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| Richard Dawkins’s cosmic tombstone: what would you add? | Richard Dawkins’s cosmic tombstone: what would you add? |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Richard Dawkins would like to create a “cosmic tombstone” adorned with humanity’s greatest achievements that can be beamed out into space when we are gone. | Richard Dawkins would like to create a “cosmic tombstone” adorned with humanity’s greatest achievements that can be beamed out into space when we are gone. |
| The evolutionary biologist’s idea for a massive posthumous space-brag came in a discussion with physicist Prof Laurence Krauss in London hosted by The Skeptic magazine. | |
| Here’s what Dawkins said: | Here’s what Dawkins said: |
| But what to include in this most important of documents – the ultimate galactic epitaph to humanity? Dawkins didn’t go into great detail about what he’d include, although he has tweeted previously that Shakespeare, Schubert, Darwin and Einstein would be on the list. | But what to include in this most important of documents – the ultimate galactic epitaph to humanity? Dawkins didn’t go into great detail about what he’d include, although he has tweeted previously that Shakespeare, Schubert, Darwin and Einstein would be on the list. |
| He did though cite the author and former dean of Yale Medical School Lewis Thomas who recommended constantly streaming the repeated works of Bach into space. | He did though cite the author and former dean of Yale Medical School Lewis Thomas who recommended constantly streaming the repeated works of Bach into space. |
| So what would you send in our inter-stellar eulogy? | So what would you send in our inter-stellar eulogy? |
| Humanity’s best scientific feats would have to make the cut of course. Darwin’s natural selection would help tell our alien onlookers something about life on Earth and might even be a natural law they would recognise. The double helix structure of DNA should surely make the list along with perhaps the standard model of physics (even though it is incomplete at best). Mathematics is a universal language our galactic eavesdroppers would understand, but which bits should we include? | Humanity’s best scientific feats would have to make the cut of course. Darwin’s natural selection would help tell our alien onlookers something about life on Earth and might even be a natural law they would recognise. The double helix structure of DNA should surely make the list along with perhaps the standard model of physics (even though it is incomplete at best). Mathematics is a universal language our galactic eavesdroppers would understand, but which bits should we include? |
| Then there’s music. I prefer Mahler to Schubert and would probably go for Beethoven over Bach if I had to choose but that’s all a bit Euro-centric anyway. Who knows, perhaps gamelan or didgeridoo is more conducive to the alien ear (if they even have one). Then there’s the other arts. Picasso? Da Vinci? Dali? Shakespeare certainly. | Then there’s music. I prefer Mahler to Schubert and would probably go for Beethoven over Bach if I had to choose but that’s all a bit Euro-centric anyway. Who knows, perhaps gamelan or didgeridoo is more conducive to the alien ear (if they even have one). Then there’s the other arts. Picasso? Da Vinci? Dali? Shakespeare certainly. |
| This may not be the high culture that Dawkins had in mind but I think our cosmic tombstone should also show our playful side. The rules of cricket, netball, poker, chess and soccer (including the offside rule – don’t worry, they are super-intelligent aliens, they’ll get it) should be in the mix. They would give our extra-terrestrial voyeurs an idea of what people spent much of their time doing and watching. | This may not be the high culture that Dawkins had in mind but I think our cosmic tombstone should also show our playful side. The rules of cricket, netball, poker, chess and soccer (including the offside rule – don’t worry, they are super-intelligent aliens, they’ll get it) should be in the mix. They would give our extra-terrestrial voyeurs an idea of what people spent much of their time doing and watching. |
| And then there are humanity’s political, social and technological achievements. Let’s include a copy of the universal declaration of human rights, along perhaps with US civil rights legislation, the UK’s 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, the Apollo Lunar Module and Tim Berners-Lee’s plans for the internet. To represent democracy, I would also include the architectural plans for every democratically elected legislature in the world. | And then there are humanity’s political, social and technological achievements. Let’s include a copy of the universal declaration of human rights, along perhaps with US civil rights legislation, the UK’s 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, the Apollo Lunar Module and Tim Berners-Lee’s plans for the internet. To represent democracy, I would also include the architectural plans for every democratically elected legislature in the world. |
| Lastly, photographs. To help our alien friends see our impact on the planet, I would pin to the tombstone a set of satellite images covering every square centimetre of the Earth. That might help them understand why we are not around to tell them ourselves. | Lastly, photographs. To help our alien friends see our impact on the planet, I would pin to the tombstone a set of satellite images covering every square centimetre of the Earth. That might help them understand why we are not around to tell them ourselves. |
| What would you put on humanity’s cosmic tombstone? Tell us your ideas in the comments below. |