Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record

by Carl Sagan

Covers the fascinating story of the interstellar record containing pictures, greetings in different languages, and a selection of earth sounds that was placed on the Voyager spacecraft and launched in September 1977

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Space, History, Astronomy, Music, Philosophy

273 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

In 1934, scientist Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. After earning bachelor and master's degrees at Cornell, Sagan earned a double doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1960. He became professor of astronomy and space science and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University, and co-founder of the Planetary Society. A great popularizer of science, Sagan produced the PBS series, "Cosmos," which was Emmy and Peabody award-winning, and was watched by 500 million people in 60 countries. A book of the same title came out in 1980, and was on The New York Times bestseller list for 7 weeks. Sagan was author, co-author or editor of 20 books, including The Dragons of Eden (1977), which won a Pulitzer, Pale Blue Dot (1995) and The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark (1996), his hardest-hitting on religion. With his wife, Ann Druyan, he was co-producer of the popular motion picture, "Contact," which featured a feminist, atheist protagonist played by Jodie Foster (1997). The film came out after Sagan's death, following a 2-year struggle with a bone marrow disease. Sagan played a leading role in NASA's Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to other planets. Ann Druyan, in the epilogue to Sagan's last book, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (published posthumously in 1997), gives a moving account of Carl's last days: "Contrary to the fantasies of the fundamentalists, there was no deathbed conversion, no last minute refuge taken in a comforting vision of a heaven or an afterlife. For Carl, what mattered most was what was true, not merely what would make us feel better. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. As we looked deeply into each other's eyes, it was with a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever."

For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society, ("for his extraordinary contributions to the development of planetary science…As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates").

He was also a recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Sagan was elected Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For twelve years he was the editor-in-chief of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was cofounder and President of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is the largest space-interest group in the world; and Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

In their posthumous award to Dr. Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his "research transformed planetary science… his gifts to mankind were infinite." D. 1996.

More: https://ffrf.org/news/day/dayitems/it...

Reviews

[George Kaslov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deals mostly with the contents and the reasoning behind them for the golden records sent on Voyager probes.

Just imagine the task. You have a bit more than a year to meet the precise launch window and you have to compose the message for an extraterrestrial and put it on a medium that has to last minimum a few thousand years. Luckily Carl Sagan and his colleges from SETI had some experience before with the Pioneer probes and decided to take it to the next level. They decided to make a Record and with it send as much of Earth culture as they possibly could.

Now the REAL task begins. You have limited space, limited time, you have to encompass the spirit of the Earth in such a way that aliens might understand it and not insult anyone on Earth. How do you choose and how do you explain it all.

As you read about their choices of music and images and their explanations of them you try and get rid of all of your preconceptions and join in the theorizing how what we sent might be interpreted and what you might have done differently. It's so much fun and fills you with so much hope and optimism, but also loneliness. As of now, they are still the furthest objects we sent from Earth and their second mission of delivering the records has just begun, the longest of long shots.

And finally it ends with gleeful anticipation of scientific data the probes will gather 10+ years in the future (they were launched in 1977 and the book came out in 1979) and hypothesizing what stars they might pass by in an incredibly distant future. But if this is still not enough for you and you want to know how the mission was conceived, executed and what its scientific and cultural legacy is I recommend you "The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission" by Jim Bell.

[Dr. Carl Ludwig Dorsch]

The edition I mean to add to my “Curious About” shelf is titled, I believe, “Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record” and was published, according to NASA in one reference on their voyager.jpl.nasa.gov website, “in 1992 by Warner News (sic) Media with a CD-ROM that replicates the Voyager record.”

On another page of the voyager.jpl.nasa.gov it is noted:

“There was a book and CDROM published by Warner New Media in 1992. The book was a reprint of the Carl Sagan, et al, "Murmurs of Earth" that was originally published in 1978.”

“Carl Sagan and his colleagues did the assemblage of the information on the Voyager Golden Phonograph Record. Most of the material they used was copyrighted by the creators/owners and Sagan had to get copyright releases in order to assemble the original record. Subsequently, Warner Multimedia was able to obtain copyright releases for the 1992 version of "Murmurs of Earth", by Carl Sagan, et al and included all the sounds and songs on the CDROM set that accompanied the Warner New Media release of the book.”

[...:]

“Unfortunately, the book and CDROM are no longer being published and are hard to find as a set.”

The publisher listed here on Goodreads for this edition is Time Warner Electronic Publishing, and the publication date August 1st 1994 (first published 1978).

Wikipedia has it (in the entry for “Voyager Golden Record,” viewed 9/5/09):
“A CD-ROM was released in 1992 by Warner New Media as a companion to the book Murmurs of Earth (originally published by Random House, 1978)…”


While the volume, along with a discussion of the entire enterprise, apparently contains all the visual images (and a listing of the auditory ones), the accompanying two disc CD-ROM alone contains the full audio, which, in the full wisdom of the law is evidently otherwise largely unavailable on this planet. (Legally, at least: there is apparently a bit torrent distribution available.)

Even NASA is seemingly not able (or willing) to presently display more than a third of the included visual images, gives access to none of the musical selections, does not give the audio of the Secretary General’s or the UN greetings (or those of the whales, for that matter), etc.


I am curious about the CD-ROM “[replication of:] the Voyager record.” Given that the information is recorded on the original in a single spiral groove to be read by a stylus while rotating at 16 2/3 rpm, it is liable to be experienced as a single linear stream. Does the CD-ROM replicate that format? Or even allow the information to be experienced in that manner? Or is it, like the portions available via the voyager.jpl.nasa.gov website, available only discretely, one selection at a time?

I would like to experience and then ponder the conceivable import of this progression:

Tame Dog, Herding Sheep, Blacksmith Shop, Sawing, Tractor and Riveter, Morse Code, Ships, Horse and Cart, Train, Truck, Tractor, Bus, Automobile, F-111 Flyby, Saturn 5 Lift-Off, Kiss…

Is that a sentence? A paragraph? A poem? A manifesto? A concerto?

Are there verbal preambles? Etc.

Thus, “Curious About”…

[Cory · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the coolest books I’ve ever read. For a long time now I’ve had a fascination with the Voyager missions that gave us so much of the knowledge and photos of the outer planets that are so familiar to us nowadays, but the Golden Record on the spacecraft is especially inspiring. This book describes how they managed to complete the project of selecting the songs, sounds, and images that now represent the human species to any future spacefaring species that may find it, as well as explaining how they came up with a scientific way to express this information so that an extraterrestrial could actually interpret it if found. What was of particular value to me was the detailed account of why each and every piece was chosen. I found this sooo interesting as it not only was a bit of an intellectual puzzle to narrow down that list for Sagan’s team, but also going through humanity’s identity piece by piece leads to some existential reflections on ourselves as a whole that felt worthwhile.

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As mensageiras destas gravações já deixaram a heliosfera há muito tempo.
Quando Carl Sagan (e a sua equipa da Cornell University) pensaram este projecto, a tarefa revelou-se (calculo) difícil: se um dia alguma civilização encontrar estes discos e os conseguir descodificar (nessa altura, talvez, o nosso Sol já seja uma triste anã branca ou negra que nos consumiu) como gostaríamos de ser lembrados?

Esta é a história de como compilar a beleza da humanidade em duas «cápsulas do tempo». De Bach a Chuck Berry, do som da batida do coração ao chilreio dos pássaros, às inúmeras imagens que representam a nossa humanidade, esta obra fala da história dos homens que um dia sonharam não estarem sozinhos.

Vale a pena conhecer esta obra e sonhar que as Voyager levam o nosso coração mais adiante.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Voyager spacecraft were designed to visit the Outer Planets and eventually interstellar space, the scientists had an opportunity to attach a record of all of human existence.

After much careful thought they placed information from the broadest spectrum of all human cultures and forms of expression.

This book is a compendium of that inmformation.
An Encyclopedia of Humanity.

[Nick Klagge]

I bought the recent vinyl pressing of the Voyager records and got interested in learning more. This is a great book for anyone interested in it. It consists of essays written by several of the people heavily involved in the production of the record, which are mainly entertaining anecdotal accounts of the process. The whole thing is interesting to me, from the logistics of the endeavor to the philosophy. I thought it was notable that they talked pretty openly at times about how the record was "really" a message to earthlings rather than to aliens, given the very low probability that any alien civilization would ever happen upon it.

My favorite part was Frank Drake's discussion of how to write a binary message decodable by an alien intelligence, and his tests to see if other humans could do it. (Spoiler: kind of?)

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

After learning about the Voyager mission earlier this summer, I have been in a state of cosmic, existential, sublime awe (a concept that I don't think even exists). I listened to as many of the songs on the record as I could find and tried to imagine how extraterrestrials would feel if they found the record. Reading the book made me marvel at how sweet and intelligent the human species can be (if only we were that way half the time, lol). This work is beautifully crafted, well thought out, and simply perfect! The only thing that will always piss me off is that EMI didn't let them include "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles.

[ade_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murmurs of Earth, (diterbitkan tahun 1978) berisi essai dan dokumentasi dari The Voyager Interstellar Mission, yang merupakan rangkaian misi luar angkasa Amerika Serikat. Misi ini meliputi peluncuran dua pesawat angkasa tak berawak, yaitu Voyager 1 & 2 yang diluncurkan tahun 1977. Tujuan misi ini untuk mempelajari Jupiter dan Saturnus, tetapi dua pesawat tersebut ternyata mampu melanjutkan perjalanan mereka hingga ke luar tata surya

Melalui pesawat antariksa Voyager 1, dikirimkan pula Piringan Emas yang berisi 118 gambar, suara-suara alam (ombak, angin, petir, dll) dan suara beberapa hewan, pesan tertulis dari Presiden A.S. Jimmy Carter dan Sekjen PBB, Kurt Waldheim, ucapan salam dalam 54 bahasa (termasuk bahasa Indonesia), musik-musik pilihan dari berbagai kebudayaan dan zaman, dua diantaranya adalah lagu The Beatles yang berjudul "Here Comes the Sun" (OMG! 😍 this is one of my favorite song!) dan gending Jawa "Ketawang Puspawarna" (Cipt: Mangkunegara IV, 1899) yang dimainkan oleh gamelan kraton Paku Alaman, Yogyakarta

Berkas-berkas tersebut dipilihkan untuk NASA oleh tim yang diketuai Carl Sagan (astronom dari Universitas Cornell) dengan tujuan untuk menggambarkan keanekaragaman makhluk hidup dan budaya di Planet Bumi kepada bentuk kehidupan luar angkasa yang cerdas atau manusia Bumi di masa depan yang mungkin akan menemukannya

You, guys... You should defiantly read it!

[DJ_Keyser · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s little more awe-inspiring an exercise than reflecting on the practically infinite span of the universe, and one of humanity’s most aspirational efforts to date has to be the creation of the Voyager Golden Record. The disc contains messages of greeting, music and the sounds of Earth, and seeks to communicate something of our planet to space-faring extraterrestrials many light years away and some millions of years into the future. This book is a record of that record, and gives fascinating insight into the decision-making process of what was to be included. Of particular note is Jon Lomberg’s eloquent and detailed overview of the musical compositions presented.

[Ariana Badgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best thing I own

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute treasure.

In 1977, the Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft burned through our atmosphere, and disappeared into the darkness of space. They followed a meticulously scheduled route which leveraged a rare moment of solar system alignment to swing right by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (indeed, these craft are the only to have ever visited those two most distant gas giants). On August 25, 2012, Voyager I became the first manmade object to leave our Solar System (with Voyager II following several years), their scientific missions a resounding success.

Each craft carried a phonographic “Golden Record” and plaque, encoded such that its use might be broadly decipherable, containing 116 images, and about 90 minutes of audio. The mission was simple. If aliens (perhaps Little Green Men (LGM), perhaps a life form we struggle to comprehend) find this spacecraft, what can we tell them about ourselves? And in this impossibly tiny slice of human culture, the committee tried to capture what makes us, well… us.

As a scientific project aimed at communicating with extraterrestrials, this is largely pointless. The chances of Little Green Men (LGM) finding this probe seems close enough to zero for my satisfaction. But as an artistic and philosophical exercise, I find it genuinely profound. And while the chance that LGM stumble upon the craft is essentially nil, we know with certainty that millions of humans will hear about the effort, and that is what makes it worthwhile.

I should be very clear. This is essentially a coffee table book about a publicity stunt that mixes a time capsule and a “message in a bottle” on a spaceship. If that sounds bland, I can’t really argue. But I found it absorbing, life affirming, a soothing balm in a difficult time, and a monument to optimistic humanism. Maybe I’m a sucker.

To the curators of the record, the broad strokes of the plan were clear. Science is the only language we might reliably share with the LGM. Thus, it is our means of communication. But in this case, it’s largely a means to an end (if this was just about science, I wouldn’t be reading it). Because if science is what we share with the LGM, perhaps it’s the least interesting conversation we could have! Rather, what we want to relay is all the wonderful specificity, that would seem completely inexplicable to these creatures who have never seen Earth.

In “Meno”, one of Plato’s most famous dialogues, Socrates is confronted with the following conundrum. If you know what you’re looking for, then you already know it. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how can you learn it? In practical terms, “Meno’s Paradox” is not a convincing argument (of course there are known unknowns…), but situations like the Golden Record are where this becomes quite profound. The unique parts of our culture which are most worth sharing, are simultaneously the most difficult for LGM to comprehend. In “Meno”, Socrates’ solution is that we never truly learn, we just recollect that which we already knew from past lives (he proves this by showing that a nearby slave can solve a geometric puzzle, after a sequence of decidedly leading questions). But perhaps Socrates didn’t realize that science would be that universal medium he was looking for.

It requires the delicate balance of the specific, and the universal. What parts of our civilization reflect the fundamental structures of the universe, which might be intelligible to any sufficiently advanced life form? And what is unique, not just uniquely human, but unique to the instance of humanity that just happened to arise, from an endless string of chance occurrences, where the tiniest tweak to our past could have made it all gone so differently.

It goes without saying that I think the Golden Record committee did a wonderfully thoughtful job. Not that I agree with all of their choices, or that anyone would, I mean exactly what I said–they were thoughtful. This book is their story of this record, and the choices they made. Bach, Beethoven, pan flutes, Georgian chants, the blues, and whale song are included, but not The Beatles. Snow covered trees, ovulation, a traffic jam, and a sunset, but no great paintings, images of war, or religious iconography. Each of these decisions are debatable, and that process is worthwhile, no matter your conclusion.

From here, I have little more to add besides this reiterating that this was a treasure. It’s obviously out of print, but there are plenty of copies on eBay (and a PDF which can be found online… I don’t feel too bad saying it because I bought two paper copies as well, I just wanted larger font for some sections). I’ll include my random notes below, for my own recollection. But before that, one quote from Stephen Pyne, decades after the launch. His focus was on its scientific insights, but I feel the same way after reading this story.

Voyager did things no one predicted, found scenes no one expected, and promises to outlive its inventors… Like a great painting or an abiding institution, it has acquired an existence of its own, a destiny beyond the grasp of its handlers.

————————————————————

The experience of this book is one of countless unexpectedly specific insights. A few that I happened to write down…

> “I would look at pictures and try to imagine that I'd never seen the subject before. How could the photograph be misinterpreted? What was ambiguous? How could scale be deduced? That bird in the distance flying past the man, a wingtip partly obscured by the man's outflung arm… One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human… In choosing pictures, we were faced with two contradictory demands: the pictures should contain as much information as possible, and they should be as easy to understand as possible."

> Institutionalized monogamy (i.e. marriage) is hugely important to countless cultures, but how can you convey the practice in a series of photos? Completely impossible.

> What objects have form fully determined by their function, and when do our other specific preferences come into play? They cite suspension bridges and radio dishes as among the structures that could easily be known to any alien engineers, as they reflect universal physical necessities.

> “We don't know whether human music will mean anything to nonhuman intelligences on other planets. But any creature who comes across Voyager and recognizes the record as an artifact can realize that it was dispatched with no hope of return. That gesture may speak more clearly than music.”

> My two favorite treats from the audio on the record itself: Sengalese percussion (not calming, but so absorbing), and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night” (based on a Scottish hymn, but adapted, made entirely wordless, and beautiful).

> “If you had never seen a planet and were designing one, you might never imagine something like a tree.”


> Are any forms broad forms of humor universal? They include a wonderfully designed photo of an arctic explorer vehicle clumsily stranded in a crevasse. Space faring green dudes will have certainly encountered their own share of unfortunate mishaps along the way. But will they share any of the pleasure that we find in such a picture (whose humor could be readily understood throughout the earth, regardless of language barrier), or will it just confuse further?

> “This is one of three pictures that show dogs accompanying human beings. We hope the recipients will guess that dogs are our friends.”

[Andrés Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really informative. What is it about?
Well, as you know, Carl was an astronomer, one of those who are like poets to humankind, and one of those people that cherish humanity all while thinking about every possibility in the cosmos of contact with ETI. Along his many achievements, it ocurred to him to send a message that may never be read or understood... a message that represents not just humankind, but our pale blue dot. A record and images, chosen by a group of experts was sent in the Voyager space vehicle.

He starts by explaining certain roots of humankind, that we all know: we are a symbolic animal. That symbol is humankind and our existence being known by another form of life. Part of the book is explained by Frank Drake himself, the creator of the equation that holds his name, and is something that is related to a time capsule. The message is not about hope, but a mention of who we are.

The whole book is the description of everything that was sent to the vastness of the cosmos.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A now bittersweet documentation of the end the first era of space exploration. The 1977 Voyager project was the last NASA effort that the public cared about and was emotionally involved in; the follow-up probes to the outer solar system were largely ignored and the space shuttles of the 1980s-2010s were pedestrian in comparison. Arguably an over-earnest and naive task, the creation of the Voyagers' Golden Records is yet a beautiful symbol of what science and space exploration used to mean to us. Of course, the record was created for us on Earth as least as much as it was for any extraterrestrials who may find it—extremely unlikely—many millennia from now. In 2014, we are still waiting for the next phase of space exploration to begin...

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5 stars. Decided to read this after watching the first episode of the Cosmos re-boot. Tyson mentions the Voyager missions and the record. Being a librarian, I decided to ILL the book as I was intriqued by this record. How did it come about? How did they decide to include photos and music? And how do you choose what will represent Earth? I did receive answers to these questions. There were parts of this book that were very interesting, but other parts that were not interesting to me (or I thought they would be, but found the writing style was dry). Precede with caution if you decide to read this. You might find it more interesting than I did, or you may feel folks are babbling on for paragraphs wondering where the heck they are going.

[Eric Loew · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty amazing account of an incredible human achievement. kind of dry in parts, but if you read between the lines you can really feel how the golden record is almost a microcosm of humanity's place in the universe: small, fragile, insignificant, but full of hope, pride, love, fear, and so much more. would love to hear more about this subject because it seems like more could be said, but this is a great primary source account

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. How would you communicate who we are to intelligent life which would have zero understanding of our planet?

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We are Robinson Crusoe on island Earth - inventive, resourceful and creative, but alone. We scan the rim of the horizon for any passing ships that might be sailing the star-encrusted ocean. Hoping to make contact, we call across the vastness of space, cupping our hands to our mouth to shout, ‘Hello out there! Is anybody home?’”

I was surprised to find that this book had far fewer reviews than I expected, which is a shame because it’s such a gem. If you start feeling a bit too misanthropic, this is a great book to restore your faith in humanity and your sense of wonder. It’s a fascinating story of an almost impossible task. How do you fit everything that matters about Earth and humanity into one golden record? How do you write a message for a civilization completely unlike our own, possibly millions or billions of years into the future? How can you express the wonderful diversity of humanity in an hour and a half of sound and images? It was very interesting to learn about the reasoning behind the carefully selected music, images, messages, languages, and diagrams. The music especially was my favourite. I found myself running to YouTube while reading, to look up recordings of the pieces mentioned, and discovered some incredible music. Everything was carefully chosen to give as much information about humanity as possible; our bodies, our environment, our families and social connections, our activities, our values, and our desire for connection even across the vast distances of interstellar space. The golden record was the work of many dedicated people in not quite enough time. It’s an ode to humanity’s love, curiosity, and loneliness in the midst of an incomprehensibly vast universe. The chances that Voyager will ever be found are extremely slim, but if it is, I hope the recipient might be able to understand the depth of the message we tried to convey, even if we aren’t around to hear the answer.

“The record says: however primitive we seem, however crude this spacecraft, we knew enough to envision ourselves citizens of the cosmos. It says: however small we are, something in us was large enough to to want to reach out to discoverers unknown, in times when we shall have perished or have changed beyond recognition. It says: whoever and whatever you are, we too once lived in this house of stars and thought of you.”

[Gendou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the history of the Voyager golden plate told by those involved in its creation. I listened to the audiobook and it was a superb treat to hear the Ann Druyan and Frank Drake reading their own chapter. Also it was wonderful to hear Nick Sagan (Carl's son) read his fathers writing.

There was only one terrible chapter by Timothy Ferris. First of all, this was the most boring chapter. He spends a lot of time talking about the selection process of indigenous music. He describes the Mbuti tribal song (which kind of sucks) and goes on a short rant about how great their lives are. He talks about how there isn't divorce in their culture and that "vastly more advanced" than we (Westerners?) are in terms of "human relationships". This is an ugly case of the Noble Savage myth. In reality (yes, I went and read the seminal ethnography) their way of life is savage and some of their customs around "human relationships" are simply reprehensible. What follows is not for the faint of heart, so spoiler alert.

The tribal song chosen for the record is sung during the "elima" ritual where a girl, having had her first menstrual period, is sent to a hut where bachelors from the village go to have sex with her. This prize of having intercourse with a young teenage girl is paid for in blood as the women of the tribe (chiefly the girl's mother) savagely beat these suitors. Also, the tribe believes pregnancy can only occur as the result of marriage which is biologically incorrect, so probably amounts to what we would recognize as shotgun marriages. Of very young teenagers. Based on a selection process that is expressly violent, and controlled by the mother. Young men who do not participate in elima are subject to "ridicule". So that's the kind of cultural practice Timothy Ferris thinks is "more advanced". Child brides, ritual beatings, and a culture where male status is tied to participation in group sex with children. Fuck you, Timothy Ferris.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murmurs of Earth was so fascinating that even the acknowledgments were worth reading. The book takes 3 approaches to providing the story of the message that we strapped to Voyager and sent out to the stars. Of course the odds against a random projectile message ever reaching any other intelligence are daunting, yet the project was carried out with admirable conviction.

We are first given an idea of the effort that went into planning the contents of the message. What might seem like a trivial or novel task was taken on by a team that wanted sincerely to produce a most genuine artifact of the people from Earth. They were forced to work within the constraints of both the medium and the politics of such a project which of course meant that the final product was not the most perfect representation of our rich diversity. We are treated to an insider's look at the decision processes involved and I'm convinced that no such endeavour could have been perfect.

The next part reads like a bit of a random stroll through culture and history. More fascinating content to support the value of the choices made, however I thought that some few portions of this section bordered on irrelevant to the story. (In particular some of Beethoven's background)

Finally the book helps us imagine where our message is going. Given the publication date we could perhaps acquire better information about this now but it's uniquely rewarding to read the optimistic views of the people involved with the project and their own hopes given the limitations that they expected.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is positively the most fascinating thing I have ever read. It might be my favorite ever.

I am afraid of outer space and have been since 1st grade, so never pursued additional knowledge on satellites or space exploration until I came across a passing reference to the Voyager in a book of short essays. Not knowing what it was, I looked it up and then absolutely HAD TO KNOW the entire contents of the information sent along with the Voyager; I did not expect to be so entertained, educated, and enthralled.

There is so much information packed into this book about the contents of the records sent with the Voyager 1 and 2, and so much more. I particularly enjoyed the seemingly eye-rolling statements about the political side of things and the apparently delicate sensibilities of the powers that be over depictions of human anatomy. The section on music included not only a list of the selections, but also so much information about the history of each piece and how very connected our world is. There is something on almost every page that I marked to revisit!

I'm still scared of outer space and have no desire to board a rocket ship and visit the stars, but I would happily have an extraterrestrial pen pal if one was brought to me by the efforts of a project like the Voyager. Connection with the unknown is thrilling and I wish I could peek a billion years into the future to see what becomes of the Voyager's efforts!

[Koit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird one: a book dedicated to explaining why we sent a certain selection of our combined arts into space instead of other options. While I wholeheartedly stand beside the reason for which the people described within went through these actions, I found that aside some anecdotal stories (such as that of the Georgian evaluating traditional music as well as the numerous accounts of Beethoven) the book itself did not compel me to learn more.

Now, of course, a part of this is that reading about music or photography will always be less intriguing than actually partaking of these arts and some of the pieces that were included on the Voyagers were described very well indeed. I am also very keen on listening to the music included on the ships, but this book as a story did not inspire me as I hoped it would. 

A more distant reflection might be that if this book were written today, it would be of an entirely different narrative structure -- and I think it would also be woven into more of a continuous story (and it would probably be less repetitive).

Originally posted here.

[Jeff Mauch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't often read books that end up being complete duds, but this was one of them. I thought a book on the creation of the gold records that accompanied the Voyager space probes as a message from humanity would have made for an interesting read, but I was wrong. The truth is that these records seem to be more of an after thought that I realized. Sure, some very knowledgeable minds came together to create them, but they were by no means a gathering of the best and brightest. It was essentially a handful of professors and scientists arguing the value and merit of Beethoven and Bach against Gregorian chants and Mariachi Music, and yes all 4 made it on these records. I'm not going to tell you that I care one way or another what was chosen to represent humanity and earth, I just felt that the story of the messages creation wasn't all that interesting. Beyond the technical aspects of it, I couldn't care less why one symphony is more important than another. The books saving grace is that it's not all that long and that Carl Sagan was a major contributor, if it wasn't for that, I'd have given it one star.

[Julio Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really informative. What is it about?
Well, as you know, Carl was an astronomer, one of those who are like poets to humankind, and one of those people that cherish humanity all while thinking about every possibility in the cosmos of contact with ETI. Along his many achievements, it ocurred to him to send a message that may never be read or understood... a message that represents not just humankind, but our pale blue dot. A record and images, chosen by a group of experts was sent in the Voyager space vehicle.

He starts by explaining certain roots of humankind, that we all know: we are a symbolic animal. That symbol is humankind and our existence being known by another form of life. Part of the book is explained by Frank Drake himself, the creator of the equation that holds his name, and is something that is related to a time capsule. The message is not about hope, but a mention of who we are.

The whole book is the description of everything that was sent to the vastness of the cosmos.

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a detailed record of such an historical undertaking written by the very people doing the undertaking. When I say "detailed," I'm not kidding. I'm a voracious consumer of accurate detailed information, but even for me, this got to be a bit of TMI. However, historians will truly appreciate that level of detail, I am quite certain. My favorite part was the recollection of the musical selections - how and why they were chosen and the cultural background of each piece. Regardless of what you think of humanity sending a "message in a bottle" to the possible inhabitants of other star systems (personally, I think it's much more for us than it is for them), there is a great deal to learn about being human from this excellent work. Highly recommended.

[Emily St. Amant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely account of the story behind the making of the Voyager records and some brief histories of the some of the pieces of content that was included on them. One thing that surprised me was hearing about a project so incredible but it’s creators would still encounter so much bureaucratic red tape, but hey, even NASA is run by humans. If you’re a fan of science or just need some real reasons to have some faith and pride in humanity, check this out. Only one thing I thought was missing was that it would’ve been even more awesome to hear brief samplings of the music and sounds they were talking about, that would have made the audiobook version be even better.

[Cassie Sands · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read about the Golden Record from some of the team that put it together and made it happen in a short amount of time. The origin of the record as building on the Pioneer 10 & 11 plaques was given, as well as some of the technical struggles and reasons why certain images, greetings, and music were chosen. The book ends with a dialogue about some of what the Voyager spacecraft is looking for and might find in the outer solar system.

[Amanda Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historical account of the photographs, greetings, music, and words that were pieced together by a collective voice of scientists, in an attempt to depict the entire human species. This collaborative work of art and science was recorded onto the Voyager Golden Records, which are now interstellar. Fascinating.

"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space."

- Carl Sagan

[Islomjon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not recommend you to read this book if you expect to explore astronomy unless you are fan of Carl Sagan or interested in messages attached to Voyager 2. The book is about the process of message collection from different parts of the world, how was the experience, etc. Expected to read more scientific facts. However, in the last chapter Carl Sagan interestingly explains role of Voyager 2 and the importance of this expedition.

[Mar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the story of the message to the stars that were the Voyager Golden Records, the chapters written by a number of people involved in the project (some of them admittedly clearly more well-written than others) - maybe it's a little dry at times, but it's also filled with curiosity, mindfulness, hope, and a sense of cosmic loneliness that makes my heart ache. It made me fall in love with humanity a little more.

[kulisap · Rating 5 out of 5]

did a five-part reading journey on instagram pouring my thoughts within the 2000 character limit imposed by ig and right now i have no energy to make a proper review but aaaaah what a blast!!!! i had the time of my life reading this!!!!! i feel so full of life and wonder and hope while also feeling insignificant in the context of the vast vast universe and i am so overwhelmed and i loved this to bits!!!!!