The most distant human artifacts from our planet are the two Voyager probes, launched in 1977 so that, in addition to transmitting data, they would travel towards infinity in case someone, one day, found them. That's why they carry a golden record of an hour and a half long, with the appearance of an old LP and greetings in 55 languages, images and sounds. There's Bach, Chuck Berry, tribal chants. Cricket noise, the siren of a ship, laughter. Today I think it would be inevitable to add a cat video. My favorite greeting is from a Chinese dialect: "Space friends, how are you? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time." In 2012 and 2018, respectively, the probes surpassed the limit of the solar system, and as you read this they are still wandering into the unknown. The last I knew, a minor news among the decisive controversies of each day or the explosive statements of a trainer, was in August: communication with Voyager 2 was recovered after having lost a few days.
Now we are again interested in UFOs, NASA has just presented a study, in Mexico they have taken some mummies that look like the cousins of the ET people. The more our anguish about the problems of the world grows, the more we want to be distracted by something strong that escapes our knowledge and, if possible, our responsibility. Like the fashion of superhero movies, people who are capable of solving problems.
If an extraterrestrial arrived, in addition to being interested in our knowledge of quantum physics, the footprint of the Roman Empire and, as a result of the impressive news coverage, the figure of María Teresa Campos, he would ask if it is possible to meet Ann Druyan (she is, she has continued with her books and her programs). This woman, a member of Carl Sagan's team (they later married) participated in the Voyager discs and was the one who came up with the idea of adding something else. Since perhaps other beings could read brain waves, he proposed sending a recording of someone's thoughts as well. She was the chosen one and one day they recorded for an hour what she thought. He prepared it, of course, and in the session he mentally reviewed the history and the great ideas of humanity, as he knew best. What a moment, consider the responsibility that you do not think of or think about the shopping list. I doubt, moreover, that a Western citizen can go an hour today without looking at his mobile phone and concentrate only on his own reflections. He also thought, for the record, of the wars, violence and disasters caused by the human being himself, and ended like this: "Towards the end I allowed myself a personal manifestation about what it meant to fall in love." I always imagine that an alien arrives, makes a press conference or whatever, and says that he thinks he has understood the famous albums, but that final part needs to be explained, because it is the most mysterious of all. In weeks like this, where we feel surrounded by tragedies, in Morocco, in Libya, in Ukraine, and human stupidity seems more powerful than ever, we really have to cling to that small part of us, to the most beautiful, elevated, decent and mysterious thing we have so as not to despair, in addition to relativizing some of the problems of this blue dot suspended in the dark, where on the other hand you eat quite well.
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