I had no illusions about the difficulty of this task \u2013 I knew it would be fun, but I did not for a moment think this would be easy. I spent a LOT of time listening to the tracks, some of which were completely unfamiliar to me. Initially, I wanted my choices to be intelligent, representative, and meaningful. If these tracks are the sounds that reflect all of humanity on Earth (Taylor, 2019), I wanted my curation of 10 to be equally representative. I wanted to ensure men and women were also equally represented, but I knew that was na\u00efve.<\/p>\n
The talks by both Dr. Rumsey and Taylor highlight the importance of space and choosing what we can \u201cafford to lose\u201d rather than what we can afford to keep. It is true that in today\u2019s age of digitization, storage of media is not as big a problem (if at all), the real issue is who can afford to pay for data storage Brown University, 2017). Thus, the question is not about what we can keep, but what we cannot. The phrase \u201cafford to lose\u201d, however, may not necessarily be monetary value, but rather emotional or sentimental value. It is this, then, that finally decided my criteria for me. Emotions are what differentiate humans from machines. Emotions are well-expressed with music. Animals also express emotions<\/a> and empathy<\/a>. If an extraterrestrial intelligent life exists, I think I would want them to experience the emotions expressed through the music. I decided to focus on what emotions each piece of music evoked or represented, thus my criterion for my curation is very subjective. I tried to keep in mind the other aspects I want to try to balance, for example gender and cultural representation, but it is emotion I chose first.<\/p>\n The tracks I chose are the following:<\/p>\n Overall, I am quite happy with my choices, and yes, I had to decide which ones of the 27 I could afford to let go of. There is something lost in limiting the choices only to ten, but there is also a lot to be said from these ten pieces. I hope they are able to evoke a range of emotions, connect to memories and forgotten parts of life, while also displaying the range of experiences and diversity Earth has to offer.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n Brown University. (2017).\u00a0Abby Smith Rumsey: \u201cDigital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n NASA. (n.d.). Golden record: What’s on the record: Music from earth. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/voyager.jpl.nasa.gov\/golden-record\/whats-on-the-record\/music\/<\/a><\/p>\n Taylor, D. (Host). (2019). Voyager Golden Record (No. 65) [Audio podcast episode]. In\u00a0Twenty Thousand Hertz. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.20k.org\/episodes\/voyagergoldenrecord<\/a><\/p>\n\n