I imagine there are a lot of roomba's & assembly-line robots giving humans the side-eye & muttering "*We* harpooned a comet?" today.
— David Erik Nelson (@SquiDaveo) November 12, 2014
On honor of earth’s robots’ recent success in capturing a comet, I’ve spent the morning listening to the music that’s inscribed on the “golden records” attached to the outside of the Voyager I and II space probes. (I wrote about this record last year, when Voyager I finally escaped our solar system. Errata: in that post I erroneously claimed that “Johnny B. Goode,” Navajo Chant, and “Dark Was the Night—Cold Was the Ground”—my personal pick from this album—are the only tracks by US artists on the record; there is also a Louise Armstrong Blues. All apologies to the Idea of the Ghost of Mr. Armstrong for the omission [see also].)
At any rate, here’s by far the best presentation of the Golden Record I’ve come upon to date; a real joy to run in the background as you toil away your finite hours in service to the vast web of computers that have enmeshed and now devour us all:
Infinite Voyager
If you are a simple 1970’s robot stuck on a 50-year death-trip road trip with no real destination and only one mix tape, you could do worse. Godspeed to all the little robots we keep condemning to the void; you are indeed brave little toasters.
[*] That title ain’t no lie: Where Voyager I is flying now, it is mos def the most alien thing in the mix.