Podbit · SOLVED with Mark Manson
The scientists who put humanity's calling card on Voyager 1 had the ultimate recency bias — loading it with 1970s pop culture and Bach. But the real problem is game theory: any civilization advanced enough to decode Voyager 1 doesn't need it to find us. And if they didn't know we existed, we just announced ourselves to a potential super predator. Zero upside, pure downside.
Where this was said
At 1:02:30 · chapter starts 1:02:20
The Voyager 1 question earns an extended treatment once Mark gets going. The historical setup is affectionate: Carl Sagan and colleagues sending a golden record of humanity into the void, packed with Bach, Beethoven, Chuck Berry, and a very 1970s selection of 'the most important things in human culture' [1] — Mark Manson "The scientists who put humanity's calling card on Voyager 1 had the ultimate recency bias — loading it with 1970s pop culture and Bach. But…" 1:02:30 . The recency bias critique is withering — this thing will take thousands of years to be found, and they loaded it with contemporary pop culture. But the deeper argument is game theory. Any civilisation advanced enough to decode Voyager 1 doesn't need it to find us. And if they were somehow unaware of us before our 'archaic junker' of a probe rolled into their solar system, we've now done something potentially catastrophic: announced our existence to a civilisation that might be a super predator. The Dark Forest — Liu Cixin's model of a universe where civilisations hide to survive — is the reference. Mark's conclusion: the disc is silly, self-serving, and possibly dangerous. Nobody should have sent it.
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