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Was Sending A Map Into Deep Space The Dumbest Thing We’ve Ever Done?
Why leading unknown interstellar civilizations to our planet could be bad
Nearly fifty years ago two probes were launched on exciting new missions to survey the solar system. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively. They did their jobs admirably and are now hurtling through deep space far beyond the reaches of the people who created them.
Under normal circumstances, this would not be cause for any concern. Space is vast and the objects are only traveling at 11km/s. They’re junk. Old technology.
The problem is, these probes included a plaque on the outside the depicts humans, gives a map of our solar system as well as a map of where our solar system is located in comparison to other stars. And that map was designed to withstand the vigor of interstellar space travel.
It is a treasure map where Earth is the buried treasure.
Some people in the 1970s were very optimistic about the nature of the universe. These plaques were not made for our benefit but for the benefit of unknown spacefaring civilizations that might one day pick up the probes out in deep space.
