Greetings from Earth

Linda Salzman Sagan coordinated the recording of greetings from the people of Earth. In an attempt to reflect the diversity of our species, the committee deliberately recruited volunteers from as many cultures, languages, and dialects as possible. The team de­cided to record greetings in the most commonly used languages as well as salutations in languages so ancient they are no longer spo­ken, such as Akkadian, Sumerian, and Hittite. To avoid complete anthropocentrism, the committee also included humpback whale song to give a voice, as Carl Sagan noted, to “another intelligent species from the planet Earth sending greetings to the stars.”41 Actually, humpback whale songs are a shared form of commu­nication and are now understood as cultural artifacts transmitted over hundreds or thousands of miles between humpback commu­nities. Whale researcher Ellen Garland reports that specific songs are passed between humpback whale groups from west to east across the Pacific Ocean. The humpbacks learn the songs from each other and teach them to other whales, indicating “cultural change on a vast scale,” asserts Garland, who along with her colleagues documented the same song, consisting of newly learned phrases, transmitted from one population to another.42 Though researchers in the 1970s were only beginning to recognize whale song as pur­poseful communication, when Druyan inquired about a recording of humpback whales for the interstellar record, zoologist Roger Payne responded: “Proper respect! . . . Oh, at last! . . . The most beautiful whale greeting was once heard off the coast of Bermuda in 1970. . . . Please send that one.” Druyan comments, “When we heard the tape, we were enchanted by its graceful exuberance, a series of expanding exultations so free and communicative. . . . We listened to it many times and always with a feeling of irony that our imagined extraterrestrials of a billion years hence might grasp a message from fellow earthlings that had been incompre­hensible to us.”43

Both fascinating and revealing are the fifty-five human saluta­tions on the Voyager record. As might be expected, several people sent wishes of peace. Many simply said “hello.” Carl Sagan’s son, Nick, who was then about six years old, offered, “Hello from the children of planet Earth.” Health and wellness marked a key re­frain among the messages. A significant number of volunteers ei­ther wished presumed inhabitants of exoplanets good health or expressed concern regarding their wellness. For instance, Stella Fessler, speaking in Cantonese, sent this greeting: “Hi. How are you? Wish you peace, health and happiness.” In Russian, Maria Rubinova said, “Be healthy—I greet you.” Saul Moobola in Nyanja, a language of Zambia, asked, “How are all you people of other planets?” Maung Myo Lwin in Burmese queried, “Are you well?” Liang Ku commented in Mandarin Chinese: “Hope every­one’s well. We are thinking about you all.” Frederick Ahl stated in Welsh, “Good health to you now and forever.” In Zulu, Fred Dube sent this message: “We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity.” Andrew Cehelsky in Ukranian stated, “We are send­ing greetings from our world, wishing you happiness, good health and many years.” In Korean, Soon Hee Shin wondered, “How are you?” And Margaret Sook Ching and See Gebauer in the Amoy language of Eastern China asked: “Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.”44 Slightly more than a quarter of the greetings explicitly mentioned wellness, good health, or longevity. Those salutations in particular seem to reflect a primal preoccupation with physical well-being. This is not surprising. For now, humans struggle with ubiquitous illnesses such as the common cold or influenza, severe and persistent back pain (a pervasive problem for upright walkers), or recovery fol­lowing traumatic injury. The many wishes of good health to pos­sible galactic neighbors on the Voyager Record suggest awareness of our own ephemerality.