Imagine you’ve been hired by Elon Musk to create a golden record type project for a space probe leaving Earth today.
Select 3 examples of music, sound or noise that you would include. Include links (if possible) of your choices.
Write a 30 word description for each example. Then write a 60 word rationale of why you think these 3 selections should be included on a golden record project. Really consider why you think these are particularly powerful examples deserving of an extra-terrestrial audience.
1.) Ocean sounds with seagulls. Ideally the sample sound for the waves would catch them on a more gentle feeling and deeper sound, and the bird calls would be more in the background. Also try to get the sample to have no people voices in it.
2.) A day at an outdoor market with enough people to create that humming ambient sound (caused when lots of people speak in a condensed area). Closest thing I could find to what I mean is the Castle Town Market music from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (no Navi sounds, Choco sounds, or any other non-human sounds though). https://youtu.be/KUoJxnIkwTY?t=132
3.) Claude Debussy’s “Rêverie”. It’s gentle, deep, and doesn’t have enough dissonances to make me scared or uncomfortable, which I would hope the aliens would feel the same way. I have also found this piece to strongly remind me of fall, so maybe one day they could interpret it that way as well.
I think the ocean sounds should be added because (and I’m completely assuming these aliens need H20 to live AND they have running/moving water on their home planet) because it shows them a bit what our planet is physically like, and they might be able to relate. Same idea with the market place, just with added human voices so they know it’s an activity we do that they might also do (plus I’ve always found the music to be lively and cheerful). Finally, I chose RĂŞverie to show the aliens what we can do with sound i.e how we can create something beautiful (at least in my perspective). As I said before. this piece reminds me of fall, so if we one day are beginning to communicate with aliens, we could use this piece to help show the idea of changing seasons (since it take quite a long time to visually see it). At the very least, I’m hoping to show them an art form on Earth that doesn’t scare or anger them. Music seems to be quite the universal on Earth, so I’m hoping it’s a familiar enough concept to foreign beings.
