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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
Very interesting! What a difficult task to represent all of humanity with a small selection of photos, sounds, and music. I wish there was a playlist to go along with the book. :)
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I bought the recent vinyl pressing of the Voyager records and got interested in learning more. This is a great book for anyone interested in it. It consists of essays written by several of the people heavily involved in the production of the record, which are mainly entertaining anecdotal accounts of the process. The whole thing is interesting to me, from the logistics of the endeavor to the philosophy. I thought it was notable that they talked pretty openly at times about how the record was "really" a message to earthlings rather than to aliens, given the very low probability that any alien civilization would ever happen upon it.
My favorite part was Frank Drake's discussion of how to write a binary message decodable by an alien intelligence, and his tests to see if other humans could do it. (Spoiler: kind of?)
My favorite part was Frank Drake's discussion of how to write a binary message decodable by an alien intelligence, and his tests to see if other humans could do it. (Spoiler: kind of?)
As complete a document of the Voyager project's message as you will find, with essays by everyone involved, including Sagan.
I don't often read books that end up being complete duds, but this was one of them. I thought a book on the creation of the gold records that accompanied the Voyager space probes as a message from humanity would have made for an interesting read, but I was wrong. The truth is that these records seem to be more of an after thought that I realized. Sure, some very knowledgeable minds came together to create them, but they were by no means a gathering of the best and brightest. It was essentially a handful of professors and scientists arguing the value and merit of Beethoven and Bach against Gregorian chants and Mariachi Music, and yes all 4 made it on these records. I'm not going to tell you that I care one way or another what was chosen to represent humanity and earth, I just felt that the story of the messages creation wasn't all that interesting. Beyond the technical aspects of it, I couldn't care less why one symphony is more important than another. The books saving grace is that it's not all that long and that Carl Sagan was a major contributor, if it wasn't for that, I'd have given it one star.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I find the Voyager mission so interesting, and this book was perfect slow bedtime read. I loved learning all the details that went into planning, researching, and procuring content for the records. the story is so personal and at the same time so all encompassing. It's not really like most narrative non-fiction, but I found that it read as easily.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
medium-paced