The Golden Record

In 1977 the world was unique, seemingly culturally disparate and in perpetual tension. Industry had flooded the rivers with poison, the rivers had dried with consumption, consumption had fueled social revolution, social revolution created tension, tension is protectionism, and protectionism created war. In the mean time, Planet Earth was exactly 150 793 049 km away from the sun, a little more than it’s average. It was the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere, spring in the South, and a small, insignificantly sized package was hurled through the atmosphere into the expanse, a wide open nothing. In front of it there were only a smattering of specks that seemed compelling, still it was the insignificant that was significant. And there was the silence.

Today, more than 1.7962176×10¹⁰ km (think 100,000,000,000 Micky Mantle home runs) away from Planet Earth is a little 722 kg floating computer, Voyager I. It left here a model of 1977 global culture and someday will arrive at it’s destination a time capsule of marvelous proportions; a testament to our ability to create, package, and deploy remarkable technologies. It will arrive a record of the diversity of the globe and it will show the cooperative spirit of Planet Earth because inside the box, among the radio, the camera, the transistors and propulsion sits a Golden Record. The symbol of Earth and humanity.
The audio of the Golden Record includes greetings from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, “children of earth”, a whale, greetings in 55 languages, popular songs and classical music, and most intriguing, it includes a collection of ‘sounds of the earth,’ natural noises of note.The Golden Record was authored by Carl Sagan, and his committee, at the request of NASA. It is made up of sights and sounds from around the globe. It tells the stories through song, voice, and images. It is Earth shrunk into a 12 inch disc of gold plated copper, covered with aluminum and uranium-238, safely drifting through nothingness in the back-seat of it’s VW beetle of a space-craft.

As the disk travels away from us at 17,060 m/s (61,400 km/h,  38,200 mph) we here at PaisleyTunes would like to invite you to enjoy it at the Earth rate of 3.6 second per rotation in celebration of it’s approaching 35th anniversary (9/5/2012),

Download The Golden Record

— — —

Other objects of note, within the 700-850 kg zone, that could also be floating through space:

• 1967 VW Beetle (840 kg)
• KTM X-Bow (700 kg)
• A Pumpkin (700 kg)
• A Theoretical Vehicle (722)
• An Amount of Opium in a Particular Pakistani Coast Guard Evidence Locker (720 kg)