Shouting at Stars: A History of Interstellar Messages

About this video

• Video Title: Shouting at Stars: A History of Interstellar Messages
• Channel: LEMMiNO
• Speakers: Not specified in the transcript
• Duration: 02:27:36

Overview

This video explores humanity's attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence by sending messages into interstellar space. It details various historical projects, from the Pioneer Plaques and the Arecibo Message to more recent endeavors, examining the content, challenges, and philosophical debates surrounding these transmissions.

Key takeaways

• Pioneer Plaques (1972/1973): The first physical messages attached to probes destined to leave the solar system, containing diagrams of hydrogen, human figures, and a pulsar map to indicate our location and identity.
• Arecibo Message (1974): A radio message transmitted towards Messier 13, encoded in binary to depict numbers, DNA components, a human figure, and the solar system. It was a publicity stunt with a very low chance of comprehension or response.
• Voyager Golden Records (1977): Analog records containing sounds, music, and images from Earth, designed to represent humanity's culture and experience. They included greetings, scientific data, and a pulsar map, with instructions for playback etched on their covers.
• Message to Altair (1983): A competition-driven transmission from Japan, featuring 13 bitmaps inspired by the Arecibo message, sent towards the relatively nearby star Altair.
• Poetica Vaginal (1986): An artistic project transmitting sounds derived from female reproductive contractions, intended as a commentary on censorship and a statement about humanity.
• Cosmic Calls (1999-2003): A series of transmissions initiated by Encounter 2001, featuring primers, messages, and user-submitted content, targeting various nearby star systems.
• New Horizons (2006): Launched to Pluto, it carried symbolic mementos like Clyde Tombaugh's ashes and data CDs, rather than a deliberate interstellar message.
• Across the Universe (2008): A transmission of The Beatles' song towards Polaris, a distant and likely uninhabitable star system.
• A Message From Earth (2008): A crowdsourced social media project beaming 501 selected messages towards the red dwarf Gliese 581.
• Hello From Earth (2009): Transmitted towards Gliese 581, this project collected short text messages, framed as a "Twitter to the Stars."
• RuBisCO Stars Message (2009): An artistic transmission using a synthetic voice to vocalize phrases representing the RuBisCO gene sequence, sent towards three nearby stars.
• Lone Signal (2013): A project aiming for continuous transmission of a primer and user content towards Gliese 526, but ultimately failed due to low public interest.
• JAXA Space Camp Messages (1995-2013): Bitmap images created by children and transmitted by the Japanese space agency towards various stars, including 55 Cancri A.
• A Simple Response to an Elemental Message (2016): A crowdsourced project sending messages about environmental concerns towards Polaris.
• Sónar Calling GJ273b (2017-2018): A music festival transmitting musical snippets preceded by primers towards Luyten's Star, a system with potentially Earth-like planets.
• Stephen Hawking's Memorial Broadcast (2018): A transmission of a musical piece featuring Hawking's voice towards V616 Monocerotis, a binary system containing a black hole.
• The Transmission Debate: The video highlights the ongoing controversy surrounding METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), with arguments for and against transmitting messages due to potential risks and ethical considerations.