Xref: utzoo sci.space:7357 sci.space.shuttle:1432
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rhw@helens.Stanford.EDU
From: rhw@helens.Stanford.EDU (Robert H. Wentworth)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Interpretation of the PIONEER-10 Plaque
Message-ID: <11@helens.stanford.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 88 04:05:15 GMT
References: <8809261413.AA18424@decwrl.dec.com> <1430@viper.Lynx.MN.Org>
Reply-To: rhw@helens.UUCP (Robert H. Wentworth)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 20

>In article <8809261413.AA18424@decwrl.dec.com> luhrs@drfix.dec.com (Bruce Luhrs, MKO1-1/L38, Fire Management) writes:
> >
> >    Can anyone remember what information and messages were represented
> >    on the plaque carried out of the solar system by Pioneer-10?
> >
> >    If I could find a good picture of the plaque, it'd be interesting to
> >    see how many people could gather the meaning of the messages.  But
> >    I need the "correct answers" first.

I wonder if before they sent the Pioneer-10 plaque they tested it on anyone
who didn't already know what information it was intended to convey.  I
remember seeing reproductions of it several times, along with descriptions
of the interpretation, and thinking that very few humans with a BS in
Physics and no prior knowledge of the plaque or the philosophy behind
it would be likely to translate it correctly.  Heaven help anyone from
a different technical culture...


Robert Wentworth          | Got them don't know quite what I'm doin'
rhw@sierra.stanford.edu   | new poster blues...