The Ephemeral Word

What a great thing words are. And how temporary!

I just finished “The World Without Us” in which Weisman describes the project to send into space a token “piece” of our civilization – in this case the Voyager spacecraft bearing a gold-plated copper analog disc. The challenge was, in 12 inches, to inscribe sound and images that would represent us to another civilization millions of years (and light-years) away. Since surely language would have developed differently in this far-off place, how do we make the recipient understand the message? Or even how to access it from the disc?

I would like to think that there is a universal language in the shape of a pure intelligence. Funny how we can know, across language barriers, about emotion, compassion, friendship. For those of us looking forward to something after this life, we are reassured that when the organization of symbols we call language disappears, we will all still know what is meant.

What I am reading today

I'm listening to "The World Without Us" in my car. This strikes me as somewhat ironic. Here is a literary work transferred to a petroleum/plastic product (cd-rom), for use in a carbon emitting, gasoline engine vehicle - a work which excoriates society for its selfish, greedy and heedless misuse of the environment. hmmm.....

In any case, it does make me want to step up my recycling efforts. Nothing like a little healthy guilt to start one's day.