Voyager's Gold Record- Vintage Technology for Extraterrestrial Audiophiles
I'm a huge Sagan fan, and even today I am surprised at how well his words and the 70's series resonate gloriously. But WTF is with the Gold Record on Voyager? The records were constructed of copper with a gold plating and contain Sounds of Earth, featuring the audible signatures of our planet from birds to Chuck Berry playing guitar. The records were placed on both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 and now are somewhere out past Pluto. Sagan noted, " The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space." That is, if they have a turntable. Shot into space, any extraterrestrial can enjoy "Sounds of Earth". If they have a good thrift shop they might find a way to play the damn thing. Of course, back in the 70's we were pretty sure that the LP was here to stay. I remember thinking they should have shot the KISS Alive II double album into space too. The p