Vera’s post about Task 8 is interesting to me. We both identified a desire to strive for representation of different cultures and geographic areas as well as various musical genres when selecting our top 10. However, the result of our selections is quite different.
I respectfully question whether Vera’s selections are as culturally inclusive as she may have intended. I say this because I notice that over half of her selections are from Europe and North America. To be fair, I also have a substantial quantity of European and North American songs on my shortlist. Part of this is due to the fact that many of the original 27 songs were European and North American in origin. I believe there are only 2 songs for the whole continent of Africa. Bach alone has more songs included on the Voyager Record than this.
Reflecting on the feedback I received for my task and Vera’s discussion about what understanding aliens might possibly gain from the record, I find it somewhat naïve to think that extraterrestrial life might even be able to interpret the content of the record. Who’s to say if they even have the sense of hearing? Like Vera, I believe that alien life does exist given the vastness of the universe. Frankly, it’s kind of arrogant to think that Earth is the only place for life. That said, life might be (and is entirely likely) completely different from the life we are familiar with here on Earth.