“Hello From the Children of Planet
Earth”—Greta and the Golden Record
Greta Thunberg superimposed on a previous artwork featuring the Golden Record from the Voyager
spacecraft. Artwork entitled “Hello from the Children of Planet Earth.” Conceived and created by
Barry Vacker and Julia M. Hildebrand, June 2019. More details below.
Greta Thunberg and the Golden Record—they have much in common
though they are separated by 42 years and 14 billion miles. Greta gave
voice to millions of eco-minded youth in the Climate Strike on Planet
Earth, while the Golden Record is hurtling through the Milky Way with
greetings in dozens of languages, including one child’s voice that says:
“Hello from the Children of Planet Earth.” That’s right, the idea of
youth speaking for the future of Earth is not new, no matter how much it
triggers the dudes in power and their political supporters.
Greta’s message to the youth echoed in the global media networks of
2019, while the greetings from Earth are encoded on the Golden Record
attached to the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977. Both Greta and
the Golden Record are products of their eras, but are connected by their
dire messages and the emergent planetary consciousness they
represent. “Hello from the Children of
Planet Earth” and the Climate Strike
are voices born of two diSerent
apocalyptic fears—the Cold War and
Climate Disuption. Importantly, the
“Hello” greeting is part of an
emerging planetary consciousness on
Earth—the idea that humanity needs
to think as a species to prevent self
destruction on its tiny planet in the
majestic universe.
Above, Greta is superimposed on a
previous artwork that references
Voyager’s message with a full-sized
replica of the Golden Record. It’s as if
the artwork tapped into the emerging
Cover for the Golden Record, with pulsar map locating Planet Earth (lower
planetary consciousness symbolized
left) and a hydrogen atom in its two lowest states (lower right). Above by the Golden Record—and now
those are diagrams for playing the record — which an extraterrestrial
Greta Thunberg. Conceived by Julia
civilization might understand.
M. Hildebrand and myself, the
artwork was called “Hello from the Children of Planet Earth” and was
part of our mixed-media installation entitled “Media(S)cene” hosted by
the Media Ecology Association at the University of Toronto, June 27–29,
2019. The artwork and installation was inspired by our Medium essay
“Hot and Cool in the MediaScene,” which sketches out a radically new
media theory for our species living on Planet Earth and in the
Anthropocence. The essay won an international award—the John Culkin
Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology, award by
the Media Ecology Association.
“Hello From the Children of Planet Earth,” Mixed media with acrylic and pumice on stretched canvas; Hubble Deep Field image. 4 feet x 5’ feet. Full-size replica of the
NASA Voyager Golden Record. Concept by Julia Hildebrand and Barry Vacker, canvas by Barry Vacker and Liza Samuel. June 2019.
Written in-part for the youth of the world and for those who realize we
need new media theory for the radical conditions we face, the essay
presents the parameters of a massive theory to connect our layers of
media technologies to life on Planet Earth—to the Anthropocene, to our
emerging planetary consciousness, and to the long-term future of the
human species.
Launched in 1997, Voyager and the Golden Record (visible on the facing side of Voyager) are now cruising through the Milky Way, the farthest embodiment of the
planetary consciousness on Planet Earth.
The Message of the Golden Record
Eight years after the optimistic triumph of Apollo 11 in 1969, humanity
sent a dire message into the cosmic void. Mounted on Voyager is the
famous Golden Record, a gold-plated copper disk with an electronic
compilation of life on Earth, encoded with 117 photographs, greetings in
54 languages, 90 minutes of music from around the world, and a
selection of sounds from nature and culture, such as animals,
symphonies, and a rocket launch. Included was a needle to play the
record, with instructions on the record cover and the playing speed of 16
rpm listed in the binary code of ones and zreos. There was also a
statement from US president Jimmy Carter:
“We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years
into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface
of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky
Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and
space-faring civilizations. If one such
civilization intercepts Voyager and can
understand these recorded contents,
here is our message:
“This is a present from a small distant
world, a token of our sounds, our
science, our images, our music, our
thoughts, and our feelings. We are
attempting to survive our time so we
may live into yours. We hope
someday, having solved the problems
we face, to join a community of galactic
civilizations. This record represents
our hope and our determination
and our goodwill in a vast and
awesome universe.
The Golden Record, 1977. Includes many images and sounds of Earth, such
as whales, a baby crying, rockets launching, waves breaking on a shore,
faces of humans, etc. Also includes 90 minutes of music by Mozart, Blind Though President Carter was
Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry and Valya Balkanska, among many others, referencing the fears of the Cold War,
along with greetings such as “Hello from the Children of Planet of Earth.”
the basic message is not that diSerent
from Greta’s—a message of warning and hope. Voyager was the next
voice of the emergent planetary consciousness that `rst appeared with
NASA’s Apollo moon program. [No, the moonwalks were not a hoax.]
When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and said “One small step for
(a) man, one giant leap for mankind,” a billion people watched in awe
on television, immediately cheering and exclaiming “We did it!”
This was perhaps the `rst clear moment of the planetary consciousness
produced by electronic media married to an incredible human
achievement. Voyager was a continuation of that planetary
consciousness in 1979, as was the Hubble Space Telescope in 1991, as
are the internet and social media in the 21st century — at least on certain
occasions for the internet and social media, such as the Climate Strike,
Women’s March, and the Science March.
Voyager’s Message to the 21st Century
Voyager poses a profound challenge to our tribalism and cosmic
narcissism, especially with the photo known as the Pale Blue Dot. By
1990, Voyager 1 had more than ful`lled its many mission objectives, so
scientist Carl Sagan persuaded NASA engineers to program the space
probe to snap a photo of Earth, by then a distant object receding ever
farther in the space probe’s journey. As programmed from 3.7 billion
miles away, Voyager beamed an image of the Earth back home — an
image comprised of 640,000 pixels, the planet itself only a single pixel, a
tiny speck of light, a Pale Blue Dot against the cosmic void.
We can reject that photo as too scary, too nihilistic, too meaningless
because it makes us seem trivial and utterly insigni`cant. In my view,
that’s not the right move. We can also see the image as a rebuke to our
endless warfare and planetary destruction. And we can see the image an
inspiration to become more enlightened, to understand our
consciousness as one way the universe knows itself. We may be tiny, but
we are also brainy!
In the book Pale Blue Dot, Sagan writes that the aim of the photograph
was to help humanity better grasp its place in the cosmos in hopes we
might overcome millennia of warfare and cosmic conceit, better care for
our planet, and grasp the fact that Earth was our only home. As Sagan
states:
“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of
blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and
triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this
pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how
frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another,
how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have
some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale
light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In
our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from
elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
. . . Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our
stand.”
Indeed, we’re tiny, but we’re also brainy and brave, curious and creative,
and capable of great things—from curing diseases to creating the
internet to building a planetary civilization to discovering the universe of
two trillion galaxies. But, these only happen when we collaborate across
borders and share our knowledge. Implicit in the Pale Blue Dot is the
ultimate refutation of tribalism, narcissism, and nationalism in all
their forms. It is the refutation of hate, bigotry and prejudice, and any
worldview which privileges one group of humans over another, any
politics that demands war against other people. In this worldview is the
existential and scienti`c basis for universal human rights and for
realizing our planet is tiny enough to be transformed by the eSects of our
sprawling civilization, at once marvelous, yet dangerous to much life on
Planet Earth.
All this is why the Climate Strike cannot be separated from the Women’s
March or the Science March. They are part of the same evolutionary
trajectory—from a tribal species to global thinkers, from local villages to
a planetary civilization. The quests for universal human rights,
environmental and animal protection, and a science-informed society all
stem from the universal condition we share—the fact that we are one
species sharing one beautiful planet in a vast and awe-inspiring universe.
An Emerging Planetary Consciousness
Since our emergence and evolution in Africa, humanity has been
migrating and globalizing for at least 70,000 years (see map below). At
`rst on foot, then horse, boat, train, car, and plane, along with the
evolution of communication and media networks, oral, written,
electronic, digital.
Via our global media networks, we have eSected an emergent planetary
consciousness. Beneath all our diversity is the existential universal—all
7.7 billion humans share 99.5% of the same DNA and are made of the
most common elements of the cosmos (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon,
nitrogen, and other elements). We humans are a single species with
billions of computers, laptops, tablets, phones, all linked in the layers of
media networks that span the globe. As shown in the recent global
strikes and marches, the planetary consciousness is showing an ability to
organize, not merely to trade and wage war, but to rally for human
rights, scienti`c knowledge, and ecological sanity (see maps below).
Of course, these global networks also encourage a virulent tribalism that
divides more than it uni`es, precisely as individuals seek identities in the
tribes of the media worlds they inhabit. That’s why this emerging
planetary consciousness needs a coherent worldview, a new
philosophy for human civilization—one that fully embraces our true
existential conditions in the universe. Rants and tribes are nowhere
near enough. After all, it’s still possible our planetary consciousness
could devour itself in narcissism and nationalism, given that there are
12,000 nuclear weapons on Earth and more than $1 trillion is spent on
military every year. Imagine if that money was spent on research for
sustainable energy and protecting the environment.
Consistent with our belief that art must not be limited to the gallery or museum, a version of one of Julia’s and my artworks (“Message of Electric Light”) served as the
backdrop for the speakers at the Philadelphia Climate Strike (September 20, 2019).
Making a Stand Amid the Anthropocene
Youth of the world, you were heard in the Climate Strike. Greta triggered
the dudes holding the levers of power. Yet, in the counter-power of
global networks, we must embrace the universal over the tribal, the
species over the nation and corporation, the long-range over the short
term.
Indeed, the human species and technological civilization are
transforming the ecosystems and biopshere on Planet Earth—it’s called
the Anthropocene. Climate disruption is just one part of the
Anthropocene, along with polluted air, nuclear waste, mountainous
land`lls, plasticized and acidi`ed oceans, sprawling cities of concrete
and asphalt, and even species-level extinction events. Grasping these
conditions is also the motivation to decelerate resource consumption,
develop alternative energy sources, design more sustainable structures,
and protect our planet and the ecosystems that make life possible for all
species.
What kind of civilization — if any — will evolve out of the Anthropocene
remains to be seen. Merely arguing against capitalism, technology, and
consumer society is not nearly enough to counter the Anthropocene; we
need a new philosophy of human existence and new systems of value
derived from our actual place in the universe. We need our art and
science to inspire a new human philosophy and counter-narrative
against endless narcissism, accelerating consumption, unchecked sprawl
and climate disruption. There is no one to save us from ourselves other
than our selves. That’s why the message of Greta and the Golden Record
are more relevant than ever.
___________
For more on Voyager and the Golden Record, check out the very cool
documentary: The Farthest (2017).
For more on a new philosophy that draws from art and science and
works in space and on Earth, checkout my essay: “Explosion of
Awareness.”
