Essay Anybody out there? By David Parmer	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
地球の声が聞こえるかい？ 国連事務総長時代に傑出した業績を残したクルト・ワルトハイム氏が6月に亡くなった。 しかし、彼の声は、今も、そしてこれからも、ボイジャー2号に乗って宇宙空間を漂い続ける。 未知の生命体からのコンタクトを待ちながら…。

On June 14, 2007, Kurt Waldheim, fourth secretary-general of the United Nations and former president of Austria, died. He was 88. Mr. Waldheim had a long and distinguished career, not untouched by controversy. Some will remember him for the cloud surrounding his service in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, and many will remember him for his achievements as secretary-general. And there is a very good chance that when we are all long gone and our planet is but a cold cinder floating in the vastness of space, one of the last humans ever known by name will be Kurt Waldheim.

On Aug. 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager II space probe. The Voyager II, like its twin Voyager I, was assigned intragalactic duties including a look at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before being sent off into deep space. Both probes have passed out of the heliosphere, the area of influence of our sun. As of March 9, 2007, Voyager II was 12,357,000,000 kilometers from Earth.

In 2020 all systems on Voyager II will shut down. Voyager II will silently carry its precious cargo on and on and on. The cargo? A 30-centimeter gold disc featuring the sounds of Earth, and a message from Kurt Waldheim. The Golden Record, as it is known, contains images of Earth and its life forms, scientific information, music and whale sounds. Music includes Bach, Mozart, and Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode as well as a piece of shakuhachi music entitled "Tsuru No Sugomori." Greetings are sent in 55 Earth languages including Japanese.

So there you have it: a probe heading to the far side of the universe with a message from Earth, a kind of galactic travel brochure: Come on down, the water's fine! And here's the next big question. Is there anybody out there to take us up on our offer? Anybody or anything?

In 1984, director John Carpenter's film "Starman," starring Jeff Bridges, gave a possible answer. Aliens get the Voyager II message and pay us a visit. Although they mean no harm, their shuttle is immediately shot down. The life form in Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien" was not so friendly. It was a vicious predator with a bad attitude.

This seems to be our response to the mystery of extraterrestrial life: We either see it as overly benign or overly hostile. But while this makes good entertainment, it doesn't answer the fundamental question of whether we are alone in the universe or not

Of course, Voyager is not the only message we are sending out. CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been trying to develop communications that could be understood across the galaxy and beyond consisting of mathematical and logical symbols. Messages have been sent out including the Arecibo message, beamed out by radio telescope and containing the numbers one through 10 and the atomic numbers that make up the elements of DNA.

And of course there is SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), organized efforts to listen in by scanning the cosmos for radio signals in hopes that ET will call us. Up till now, the phone is still on the hook gathering dust.

So what do you think? Anybody out there?

Shukan ST: July 20, 2007

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