http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html
At 4.00pm (US-EST) on February 4 2008, NASA, for reasons known only to its erudite self, beamed the Beatles song ‘Across the Universe’ to the North Star, Polaris. NASA told us (ie, the ignorant world) that it did this to celebrate its 50th anniversary of space exploration.
NASA, NASA, NASA…very heavy sigh. What indeed are you trying to tell us?
For the last 50 years you’ve studiously ‘explored’ space with all the resources available to you and never found any sign of life – that you have told us about anyway. And whenever a sign of any pesky extraterrestrial life does emerge you hurriedly funnel those impressive resources into debunking your own findings, just to make sure we don’t get too excited, or too used to the idea that we may have some ET relatives out there, somewhere.
So why, dear old NASA, would you now spend your money on emailing a crappy old Beatles song to Polaris, of all places? Do you know something we don’t know? Have you discovered life, and transistor radios, out there? It must be a curious kind of life you’ve found on Polaris (who, we would like to keep reminding you, you haven’t told us about yet), one that bypassed the beat of the 1960s and apparently requires the overly nasal tones of John Lennon to snap it up a bit.
Who chose you, NASA, as the arbiter of the message humanity might like to send into the void? We don’t recall being asked to participate in a poll, so we assume that you used some other egalitarian method that we must have missed out on. Or did you hold a meeting of your board of directors, catered of course, where you discussed at your leisure which golden oldie best represented our planet and the people on it.
Unfortunately we cannot commend you on your selection. Would not a better choice have been Justin Timberlake’s ‘Bringing Sexy Back’? Or Britney Spears’ ‘Hit me baby one more time’? After all these are the sorts of things humanity thinks about ad infinitum -- sex and violence -- and as Justin and Britney are our current reigning deities we should share them with the rest of the universe, huh. It just seems that if you are going to waste electricity on the biggest pulse of information you’ve ever sent out there, wouldn’t we as a planet have been better served by sending out some useful information about ourselves, so our Polaris pals can decide whether they want to email us back? Or not.
Of course we have skirted the obvious – the fact that our transmissions are being beamed endlessly out into space every minute of every day, boinging from satellite to satellite and thence on to lord knows where. Our ET friends, even if they are as far away as Polaris, already know that John Lennon was a pale and myopic bipedal creature who never cut his hair, and that the population of planet Earth spends all its leisure time obsessing over who can dance and who cannot. One wonders what we could have to tell them that they don’t know already.
So, dear NASA, while your personal message to Polaris was clear and to the point (‘Yoo hoo, here we are! This is the kind of music our board of directors listens to!’), your message to us was somewhat confusing.
Stop playing with our minds – is there life out there or isn’t there? Indeed there seems to be, since you are sending them the hits of the 60s one painful tune at a time.
At 4.00pm (US-EST) on February 4 2008, NASA, for reasons known only to its erudite self, beamed the Beatles song ‘Across the Universe’ to the North Star, Polaris. NASA told us (ie, the ignorant world) that it did this to celebrate its 50th anniversary of space exploration.
NASA, NASA, NASA…very heavy sigh. What indeed are you trying to tell us?
For the last 50 years you’ve studiously ‘explored’ space with all the resources available to you and never found any sign of life – that you have told us about anyway. And whenever a sign of any pesky extraterrestrial life does emerge you hurriedly funnel those impressive resources into debunking your own findings, just to make sure we don’t get too excited, or too used to the idea that we may have some ET relatives out there, somewhere.
So why, dear old NASA, would you now spend your money on emailing a crappy old Beatles song to Polaris, of all places? Do you know something we don’t know? Have you discovered life, and transistor radios, out there? It must be a curious kind of life you’ve found on Polaris (who, we would like to keep reminding you, you haven’t told us about yet), one that bypassed the beat of the 1960s and apparently requires the overly nasal tones of John Lennon to snap it up a bit.
Who chose you, NASA, as the arbiter of the message humanity might like to send into the void? We don’t recall being asked to participate in a poll, so we assume that you used some other egalitarian method that we must have missed out on. Or did you hold a meeting of your board of directors, catered of course, where you discussed at your leisure which golden oldie best represented our planet and the people on it.
Unfortunately we cannot commend you on your selection. Would not a better choice have been Justin Timberlake’s ‘Bringing Sexy Back’? Or Britney Spears’ ‘Hit me baby one more time’? After all these are the sorts of things humanity thinks about ad infinitum -- sex and violence -- and as Justin and Britney are our current reigning deities we should share them with the rest of the universe, huh. It just seems that if you are going to waste electricity on the biggest pulse of information you’ve ever sent out there, wouldn’t we as a planet have been better served by sending out some useful information about ourselves, so our Polaris pals can decide whether they want to email us back? Or not.
Of course we have skirted the obvious – the fact that our transmissions are being beamed endlessly out into space every minute of every day, boinging from satellite to satellite and thence on to lord knows where. Our ET friends, even if they are as far away as Polaris, already know that John Lennon was a pale and myopic bipedal creature who never cut his hair, and that the population of planet Earth spends all its leisure time obsessing over who can dance and who cannot. One wonders what we could have to tell them that they don’t know already.
So, dear NASA, while your personal message to Polaris was clear and to the point (‘Yoo hoo, here we are! This is the kind of music our board of directors listens to!’), your message to us was somewhat confusing.
Stop playing with our minds – is there life out there or isn’t there? Indeed there seems to be, since you are sending them the hits of the 60s one painful tune at a time.
1 comment:
Actually this type of media release is a form of disinformation. The message conveys a sense that the question of ET is being addressed in a logical 'scientific' manner. Given the speed of light limitations and vast distances to other star systems, blah blah blah, the definitive answer will not be forthcoming anytime soon,...go back to what you were doing, we will wake you if and when 'contact' occurs.
In the mean time, it is all happening here and now and the battle lines are drawn.
However in consideration of what could and would happen if the real truth was revealed to the ruled masses of planet earth, it is understandable why the self elected 'rulers' would want to direct their (masses) attention elsewhere,...every additional day in power is a bonus,... another 'fix'.
Ben D.
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