese comics even before it was a thing in the west. Anyhow, because it was in Japanese, the best I figured out was that in an Alien world very advanced Humans arrived while a war in the alien world was going on; and a holy-man/alien being on the side that was being cleansed knew about the humans because in ancient times their wise men had found the Pioneer plaque. Of course, this being a Manga, to see if they were really the humans that the probe foretold (and for sure with more advanced tech that would protect his people from destruction) the alien demanded to see if their anatomy matched, so with a strip and convenient black silhouettes in front of an alien star falling in the horizon, the alien saw the truth and became speechless but happy to see beings that could help. No such thing as a prime directive here. And disappointingly, for a growing kid then, 🙂 almost no nudity was seen later in that action manga. \* Just mentioning a reference of the plaques in popular media back then. - Anyone has any idea about what that manga could had been? ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/27 "2017-02-17T02:59:22Z")
If I know it smells like gold but lack the organs to “see” anything I’m not sure what I’d make of it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/28 "2017-02-17T03:47:42Z")
_They call_ that _a planet?_ ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/29 "2017-02-17T04:02:36Z")
Those dumbasses. All they had to do was put some Vogon poetry that explains it all. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/30 "2017-02-17T04:10:19Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > That was the first thing I thought of too. Also the system it came from only has ONE ringed planet. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2017, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/31 "2017-02-17T04:13:37Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m a human being and I couldn’t possibly get it without the explanation. What chance does an alien have? For those of you who are poo-pooing the plaque and think yer so smart, how would you design it? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/32 "2017-02-17T04:27:17Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > For those of you who are poo-pooing the plaque and think yer so smart, how would you design it? A space hardened, nuclear powered video player filled with cat videos and vintage porn is the obvious choice. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/33 "2017-02-17T05:17:16Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > The space setting reminded me of a sci-fi manga of the 70’s, a Japanese neighbor kid introduced me to the world of Japanese comics even before it was a thing in the west. > > Anyhow, because it was in Japanese, the best I figured out was that in an Alien world very advanced Humans arrived while a war in the alien world was going on; and a holy-man/alien being on the side that was being cleansed knew about the humans because in ancient times their wise men had found the Pioneer plaque. > > Of course, this being a Manga, to see if they were really the humans that the probe foretold (and for sure with more advanced tech that would protect his people from destruction) the alien demanded to see if their anatomy matched, so with a strip and convenient black silhouettes in front of an alien star falling in the horizon, the alien saw the truth and became speechless but happy to see beings that could help. No such thing as a prime directive here. And disappointingly, for a growing kid then, 🙂 almost no nudity was seen later in that action manga. \* > > Just mentioning a reference of the plaques in popular media back then. > > - Anyone has any idea about what that manga could had been? The Voyager disc was the main plot point of the movie _Starman_ starring Jeff Bridges. “I…can’t…get…no…sat…is…fac…tion!” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/34 "2017-02-17T05:40:13Z")
Right now, the four venerable probes are traveling approximately 3AU a year, give or take a bit. At that pace, it will take them twenty thousand years to travel one ly, and there is nothing at all in the region of one ly from the sun. Twenty thousand years is four or five times the length of recorded history. There is an extremely good chance that there will be no humans left on the Blue Dot before the probes even get past the theoretical Oort Cloud. So, the plaques will be a historical curiosity, if anyone were ever to actually find a ridiculously tiny hunk of cold, silent metal in the breathtakingly awesome vastness through which they will be passing. I mean, it is not like a trip down to the chemist. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/35 "2017-02-17T07:58:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I’m reminded of a Michael Crichton sci-fi novel (might be _Prey_ or _The Andromeda Strain_) in which he talks about a scientist who created a coded message to communicate with aliens - in the event that there are any aliens out there listening in - and that a group of great, intelligent researchers, when presented with the coded message, couldn’t figure it out at all. > > Once Scientist X explained it to them, then they agreed that it made perfect sense and was a very well designed message, but - that was only \*\*\*after \*\*\*explanation by someone who knew in advance what the message said. > So yeah, I think the people who cooked up the Voyager and Pioneer messages are committing the error of a message that makes sense only to the sender, and the sender expects that the recipient will see or think the same way the sender does. The “what if they don’t think like us” argument is pretty powerful in cases where we’re talking about engravings of human figures, and lines with arrowheads on them, but I think it breaks down eventually, because some things _are_ (or are likely to be) universal - simple arithmetic, number bases, prime numbers, the chemical elements, solar systems. It’s possible to construct a message that starts from very basic principles and unpacks itself - the [Dutil-Dumas message](http://www.plover.com/misc/Dumas-Dutil/messages.pdf) is a very elegant example - it starts with simple arithmetic and uses it to introduce other concepts one by one, building on what has already been established. Of course, it still relies on the recipients being able to understand that, for example, symbols laid out in 2D mean something, and can be related to one another, or indeed the notion of persistent symbols for persistent concepts. We might broadcast it at a bunch of aliens who write in 2.5 dimensions and use a rotating symbol set because in their philosophy, there is a fundamental difference between _the first time you say something_ and _every subsequent time_ - or we might broadcast it at some others who have no concept of written symbology at all, etc. But it’s the best we can do. The audience for these things has to be a little bit like us in some ways, but that’s not completely improbable. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/36 "2017-02-17T10:46:23Z")
The shorter figure is obviously the dominant species, since it has two ample brains. The taller figure, with much smaller brains, is obviously a drone, equipped with a central plug for connecting to the power grid. Perhaps this plaque is an appeal for help in fixing its broken appendage. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/37 "2017-02-17T11:50:12Z")
I would wonder what kind of civilization launched an interstellar probe, but was still apparently stuck in the analog needle-and-groove sound technology. ---
**Author:** ![Mavic\_Chen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/38 "2017-02-17T12:45:25Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I would wonder what kind of civilization launched an interstellar probe, but was still apparently stuck in the analog needle-and-groove sound technology. Because it plays without anything other than the items you find? Anyway, the species is obviously bizarrely inexplicably alien as it only has two testaclons and one penicle. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/39 "2017-02-17T16:08:04Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > For those of you who are poo-pooing the plaque and think yer so smart, how would you design it? We should have sent the Voynich Manuscript and blown their alien minds! ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990/40 "2017-02-17T16:49:20Z")
For the Sounds of Earth plaque, I’d assume the charts and graphs are some kind of decoration. Maybe it contains a message, but it might be one of those “open interpretation” things that pretentious hipsters argue about, so I’d throw it back and let somebody else deal with it. For the Pioneer plaque, I’d assume the monkeys learned how to shave and are proud of their achievement. Is that thing behind them their shaver? Maybe the circles at the bottom are their language, the big circle is a capital letter, and it’s the name of the shaver. Are the Is and dashes some other language? If so, why do they have them going in all different directions? Maybe they’re testimonies from other monkeys who tried the same razor. Perhaps the I stands for “ook” and the dash stands for “ah”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-an-alien-can-you-decipher-the-pioneer-or-voyager-plaques/779990.md?page=3)