When the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space probes were launched, they had on board, a small aluminium plaque containing several symbols and figures to let any would be interceptors know who we are and where we are in the universe.

A similar thing was done when the Voyager 1 and 2 probes were launched in 1977. On board they contained the Voyager Golden Record which contains the sounds and images that describe what humanity is like.

When I first came to know about this years ago, I was fascinated by the concept. I mean it’s just like a message in a bottle in the sea. Only here, the universe is the sea, the space probe is the bottle and the record is the message.

But it also made me question some deeper things. For example, what would be the best portrayal of humanity to an extra-terrestrial civilisation? I mean what makes us…..us?

What’s The Best Way of Describing Ourselves?

Let’s say we make contact with an intelligent civilisation in the near future. What do you think would be the best way of letting them know who we are and what we are like? A sort of an “introduceyourself” if you will.

I mean sure, we will probably first let them know that we live on Earth in the solar system and that we are a carbon-based life form and have been on the planet for x number of years with a roughly 5000 years of recorded history.

But this is not enough to properly describe us, right? I mean we are more than just a bunch of molecules that constitute life. We are a phenomenon in a way, occurring on this planet in various ways, because even though we all are one, we are quite different.

So, what is it that would get the cosmic message through about our identity?

Is It Music?

It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Voyager Golden Record contains a good amount of songs in it. If any ETs do intercept the Voyager 1 and are able to play the record, they will be in for a delight.

Music says a lot about a civilisation and it also tells us a lot about the diversity within a species. Think about it. Different countries have different music styles and that’s not where the diversity ends. Music is also influenced by culture and history. So, a carefully selected list of songs would be a good indicator of human life on Earth.

But a part of me can’t help but ask, “Would the ETs even understand music like we do? Would they be able to appreciate it like we do or even the meaning and abstract ideas behind them? Would they even have music?” These are some tough questions and we probably will never know.

Is It Random Photos of Humanity Doing Random Things?

A photo is definitely worth a thousand words and what spoken words or music might fail to convey, photos surely will. Imagine if you want to understand what ETs are like. Some photos of their life would be great in visualising their world, wouldn’t they?

So, a proper way of describing ourselves could be just photos of us doing random things like sitting on a beach, working on a job, building things, riding bikes, or just about anything.

All these things might not be such a big deal for us but for an alien civilisation, they would act as a window into our daily lives and would help them understand the different dimensions of human life.

Is It Our Scientific Prowess?

Rest assured that if we ever encounter an alien civilisation that contacts us first, they would surely be thousands or even millions of years more advanced than us.

So, our level of scientific understanding could be a great indicator of who we are and where we are at our evolutionary stage. Of course in comparison against ‘them’ it would be tiny, but still an indicator nonetheless.

I think even when we look back at history and try to understand the different ancient civilisations that have prospered and then disappeared, we tend to look at the capabilities of those civilisations in terms of their inventions and discoveries that we find in their written texts.

So, the collective pool of human knowledge can be considered as a universal meter of our status in the universe. If ETs exist and I’m sure they do, we are all working with the same laws of physics. So, that could be the universal metric against which not only us but any given species in the universe could use to communicate who they are.