Nearly half a century ago, NASA launched two tiny spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, into the vast expanse of the universe. Today, these probes have crossed the boundary of our solar system and entered interstellar space.
In 1977, when these probes were launched, humanity sent an invaluable message aboard them—the Golden Record. This disc contains Earth’s languages, music, sounds of nature, scientific images, and even the essence of human emotion, all in the hope of reaching any potential intelligent extraterrestrial life.
The Golden Record is housed on an aluminum-copper disc attached to the front of the Voyager probes. It includes a pulsar map indicating Earth's location, images of how to make a phonograph, moving instructions, and artistic beauty.
However, this beauty is not just in its form or information—it carries a philosophical intent on behalf of humanity: “We are here, and we want to know if anyone else is.” The philosophical aspect of this is profound. A tiny device, positioned a “light-day” away from Earth, may one day journey across thousands of years to reach an intelligent being from another world.
And they will hear our language, our voices, the sound of laughter, the cry of a baby, the bond between mother and child, the sound of rain, animal calls, classical music, native melodies, and even the brainwave-like sound of a woman falling in love. They will know that on the third planet of a distant solar system, there resides a species called humans, who possess intelligence.
But here, a deep question arises—are humans really intelligent? The Earth’s image we show on this Golden Record is undoubtedly beautiful, captivating, and humane. But is this humane face the complete truth?
The Golden Record doesn’t include the cries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nor does it represent the starving children who die in cosmic silence, or the millions of lives lost in war, hunger, and neglect. It doesn’t reflect the history of humanity divided by race, fighting wars across millennia.
How would the record convey the greed that causes millions to starve while billions of dollars are spent annually on weapons factories?
The Voyager continues its journey through space—relentless, lonely, and aimless. It carries with it who we are, our voices, our language, our laughter—but how could the probe know that on this planet, humans still stain the Earth’s soil with each other’s blood?
How could it understand that beneath the Golden Record’s heartfelt message lie humanity’s wars, greed, inequality, and cycles of hatred? The Golden Record seems like a classical mask, showing humanity as noble, wise, and loving, but behind this mask lies a far darker face.
On one side, there is love and humanity, and on the other, there is hatred and destruction. Perhaps this duality is the essence of being human.
If an alien were to listen to this record and form an idea about us, they might think that humans are unimaginably creative, kind-hearted, progressive, and beauty-seeking.
But they would not know that in every city on Earth, there are hungry children, homeless elders, and war-torn people who are broken and scarred by the blood-soaked sword of inhumanity.
However, if we think from a positive perspective, the extraordinary side of the Golden Record is worth imagining. We could think of it as a message about what humanity wishes to be.
This Golden Record carries humanity's vision of a joyful, loving, hunger-free, warless world—a dreamlike world that humans wish for. This image might be the outward reflection of humanity's future aspirations. Otherwise, how can we claim that humans are truly intelligent beings?