Make a 100-meter wide optical data storage disc that functions as a solar wind sail to propel it out of the solar system in search of alien life. When an intelligent extraterrestrial lifeform comes across it, there will be instructions on the label side on how to build a suitable drive to read the disc, which would contain vast quantities of information about every piece of knowledge known by the human race.
-- miamigrandprix, Oct 30 2003

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.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 30 2003


I guess even if those aliens were hostile, they wouldn't come and mess with us - they'd think that we're focking mossif.
-- benjamin, Oct 30 2003


I can believe that you could build an optical disk one hundred meters wide.
I can believe that this could then function as a solar wind sail.
I can believe that you could write the instructions for how to read the disk in a symbolic format, which any sort of extraterrestrial intelligence should be able to follow.
But I don't believe that you can represent the sum of all of our acquired knowledge in a format that would be in the least way meaningful to these aliens. Pictures, yes. A map to our planet, gosh yes. The philosophic works of our entire civilization...um, no. It won't mean a bloody thing to them.
-- Overpanic, Oct 31 2003


We should also send along some batteries for the drive.
-- spectralcodec, Dec 24 2003



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