We keep sending educational junk to aliens

[@mistermagoo8685]

What really blows my mind is that people keep forgetting how the Japanese empire couldn’t figure out the Navajo coder and humans almost couldn’t decode the enigma code and that’s all humans dealing with humans. So what makes people think aliens will be understand other aliens?

[@mattcelder]

100% true, but to play devil's advocate. We \did\ break the enigma code, and that was deliberately designed to be obfuscated to an unbreakable degree. So there is hope that an advanced race would be able to decode a message specifically designed to be decoded and understood.

[@JJMcCullough]

It’s fun to imagine aliens did get the Pioneer plaque, But all they wound up getting out of it was a pop culture way to depict aliens as naked humans who always travel in pairs.

[@SECONDQUEST]

@@JJMcCullough I like this

[@SECONDQUEST]

@@mattcelder With the enigma code we knew what the expected output would be, readable text, in the German language. The task gets a little harder without that knowledge. That said, I believe any sufficiently advanced species would be able decode a message that is MEANT to be decoded. The greetings and such would be very hard to understand, even if decoded. You can't really use mathematical formula or physical properties to represent "hello I will not harm you." So they would be able to decode the message of our intelligence, but not the message it self.

[@WasatchWind]

This is why I think we will not have successful artifacts that can communicate with aliens until we have the ability to immediately display a bunch of visual information to them upon its discovery, without the need for decoding.

[@thetoad.1251]

Canadian government really said "the aliens might speak English or French, we don't know"

[@alfyryan6949]

I think the French message is different from the English one though; the French word for moon is absent.

[@wbcx4491]

@@alfyryan6949 Yes. The French part says: "May this great fact allow man to rediscover the earth and find peace."

[@chanr9531]

Certified Canada moment

[@galacticupfan7386]

@@wbcx4491 ah so now they’re saying “the aliens must both French AND English”

[@Nimta]

@@galacticupfan7386 Canada's always been consistent that everyone must know both english and french, why not aliens too?

[@TotoDG]

Fun fact: You have better odds of getting struck by lightning seven times and winning three lotteries than you do of correctly predicting the topic of the next JJ video.

[@acasualcactus5878]

I predict the next video will be about… why people like vintage stuff.

[@TotoDG]

@@acasualcactus5878. Okay, I won't lie: that is actually a pretty good guess. I wouldn't be surprised if JJ _did_ make that video, sooner or later.

[@matthewmacleod6506]

You might need to run the math again. I think its four lotteries.

[@TotoDG]

@@matthewmacleod6506. You're right. My mistake.

[@beadzi6434]

H I S T O R Y

[@sunlocked5838]

Considering how our first attempt to contact aliens was basically the equivalent of randomly DMing someone a nude pic and your address, its no wonder why they havent gotten back to us when you think about it.

[@rainmanjr2007]

That's officially called the Anthony Weiner Code.

[@onyxadzeev5893]

We have been left on read

[@Austin-gj7zj]

@@rainmanjr2007 he makes a great case for nominal determinism.

[@judgesaturn507]

#AliensToo

[@atravismoore]

The Jimmy carter bit was absolutely hilarious. Such an earth-centric view of how ALIENS might perceive his accent. Even humans have difficulty distinguishing or even perceiving various accents of a single language. English for example.

[@R41ph3a7b6]

Even wandhelm had an accent and that isn’t bad because accents help us tell each other apart and can bring us closer to one another so jimmy carter should have done✔️☑️✅ it since accents aren’t something to be so conscious about

[@professordogwood8985]

I would like to think Carter made that excuse for an even better reason. He might not want to portray the US as a favored and dominant nation to extraterrestrials.

[@kurtisokc]

Carter didn’t want aliens to think English is spoken with a Southern accent. So, as a result, they will be forced to conclude that it is spoken in an Austrian accent. Also, why did Kurt Waldheim feel the need to record the message in English instead of his native German? Either language would be equally alien to whoever finds it.

[@jamesrosewell9081]

@@kurtisokc well English was assuming an "international language" status at that time so I assume he was doing it as a sort of non-politically/regionally specific greeting like how news broadcasters learn their artificial accent so they listeners don't associate them with anywhere in particular

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

@@professordogwood8985 I hope that's not true because that would be pointlessly stupid and I would have an even worse opinion of his presidency than I already do. Though this whole thing isn't that big of a deal.

[@OptimusPhillip]

Honestly, I think it makes more sense to think of the Moon plaques less as messages for aliens, and more as commemorative time capsules for future humans to revisit and remember the historic first landing.

[@JJMcCullough]

The plaques are kind of trying to have it both ways. They refer to "earth" and "men" but then also refer to specific countries.

[@saltedslug7954]

Yup, this is more of an attempt to persevere the idea of humanity forever. Since the likelihood of our civilization to continue for millions of years is probably slim. In case of our destruction, the only guaranteed way to memorialize our existence is by preserving it in the endless space and time of the universe.

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

Also there is a reference to God like Nixon wanted even if it’s not maybe clear. A.D means year of our Lord in Latin

[@knightwing5169]

And yet most of it is on a disc the size of a bottle cap.

[@hanseinarfuglum8858]

I find it hilarious how Carter did not want aliens to hear his accent. Imagine aliens find it and turn it on. Does he think their reaction would be: “they sure dont sound very sophisticated these people” TF do they know about english at all?

[@Clell65619]

Maybe he was worried about the association with Space Georgia. (easily detected by the rifle racks on their space ships)

[@jamesrosewell9081]

@@Clell65619 ahahahahaha

[@SpriteZero]

Jimmy Carter being self-conscious about how his southern accent reflects on humanity in 25,000 years is probably the most Jimmy Carter thing ever.

[@Kiahona]

Didn't want his peanut farm to get in the way of his being a good president/ how his presidency was perceived Did not want his southern accent to get in the way of how aliens perceive the human race in 30,000 years

[@LucasBenderChannel]

I once watched an interview with former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, where he was asked to look back on his cooperation with Jimmy Carter. He essentially said that Carter was one of the most honest and good people, he'd ever met, inside and outside of politics. But Carter must've been very difficult to work with, since he kept changing his opinion so much. Schmidt seemed quite dissatisified with that. So, good man, maybe not the best president. Not the worst, verdict, I think. :)

[@mats7492]

The last president that I actually truly respect

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

@@Kiahona "good president"

[@SpriteZero]

@@LucasBenderChannel Yeah I think he was a huge flip flopper, before and during his presidency. Nothing wrong with flip flopping though if it’s an honest change. That’s what growth is.

[@ravenlord4]

It would be funny if an alien armada was on its way to Earth, but then intercepted some superhero movie broadcasts and got scared off by thinking that they were real.

[@Mill_Jr]

"Hey Bob, I'm telling you, it's too dangerous to get closer to earth, the Avengers could be watching us"

[@TheRagingPlatypus]

If only someone could come up with a movie like this premise. We could call it Galaxy Quest.

[@ravenlord4]

@@TheRagingPlatypus IIRC that was about a war between two aliens species, were one side was using tech ideas taken from an old campy scifi television series. Seems more like The Last Star Fighter and less like The Avengers?

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

@@TheRagingPlatypus That's a fun movie!

[@judgesaturn507]

Or if they miscalculate the size of Earth and get swallowed by a dog

[@InverseAgonist]

1:35 The initials A.D. stand for "anno domini", meaning "the year of our lord", so technically Nixon got his wish

[@KhAnubis]

Another controversy on the Pioneer plaques regarded the use of the giant arrow supposed to show the probe‘s path. A lot of people complained about the arrow symbol possibly being too human-centric

[@patrickosullivan7783]

Human centric? The hell? We are humans lmao

[@CharlieQuartz]

honestly one of the most legitimate criticisms

[@victorgomes103]

@@patrickosullivan7783 The aliens probably didn't use spears/bows during their pre-spatial times to base arrows around.

[@KhAnubis]

@@patrickosullivan7783 Yes, and these plaques are for non-humans

[@patrickosullivan7783]

@@KhAnubis fair enough

[@kennethgray6693]

JJ's informative videos and his never ending parade of wonderful haircuts is why KZbin is a fun platform.

[@vortex_1336]

Putting multiple languages on that record was probably a bad idea. Any alien would probably just assume that it's all the same language and have a more difficult time trying to understand it.

[@JJMcCullough]

It’s certainly a TON of homework for them. If we got an alien record I’d just want it to be in one of their languages. We don’t have to understand ALL of their breathtaking cultural diversity right away. Basic communication should be the first priority.

[@kittrustrameve81]

especially when one of the languages is latin ahaha

[@revertrevertz5438]

@@JJMcCullough I’m more shocked the Canadian guy didn’t record it in French as well 😅

[@Rokiriko]

The its a dumb alien if it cannot conceive that a race has different languages

[@vortex_1336]

@@Rokiriko Why would they necessarily? Maybe they don't even have a spoken language and communicate some other way. They would be ALIEN. Their ways of doing things could be radically different from ours.

[@stevengoomba6490]

Although technologically primitive to us nowadays, I do enjoy the effort put into these messages from our tiny blue dot. The golden disk specifically is such a quaint artifact. I really appreciate that they wanted to show earth’s best side, it’s looks, it’s sounds, everything uniquely human.

[@Sir.Craze-]

Not really sure how it's quaint. We used a material that won't degrade over thousands of years. We never expected it to be found for long after we are possibly no longer here as a species. We weren't trying to send a message to the galaxy over in a couple years xD

[@stevengoomba6490]

@@Sir.Craze- I mean that it’s charming. It’s something fun and fascinating. It’s a product of it’s time, something we probably wouldn’t do today.

[@rodionmalovytsia1020]

I really love these 1970's attempts at alien communication. There is something so charming in the outdatedness of those records and just the sincere enthusiasm for space exploration of that era in general. Really hope we gain back that enthusiasm seeing as the new space race is kicking in.

[@accidiaet]

Lets just hope this space race doesn't die as quickly as the first.

[@STLCODPS3123]

Let’s also hope we finally get to mars, dammit

[@eccentriastes6273]

Jimmy Carter not wanting to talk to aliens because he's insecure about his accent is kind of adorable ngl.

[@GH-oi2jf]

He was joking, of course.

[@jonhanson8925]

It's depressing to me. Even though he became the most powerful person in the world he was still so influenced by internalized prejudice.

[@EmperorNero]

@@jonhanson8925 It is an issue still it is well documented that people with southern accents are discriminated against to this day.

[@jonhanson8925]

@@EmperorNero I know, that's what makes it sad.

[@accidiaet]

@@EmperorNero sucks considering they have the coolest american accent imo

[@freddytang2128]

I love how they left a plaque on the moon with a map of earth. You'd think any alien that reach the moon would know where earth is, they can probably see it themselves standing on the moon

[@lierlimelemon3785]

I was thinking it’d be cooler how much (or little) the geography of earth would change if aliens ever did visit

[@juanfranciscovillarroelthu6876]

@@lierlimelemon3785 asuming that the plaque would still be there long after we are gone, it would let the aliens know how earth look like when we first visit the moon

[@JJMcCullough]

@@juanfranciscovillarroelthu6876 It's true, the continents could be all different by then.

[@CiabanItReal]

The moon is slowly moving away from the earth, and will one day escape our gravity and fly out into the ether. It might be the only thing from Earth to escape the eventual expansion of the sun.

[@roneyandrade6287]

@@CiabanItReal it probably won't the moon's rate (around 3cm/year) is too slow. It won't have time to scape compared to the Sun's death that at which point would like either shallow earth and the moon or completely destroyed their surfaces

[@vladimirharkonnen458]

Looking forward to learning about this space agency called “Nassau”.

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

Lol I thought that too and took me a while before I knew JJ was talking about NASA 😂

[@ieatbookz]

I'm from LI and I don't know it! lol

[@davidpayne-rz3ue]

I don't think any of the attempts at teaching foreign life outside of earth was really ever truly made for that purpose. It seems more as just a trophy of achievement to show that they were capable of sending messages and people out to space.

[@JJMcCullough]

I agree, but that is not what we told ourselves.

[@SECONDQUEST]

You are partially correct! The funding from the government and such was given for the express purpose of proving our ability in space, to let people know "no matter where you are on the planet we can reach out and touch you." With "touch" being coded speak for kill or disrupt. The rest of it, the ideas about sending voyager and such were made by scientists who truly believed what they were doing was for the benefit of all humankind.

[@MegaKoutsou]

It is so interesting that they chose to include Latin in the gold record. It pleases my roman obsession, but even I have to admit it is a bit weird to try to teach aliens a dead language. Imagine if aliens arrive in thousands of years, and they speak perfect latin, because they thought it was a major, day-to-day language here on Earth

[@JJMcCullough]

The Catholic Church would be pleased

[@MegaKoutsou]

@@JJMcCullough do you know if Drake and Sagan were practicing Catholics? That would explain it

[@ungrave5231]

Honestly when it comes to fairly timeless languages, Latin's a pretty solid candidate to pick. Plus if the aliens end up being time travelers it would work for them all the way back another 2500 years or so if they miscalculate.

[@jonhanson8925]

That's what I thought. But then I realized that by the time the plaque reaches aliens every language we speak now will be dead. Hell, Latin is actually the longest surviving language in some ways since more people can speak it than people can speak its ancient contemporaries.

[@tesla_autopilot]

“Hello whoever you are. We come with good will, and bring peace through the stars” was the rough translation I got.

[@SEB1991SEB]

Hey JJ, a cool idea for a video would be if you asked all your viewers to create a video that they think should be sent into space, and then send it to you. You could look at all of them and talk about the best ones and any similarities between them all and what that says about how we view ourselves. And then give your own ideas of what should be shown to aliens to give them an accurate portrayal of humanity.

[@StevePuma]

I think that this would be the most JJ thing possible!

[@Canonicallycreative]

Imagine being an alien species who travelled from like five star systems over and stopping at a random moon on your way to wherever you’re headed next, and you find a plaque bragging about how the local life forms managed to reach their own moon as if it was the greatest accomplishment in the universe. Honestly it would probably be kind of adorable to them.

[@KairuHakubi]

Kinda like Kon Tiki kinda stuff, the accomplishments of very primitive societies are more interesting because it was more of a challenge. And yes I'm aware the Kon Tiki thing is probably not true, but still. One of the toughest parts of this subject is somehow knowing a lot about a civilization that by its nature is not easily known about.

[@chriszimmermann2582]

I'm quite firmly in the camp of "Any intelligent life is too far away from Earth for any meaningful contact to occur and any civilization that does have the technology to come here is probably too dangerous for contact to be a smart idea." But the Pioneer Plaque and ARECIBO message are still interesting thought experiments and listening to the Voyager record is a fun experience.

[@samuelb7546]

Yeah I tend to agree, although they might be advanced enough that they've considered coming here but don't want to disturb our natural evolution, like a galactic heritage site or something like that. Its possible there are already rules established for not interfering with early civilizations in particular star systems and a strict "no-contact" rule may apply. Or they might just think we're complete douchebags and want nothing to do with us.

[@nickfifteen]

I've always been of the notion that the Plaques and Records of Pioneer and Voyager was more of a time capsule for any humans who find it 10k years later more than as a message to aliens.

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

@@samuelb7546 even then it may take millions if not billions of years for the message to get anywhere. If anything it’s more of a galactic time capsule, showing whoever discovers it what once was the galaxy they live in and that there was once another intelligent civilization, for an intelligent civilization like us would probably be asking the same questions we do.

[@maddie9602]

While I agree that intelligent life is probably too far away to ever conceivably contact, I don't share the belief that interstellar civilizations are likely to be dangerous. Given that we have the capacity _right now_ to cause the collapse of our own civilization, I believe that, if interstellar travel is feasible at all, there's a strong selective pressure that only the least warlike civilizations, or those that are able to largely move past war, are likely to advance to the point of interstellar travel without destroying themselves in a nuclear war or similar event. Going a step further, people will often liken the dangers of spacefaring aliens to European colonialism, that the aliens would exploit and kill us for our resources. But why would they bother with the expense of war, even a heavily lopsided one, when they could easily get the same resources from an uninhabited planet without having to fight for it? What is there on Earth that they couldn't find elsewhere in the Solar System? Any elemental resource could be easily mined from a lifeless planet or an asteroid. If they need things like wood or fossil fuels, I'd bet, based on how long there was life on Earth before humanity emerged, there are loads of planets with plant and animal life, but no intelligent life, that would be easier to colonize. Would they want to enslave us? I doubt it. There's a reason most of the world abandoned slavery during the Industrial Revolution: machines are generally more efficient than slave labor. How much more advanced would their machines be if they could cross the galaxy? I don't see any good reason why an interstellar civilization would want to go to war with us.

[@bobbyferg9173]

I think that technology would eventually allow us to travel incredible distances in a short amount of time (some sort of “teleportation” seems likely to me) and these probes would likely be taken by someone with this technology before they contact an alien race. Probably either some government or private collector

[@a2rhombus2]

The arecibo message is the funniest one to me. Imagine how they might depict us in drawn form from that little stick man depiction, implying they could even decode it. Noodly curved arms, straight legs with big feet. We'd look more like something out of monsters inc

[@Carol_65]

I‘m old enough to have been alive for all of these and remember most. I was 12 when they sent up the Voyagers and remember discussing it in class. I was 7 when the Pioneer was sent, and I remember the controversy about the nude photos. Specifically, I remember my mom thinking the objection was ridiculous. I still remember sitting on the floor with my back against the refrigerator listening to my mom and my aunt talk about it. Tbh, I’m still iffy about sending Earth’s coordinates. Maybe I’m being silly, but it’s the way I feel. I often think what would happen…how it would feel…if we earthlings came across something that was obviously made by an intelligent being. How will it feel if we were confronted with solid fact that we are not alone in the universe. What‘s kind of surreal is that, when this was posted, I was listening to Nightwish‘s “Shoemaker” (about Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes being placed on the moon) and had just thought about wanting to watch a new video from JJ. Truly. (Kudos to FJ for his reading.)

[@davidvosspoor4694]

intergalactic doxing

[@Carol_65]

@@davidvosspoor4694 I’m old enough to have to look up the meaning of “doxing”.😂

[@lajya01]

I almost wish I was old enough to have witnessed all the fly-bys of the Voyagers. The only one I remember was Neptune in 1989. Every time was our first real glimpses of the planets of the outer solar system.

[@abelsm6270]

Bruh imagine the aliens are conservative and their reaction is just "disgusting, who would print such filth"

[@LoisoPondohva]

50000 years from now we receive a response: A dickpick, seriously? Blocked.

[@loganperry]

"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (Written by blues musician, "Blind Willie Johnson") is a song on the golden record sent on the voyager, and a great choice for music to represent the "human experience", however, I think NASA may have done the opposite of what they intended to do. Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground certainly doesn't represent "Earth on a good day". No lyrics, only humming, and just a single guitar, the song itself is very sorrowful. Blind Willie Johnson's life story is also one of sorrow and suffering. A black man from the American South, born in the 1890s, he was blinded by his father when he threw lye into Johnson's eyes at the age of 7. In summer 1945 a fire burned his house to the ground. With nowhere to go, Johnson lived and slept in the ruins until he contracted malarial fever and died on September 18. His second wife Angeline said that hospitals refused to treat him because he was blind, while other sources say it was because he was black. Humanity is defined by a collective struggle, and Blind Willie Johnson's music represents it for extra-terrestrial life very, very well.

[@Radcirxles]

It's really fun to imagine that somewhere, someday there'll be an alien civilization that found Voyager and has based their society off of worshipping Kurt Waldheim

[@JJMcCullough]

“So I assume he is still very venerated on earth too?” “Uh about that…”

[@haroldlawson8771]

Let me tell about our lord and savior Kurt Waldheim

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

"More than anything else, the existence of these sorts of unfulfilled human desires are probably the most substantial thing any of this stuff has to teach another civilization." wow... So well said J. J. Another amazing video. Thank you for this and Happy Saturday everyone!! (p.s., love the new doo J. J., looking sharp as always but I will hold the mullet in memorium... How it will be missed :))

[@zzRider]

I bet you money Carter wasn't ashamed of his southern accent; instead, he thought the whole thing was stupid, and that he would be mocked during his reelection for participating.

[@JJMcCullough]

Yeah you might be right

[@floydwhatchacallit6823]

I've always thought it was funny that we sent nudes, a playlist, and a map on how to get here. We did everything but tell them our parents are out of town.

[@StevePuma]

We forgot to tell them to pick up a pizza.

[@il-dottore]

"We sent you our animal sounds, please respond"

[@synthiandrakon]

The idea the message is too science geeky is funny to me. I mean who else do we expect to receive this message and attempt to understand it other than alien science geeks, in the unlikely event it ever gets discovered at all

[@machinismus]

EXACTLY! like, obviously if they're advanced enough, the alien researcher/scientist equivalent is going to be looking at it.

[@synthiandrakon]

@@machinismus I can imagine the horrible disappointment of an alien researcher who finds the voyager probe decifers how to play the record only for it to be a bunch of random nonsense stock images

[@Gameprojordan]

Every extraterrestrial civilization has their own NASA, they just call it the National Aeronautics and Space Aliens

[@jonhanson8925]

@@synthiandrakon Are you kidding me? I would kill for the chance to see stock footage of an alien world created by an alien civilization. That's one of the most precious artifacts I could imagine! And yet I also recognize I might be in a minority here and plenty of people would rather have a $20 bill. So I guess we're hoping that even if the aliens that find it aren't curious as a whole, maybe there are some curious individuals that would value our message.

[@lajya01]

​@@synthiandrakon It sounded very 1970s psychedelics like. It's already starting to sound alien for us in 2022.

[@PikeProductions23]

JJ's career can be broken down into hairstyles: The mustache era- just starting out on KZbin The blonde era- The videos are crisper and have a higher production quality The long hair era- When the audience size really starts to grow and JJ becomes a well-known KZbinr The short hair era- Only time will tell

[@leontrotsky7816]

Honestly, at this point, the hairstyle's like a silent co-presenter.

[@teddymerzliakov755]

It's not an era, it's a hair-a

[@Marylandbrony]

I also associate them with diffrent things. Mustache era: Kinda of like old KZbin with him in a room without a "Set" and trying to mix politics with geography, maps and retro stuff. Took place during the late Obama and early Trump years The blonde era: In my opinion peak JJ with him doing less politics and him doing more generally educational stuff we are familiar with along with travel vlogs and unboxings from fans. The long hair era: Associated with the coronavirus pandemic and he probably didn't go out to hair cuts regularly and saw his content become more popular. But starting to become a little stale in my opinion. KZbin shorts become his biggest hits The short hair era: A possible return to something pre-covid and maybe a return to travel.

[@Jim-the-Engineer]

If you're enough of a science geek (like me) you can buy an exact replica of the Voyager plaque, in gold-anodized aluminum - from the same folks who made the originals: Precision Engravers, of San Carlos, CA! ($135 - USD)

[@supernuke]

Sidenote, the reason why its not *such* an incredible stretch that the aliens could figure out that the arecibo message would be rectangular is because there are only two numbers which multiply to make 1679, which are 23 and 73. Since these are the only two numbers, then the number could be viewed as a rectangular grid with those side lengths.

[@JJMcCullough]

But couldn’t they just as easily view it as a horizontal rectangle or an upside down rectangle?

[@crazydragy4233]

Does this stand true in all counting systems? I'm pretty bad with this stuff but how will they know which number base to use for that?

[@collincaperton6718]

@@JJMcCullough I mean if I recieved and image from an extraterrestrial life form I would definetly view it from every single angle and I'm sure the aliens would probably feel the same about this

[@natbarmore]

@@JJMcCullough given all the other obstacles, I don’t think that the risk of it being “backwards” or sideways makes it any harder to decode. They might think we look like we’re standing on our heads or have a horizontal posture, but that’s not really a big deal.

[@natbarmore]

@@crazydragy4233 primes are independent of the number base.

[@Cedric898]

The Voyager golden records were and still are something we here in Bulgaria are proud of because the recording of Valya Balkanska. A really interesting how something like this can be such a big deal for a country.

[@ungrave5231]

I get the feeling that the more likely candidates to find the probe would either be future humans, or an army of killbots that beat us and took over outer space.

[@lajya01]

We'll probably physically reach the cluster well before the Arecibo message.

[@SeanLaMontagne]

Lord Frieza is gonna find it first.

[@aaron14b]

Gotta say, this video is the first time I've heard NASA pronounced like that

[@oliverkarehag9883]

Like Nassau

[@ninjawarrior8994]

@@oliverkarehag9883 Or Nasser (like the Egyptian ruler)

[@matt0121]

NASA’s gone funky NASA’s gone soul NASA rock and NASA roll

[@selahanany5645]

@@ninjawarrior8994 that isnt how you pronounce nasser.

[@afaella3]

You didn't include the most profound attempt at teaching Aliens about Earth Culture through art and music: The SpaceX launch of a Tesla Roadster blasting David Bowie

[@KairuHakubi]

That was more "Hey we think you left one of your guys on our planet, does this guy sound familiar?"

[@kallenmorrison9483]

A similar topic to this and maybe an interesting video in and of itself are the Long-time nuclear waste warning messages. Really interesting how us humans try to convey information to other species/humans without language

[@jonhanson8925]

That would definitely be a great follow up!

[@HAbarneyWK]

Tom Scott has a nice video about it

[@KairuHakubi]

even starfleet bunged it up. writing 'radioactive' on the casing, even a radiationproof android with brain damage (who could at least read the word and reproduce its sounds but had no idea what it meant anymore) didn't have the remotest indication he shouldn't open it up and sell its contents.

[@cutecommie]

@@HAbarneyWK which one?

[@HAbarneyWK]

@@cutecommie "Inside The Tunnels That Will Store Nuclear Waste For 100,000 Years"

[@Clintoncudworth]

As a young poet working through college, the sign off for this video gave me chills. Amazing as always J.J. :)

[@nowhereman6019]

The aliens got our message and responded: *"SEND MORE CHUCK BERRY"*

[@housevisand]

It is funny to me how comparable this is to intergalactic cave drawings. - I love it!

[@jsheav]

I'm sure the aliens would have thought earthlings are dumb if the president had a southern accent, because they would know the difference

[@JJMcCullough]

Instead their introduction to English comes from an Austrian

[@telusman]

The first 15 and a half minutes were informative, educational, funny. The last minute and a half made me question my pointless existence... 9/10 for existential crisis.

[@AL5520]

On Star Trek Voyager in episode (s07e21), Voyager is asked to look for such probe, called "Friendship One" (the name of this episode) that was sent for the same purpose a few centuries before that. They find it in the estimated area and learn that it was found by a race that use the info on antimatter reactors to create one but as they were not advanced enough they made a mistake which cause an explosion that created a nuclear winter on their planet. They believed that it was a plan to destroy their planet and conquer it.

[@marcello7781]

The fuss over the nudity of two drawings representing human beings in their natural state sounds like something straight out of a parody. Like an example of the Poe's Law.

[@Ddddddddddd381]

Just a small piece about the languages and linguistics of having a recording with many different people saying different greetings in their own language: it’s completely stupid. Throughout history, archaeologists have been able to translate languages because they’ve had writings of in different languages together that SAY THE SAME THING. Having many different languages together saying DIFFERENT things completely erases all hope of a translation

[@florinivan6907]

Aliens would likely assume at first these sounds are saying the same thing. So their decryption would at first work with that assumption. After a while they'd probably notice inconsistencies and simply assume a variety of messages.

[@JJMcCullough]

It’s actually extremely confusing when you think about it because a lot of the messages are similar but distinct. So all of the UN people, for instance are giving slightly different versions of a very similar generic diplomatic greeting.

[@badaboum2]

That's because we had knowledge, at least partial, of one of the languages used. The Rosetta Stone was decoded because one of the language used was Ancient Greek. Since the aliens are going to be equally clueless about all our languages they can't do what we did. Honestly whatever we said in whatever language had no chance of being translated by someone with no prior knowledge of any Earth language.

[@JP-JustSayin]

And what if the aliens don't have visual or auditory senses as part of their anatomy? What if they don't use lungs for gas exchange and have little floppy bits that can cause compression waves in a gaseous atmosphere if they reposition them while exhaling? What if they communicate by a means similar to how an octopus changes color, but they use paterns of temperature gradients on their skin that they can control, and they have to be in skin to skin contact to communicate with another being of their kind? Perhaps these aliens have built giant membranes that collect radiation from space to perform their astronomy, but they think of their "telescopes" as "mechanical skin" that receives information from space, instead of thinking of their telescopes like mechanical eyes the way humans do. Alien thought universes are infact alien. I'm just saying. 😉

[@StevePuma]

I was thinking the same thing. The smart move would have been one message repeated in multiple languages.

[@Mike_from_Canmore]

It all makes more sense when you consider the meaning of life and human existence is to merely keep living and existing. These are less the actions of an egocentric or narcissistic species as you alluded to, but more the actions of a young civilization trying to better understand their place in the universe. Maybe misguided, but I do believe that this was all done in good faith and with the best of intentions.

[@crazydragy4233]

I dunno. They're seriously more like time capsules and vain proofs to self at best.

[@tylersmith4456]

Great video! Would you be interested in doing a video on the Canada pavilion at Disney World? Or maybe discussing how they focus on the specific cultures they chose? Would seem like something interesting to talk about if you haven't already

[@paulosantana415]

My favorite piece of the endeavor to contact aliens has always been the addition of "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willy Johnson on the Voyager record in an attempt to convey the human emotion of loneliness. They made the right choice, because it's a tearjerker every single time

[@calessel3139]

It would be funny if aliens already know all these things about humans but are just purposely avoiding us.

[@JustAlice_Mai]

Probably in the same way we mostly avoid the Northern Sentinel Island, they might see us as primitive hence best untouched with the only contact being with top levels of governments of the most powerful countries.

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

I mean, more power to them, honestly. I certainly wouldn't blame them 😅

[@killerbug05]

@@JustAlice_Mai to be fair we did try to make contact with the northern sentinel island inhabitants many times...it just didn't go well any of those times

[@zodaxa6141]

Now the aliens gonna think we are some weirdos who send their adress and naked pictures of themselves to their neighbours.

[@Nick-me1ms]

JJ has gone into a time machine again, he just de-ages every couple months

[@jubisisters]

I've just had a brilliant idea for a sci-fi story. What if that signal from Arecibo DID end up reaching someone, and they used the knowledge contained within to create humans from scratch?

[@codegoblin7740]

you should watch the movie: species

[@ezrajewburg6004]

Here Is The Quality Canadian Content: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX24eJ6ooJh2oMk

[@In_Our_Timeline]

man the 70s was a time worth living in

[@Quickpatch12]

Don't forget, those records on Voyager also contain a message from Megatron to any future Decipticons who find it. And coordinates to the Autobot Shuttle, The Ark so the future Decepticons can go back in time to kill Optimus so he can not be awakened in 1984

[@vfsdm]

11:39 **pov you’re an alien and you hear two other aliens talking some gibberish towards you** The two humans: “hey we saw you across the galaxy, we liked your vibe”

[@junetheraccoon2188]

it’s funny to me that amidst such a monumental event people were most concerned about aliens seeing what our genitalia looked like. it’s almost as if genitalia are a natural part of human bodies and not just a sex object lol

[@JanaeRose]

I love how he acknowledges his constantly changing hair LMAO.

[@amazinglylifelike555]

When you put the Sex and Outer Space letter on screen I paused and read it so when I saw it would be narrated I was about to skip until I heard the delightful anger in the narrator's voice. Absolutely hilarious.

[@diegog1853]

Ironically, they send messages in multiple languages to include as much of earths culture as possible, but if they have faith in any possibility of aliens deciphering any of these languages, then the smart thing to do, and really the only way to do it, is to include as much of that language as possible, particularly if the words have at least some reference images to ilustrate what they might mean. If you spend 30 seconds in each different language, you might aswell just send gibberish. Understanding a language is not magic, you cannot expect a super duper advance civilization to perfectly understand what five random sounds are supposed to mean. Which makes it all the more silly that they are sending just random greetings, as if someone with no human contact will ever understand.

[@seanmurphree4716]

No one: Pierre Elliot Trudeau: THE ALIENS MUST KNOW WE SPEAK BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH

[@systris]

The first thing I thought about was the part of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where Arthur Dent's random comment started a intergalactic war that lasted for centuries and then after that, Carpenters - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.

[@zacharycurrie3708]

Something tells me those gold records are going into the alien spam folder.

[@tatiana184]

Awww, that Jimmy Carter tidbit was kind of heartbreaking 😥 I wasn't born in the south but live here now, and it's sad he felt like his accent was anything but awesome. I love them!

[@Ash_Yu]

To be fair the Apollo 11 makes more sense as a time capsule than a message of aliens. Any aliens that make it to the moon are better served just going the extra mile to reach the earth itself than looking for that plate I'd thwh want to learn about is.

[@kenjisakaie6028]

A reminder of our glorious leader, Richard Nixon.

[@Jurt0E]

love your pfp

[@NeelLLumi-AnCatDubh]

There was a recent SMBC comic about how aliens refuse to talk to humans because the naked drawings make it look like humans are just horndogs looking for a threeway.

[@JJMcCullough]

Hahaha that’s true with the man waving

[@souravghosh1003]

JJ you can actually make a video on the conceptualization of aliens and there representation in various cultures .

[@RabidChild82]

Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode is on the record and was criticized for being too “juvenile”. Sagan responded with by saying, “Juveniles are people, too.”

[@constancestrawn1303]

The golden record was humanity's dating app profile haha

[@emilyapricot1313]

I am most charmed by the first plaque. It is the simple sort of pictures we might see on a cave drawn by earlier civilizations.

[@manders.]

Fascinating! Thank you! I wonder if we'd have better luck if the messages were more honest about earth and our intentions 🤔🤔

[@HVACSoldier]

I always wonder IF our satellite DID reach an alien civilization, what IF our word for peace was interpreted as an alien word for war. What would happen?

[@JJMcCullough]

Then may Earth’s god help us all

[@aaronmoore6275]

I'd think that a spacefaring civilization wouldn't slime their scales over ONE word from a fledgling civilization like ours was when the probe was sent. 2cents.

[@HVACSoldier]

@@JJMcCullough “This is Lrrr, Ruler of the Planet Omicron Persei 8. We have received your message, and accept your declaration of war.”

[@ian5o9o20]

Peter: “do you trust anyone.” JJ: “I trust my barber.” 💈 Good haircut man

[@user-en7dx1qp3k]

imagine getting the first message from outer space in your civilization's history and it's just a bunch of math homework

[@sawyerd4201]

I find the topic of aliens so interesting because there’s only a slim chance that this alien civilization would be close to have the technology we have now. Either their technology would be extremely superior or for all we know they could be far worse then ours

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

Or they could not be around at all.

[@diagonalleaf]

The funny part is sharks (An earth creature) have 2 more senses than us so imagine an alien that could have any senses (It could have senses that us humans could never dream possible) and then we send something in just visual and sometimes audio the odds of an alien having those senses and being intelligent enough know it's not just a weird rock is so astronomically small.

[@ALuimes]

On Earthlike planets hearing and vision would likely be very common actually.

[@Knez_Pavle]

Interesting that it says A.D. and not C.E. Guess Nixon got his God cameo after all

[@darkfool2000]

The more I read about Nixon, the more human he becomes, as opposed to villainous caricatures like in Futurama.

[@sempersuffragium9951]

@@darkfool2000 Usually true with most people we know as histories villains. The reverse is also usually true for our heroes, unfortunately

[@rainmanjr2007]

I'm sure its inclusion was intentional.

[@orkkojit]

15:27 fun fact the guy is speaking in Bengali and he was actually a politician in the Indian state of West Bengal en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrata_Mukherjee

[@Абдулло-щ3е9э]

I always like to think that somewhere out there there is a United Space Council. Made up of highly developed intergalactic nations. And we are just some poor planet that never got the memo about the rest of the universe, kind of like the Sentinelese.

[@walkingfish703]

Haha, Frank James was a great voiceover for his text. The problem about the nude images on the plaque is the inability to separate any depiction of the unclothed human body from pornography. Pornography is purposely deigned to titillate and to capture your whole focus. An anatomy drawing is designed to educate and usually doesn't portray any sensuality other than having sexual organs visible. And then there's nude art which is traditionally supposed to uplift and show the beauty of the human body.

[@Clell65619]

I would suggest that we started announcing our presence to the Universe the day we started using radio. Sure, still mostly low power, but who knows what some other civilization might be able to detect?

[@xway2]

You should watch the movie Contact (based on a book by Carl Sagan). It takes this idea in an interesting direction.

[@KairuHakubi]

I have heard that those signals fade to become basically undetectable past a certain distance. It's more a case of "if they're in the area but never checked on our system specifically, they might pick up radio signals and come say hi"

[@tronVang]

How to show aliens we aren’t unified: Sends up multiple languages… just a thought.

[@glassmuxxic]

It's interesting how these kind of things tend to say something about the anxieties and cares of their era, and telling that the modern debate around these (e.g. Michio Kaku) is whether we should be sending/should have sent them at all as we could be telling prospective invaders where we are - reflecting a more anxious, pessimistic time maybe.

[@felipingus]

I love the way Arrival, the movie with Amy Adams, think about communication with aliens and how our languages are based in an idea of time

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

Now if only aliens could get through their organs of intelligence that the weird voices are languages and they should follow the one pattern they hear the most as all the others are basically saying the same thing.

[@rachel_sj]

I'm kind of disappointed JJ didn't to a Sagan voice when saying Thousands and Thousands of Years, but I respect him even more for *not* doing it

[@jonhanson8925]

Amazing video. Funny, I almost hesitated to watch this video because I've read so much on the subject I thought you'd say a bunch of things I'd already heard. And while the majority of the information is stuff I'd heard before, I think your editorial take is fascinating. You really cut to the most human elements of the story, and the issues that are woven into all human existence. Human existence is defined by this duality between the animal/practical things we need to do just to survive the same way our ape ancestors did to get from one moment to the next, and yet we also have these grand ambitions thanks to our oversized brains and ability to think on such grand scales. How do we make sense of a life where we have to shovel food into our mouth and them poop it out until we're buried into the ground and get eaten by bugs and bacteria and then pooped out into ourselves? That can't be all there is, we need to be part of some grand story that will persist even when our short lives are extinguished. Are these grand stories we tell and gestures we make comforting lies or spiritual truths?

[@TheGlob420]

4:37 the sentence barely has the same meaning in the english translation. Its essentially stating that man reached the moon . while the french translation is all about rediscovering earth and finding peace.

[@colonelb]

The other thing folks forgot was that our senses evolved based on conditions here on Earth, and aliens could have completely different range of senses. We only "see" a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, so there's no reason to NOT think that some alien may "see" x-rays or whatever and that what we consider as red, blue, green, or whatnot could be invisible to them. Same goes for sound - our auditory range is based on sound waves travelling through a specific density and composition of atmosphere, a completely different atmosphere would have a completely different auditory range. And that's not even considering the idea that different materials are toxic to different species. For all we know, there may be a species out there that reacts to those gold plaques as if they were arsenic or mercury or uranium to us, and just get poisoned and die.

[@CharlieQuartz]

Our species has used technology to detect information beyond our senses in touch, hearing, smell/taste, and sight, including images like the Cosmic Microwave Background, which only exists in lower-energy light than we can see. It is entirely possible that aliens smart enough to understand the process of language could have technology which would help them detect information beyond their senses. Gold is the least reactive element beside Platinum and the Noble Gases so it almost certainly won't react with any organic beings and probably not anything silicon-based.

[@colonelb]

@@CharlieQuartz True. And along that line about technology, personally I think that if we did encounter life that would be something we would consider "intelligent" by any measure we understand, it's entirely possible that they wouldn't be that advanced yet. Someone from the 1700s who had language and society and culture and knew a little about the world still would have no way to process any type of radio or microwave signal. And for all we know, aliens COULD have been broadcasting radio signals to earth for a few thousand years only to give up 500 years ago under the assumption that we weren't smart enough.

[@CharlieQuartz]

@@colonelb I agree! Though it could also be argued that if species don't tend to destroy themselves after they discover energy-efficient weapons like atomics and they invent technologies as quickly as we have, they would more often be found with advanced technologies than not. We have only being teasing with invention and language and everything we consider "intelligent" for about 10,000 years. If civilizations continue for thousands of years in the future and things become ever more stable (as they have been tending to do) it could be more likely to find a species after they are capable of receiving lower-energy signals.

[@antonlencses8622]

Only way i can imagine X ray sensing would be usefull to an organism would be sa a way to detect radioation sources, maybe it would be radiotrophe, which itsellf seams as a very sepecific niche fo an organims to fill. Hence i am sceptical that there would be any inteligent allien which can naturally sense anything which smaller wavelnght then UV.

[@colonelb]

@@antonlencses8622 Well and that's kind of my point that we are biased in as much as 100% of every example of life we have seen has been life that has evolved to exist here on Earth and so they all have things in common obviously that make sense for here, but as a consequence of that we have a very hard time even conceptualizing how and why life could be any different which may turn out in the long run to be a mistake.

[@germenfer]

A very important critique about the Pioneer message design is the inclusion of the arrow showing the path of the probe. It is a very human-centric symbol, as we evolved as hunter-gatherers, and the "arrow" symbol signifying direction is an anachronism of the actual arrows we used to shoot and javelins we used to throw. We don't know if another civilization might have also evolved as hunter-gatherers woth similar tools, that might see the arrow as "pointing". For what they know, it could be a structure we have in our solar system or any other thing.

[@Anastas1786]

Where do we get this persistent idea that any sentient race must necessarily someday invent binary code, or care enough about the finer details of chemistry and physics to measure the exact frequency of the radiation coming off a hydrogen atom when its electron's spin changes?

[@gkky-xx4mc]

If they have the technology to intercept and decode messages like these, then there's a 99% chance that their understanding of chemistry and physics is just as detailed, likely more detailed than us. Otherwise they wouldn't even receive the plaque, so why bother?

[@jamier65551]

The (paradoxically named) Unproductive Failure already answered your question. I'm pretty sure thry would have have do these things to really reach a level of complexity and advancement comparable to ours.

[@trevormillar1576]

"Earthmen, we come in peace... RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! Ha ha ha, just a bit of humour there..."

[@globesurfer122]

I bet humanity will advance so much before the gold plaques reach any other alien life that we'll race out with our big spaceships and pick the Voyagers back up. Either that or itll land on one of our already-colonized planets at some point.

[@skippy9273]

Its evolving, just backwards

[@seanjohn2312]

JJ looks better with his short hair. Change my mind....

[@delusionnnnn]

I never knew the Bahamas played so important an administrative role to the US space race.

[@pringleiscool475]

i like how he calls us friends :)

[@JJMcCullough]

Because you are!

[@pringleiscool475]

@@JJMcCullough I'm glad to hear that!

[@TheRubyGamesOG]

I think it was necessary to show nudity was important to show aliens our actual bodies and what we actually look like. If clothes were there it would have made aliens unaware of what we actually look like underneath our man-made clothes