Golden Disk: "It has a good dance beat. I would buy it"

Somewhere on a distant planet is the equivalent of American Bandstand where Dick Clark has just received the latest and hottest platter discovered on a strange space craft traveling nearby and captured for analysis. The kids love the new sound. "It has a good dance beat. I would buy it" exclaimed one teenager.

The "A" side had this:

"Johnny B. Goode"

Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar just like a ringing a bell

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
Go sit beneath the tree by the railroad track
Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made
People passing by they would stop and say
Oh my that little country boy could play

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

His mother told him "Someday you will be a man,
And you will be the leader of a big old band.
Many people coming from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun go down
Maybe someday your name will be in lights
Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight."

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

And the "B" side offered:

"Bye, Bye Johnny"

She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust
And put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus
Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West
Down came the tears from her happiness
Her own little son name 'o Johnny B. Goode
Was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood

Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

She remembered taking money out from gathering crop
And buying Johnny's guitar at a broker shop
As long as he would play it by the railroad side
And wouldn't get in trouble he was satisfied
But never thought that there would come a day like this
When she would have to give her son a goodby kiss

Going
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

She finally got the letter she was dreaming of
Johnny wrote and told her he had fell in love
As soon as he was married he would bring her back
And build a mansion for 'em by the railroad track
So every time they heard the locomotive roar
They'd be a' standin', a' wavin' by the kitchen door

Howling
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

There is some truth in the above...Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is included in the music samples on the Golden Disks carried by Voyager 1 and 2--the only rock 'n roll selection. It is sometimes difficult for me to understand everything that has happened in science in the past 40 years or so, but the one single event that stands out that has been extremely successful and plunges the personification of mankind into deep space is the phenomenal events surrounding the missions of Voyagers #1 and #2. Launched just a month or so apart in September of 1977, no one had dreamed of the spectacular missions these two spacecraft were to accomplish. They provided data of Saturn and Jupiter beyond expectations and survived their five year life span by many years There was a bonus: Reaching the outer most planets Uranus and Neptune. And like the Martian rovers...they keep going on and on. In addition to all of the data regarding the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus and their moons and other phenomena [like rings], the record of man was carried into deep space. And just how far away are they? As of March 7, 2008, Voyager 1 is over 15.80 terameters [15.80×109 km, 105.9 AU, 14.62 light-hours, or 9.82 billion miles] from the Sun and it takes about 14 hours for Voyage 1 to receive a message from Earth. Will the Golden Disks be intercepted and understood by an alien civilization? I guess it depends who one polls. I doubt it.

A few responses:

mattf:

"Well, I think that the likelihood of it ever being found by another race is very small anyway (how many civilisations would be able to detect it before the human race is wiped out? 0 is my guess). However if an intelligent race did discover where it came from I think that they would probably immediately attempt to contact us; although it is impossible to predict the equivalent of 'human nature' in an alien species, I would have thought that contacting a new intelligent race would be attractive for anyone. I wonder, though, if some aliens might arrive within days of receiving a message and blast us into oblivion for living in their galaxy..."

ynon:

"I think that the odds of the disk being discovered by intelligent aliens is extremely remote even if there's intelligent life throughout the universe as I think there is, though widely dispersed. We all know how enormous the number of stars in the visible universe is, not to mention the possible number of planets and moons. Even if it only averages being one planet or moon per Galaxy on the average we're talking about many billions. Maybe it is only one out of every thousand Galaxy's, we're still talking about many millions. Not to mention the universe beyond that which we can see. If it ever does happen the odds are that it will take a very long time. I think it is mostly wishful romantic thinking on our part to send the disk. However I did think it was a good idea and still do. Why not?"

Bellatrix:

"Knowing more about ourselves and the little part of the universe that surround us is an important action. This was the role of both missions and they were successful in that. All data that they could get about the solar system help us to understand ourselves and our own planet - plus, it will serve for many generations ahead.

About the gold disk, I personally doubt if it will be found someday. But instead of being just spatial "junk" right now, the spacecraft’s have the noble mission of carrying a bit of our existence there.

Anyway, we cannot lose our hope. As Carl Sagan said: "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.""

bandgsmith:

"It's our little love note in a champagne bottle bobbling on the sea of forever. Who know?"

isb:

"As for being found by an intelligent race that is a difficult one. I believe that there must be other life forms out in the expanse of space, with all reasoned argument, there has to be. But, I would have to say that for any of the Voyager space craft to be found by another race? No."