Americanisms from across the universe

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of its first space exploration, NASA has sent an… In celebration of the 50th anniversary of its first space exploration, NASA has sent an outbound signal into deep space in the general direction of Polaris. The signal it sent represents everything American. But it’s not the Star-Spangled Banner or even a song by Toby Keith. Instead, NASA has sent the work of The Beatles to our celestial neighbor, according to the New York Times. The song, strangely, is “Across the Universe.”

It’s no secret that I often fantasize about the possibility of contact with other life forms.

However, the issue is too often focused on whether we have proof that other life exists. Rarely do we ask ourselves if we are making this little rock known to others.

Unfortunately, most of the closest known planets in our solar system are too far away for any of our broadcasts to have reached. It will be a long time before beings on other planets even hear a Perry Como hit. But I can’t help but wonder what sorts of things we’ll find if we receive signals from other worlds. How different will our signals be?

Will we hear the famous morning radio show from Alpha Centauri, Opox and Aphonia, famous for their controversial nature and witty rapport? Perhaps we’ll hear an episode where they force aliens on the margins of society to compete for rotting space fruit.

Perhaps we experience the most highly rated television program around all of Betelgeuse, which takes 10 regular carbon-based life forms and puts them in a ship heading for a black hole.

The males must all get into fights, and the females must get topless before they reach the event horizon.

How lucky we would be to see the best film from Gliese 581 c and discover that Morgan Freeman plays the leading role. Even more interestingly, he’s playing God.

Sadly, in all our years on this planet, we’ve never received any signals that could be as complex and nuanced as talk radio from another solar system.

Most likely we never will, at least not in this lifetime. But sending out our signal for anyone to hear should make us a bit weary of what we transmit in the first place.

Knowing that we are putting ourselves “out there” is somewhat disturbing. Say that human life, as we know it, ends in about a half-billion years, and our radio and television signals just keep on going.

Eventually some society will pick up our broadcasts and determine what we were like. Granted, we’ll all be dead, so it’s not as if it will really matter to us what a bunch of aliens think. But maybe it should matter to us now.

Maybe aliens aren’t the right choice for comparison. What if we sent television and radio signals to ourselves 10 years ago or to our parents when they were kids? What if we sent signals to our society before the first reality program fouled up the airwaves or before the first shock-jock radio show had cross dressers trying to chug a gallon of milk in an hour?

What would we have to say for ourselves?

Is it possible that we are polluting ourselves with the garbage we are sending out into the universe?

I think that if Hollywood remade “The Day the Earth Stood Still” today, the threat that Klaatu warns the world about would not be nuclear power or war. He would warn us to keep the mind-numbing drug that we call entertainment away from his planet.

I just read on IMDB.com that they are remaking “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” and Keanu Reeves is playing the leading role. Perhaps the working title is “Klaatu’s Excellent Adventure.” We’ll have to see if this version proves my point or not.

But I guess a lot of griping won’t convince the people of the world to stop polluting their minds.

Instead, I think it’s good to look at the positives. We still have a great history of artistic integrity that reaches to our current state of life.

As long as there are people who appreciate and acknowledge intellect and true creativity, I think our vision will be secure.

No matter what alien societies think of us, and no matter how horrible our radio signals become in the coming years, one thing is certain.

Even after thousands and thousands of years, and even once our sun explodes and turns into a black hole, extraterrestrials will never have transmitted anything as sweet as The Beatles.

E-mail Josh at jmg77@pitt.edu.