Pioneer Plaque Immortality

A BBC reporter recently interviewed me for a program they're doing about the Pioneer Plaque, which provided me the happy opportunity to reflect on my mom and how her art might be remembered:

I’m thrilled, quite honestly.  To know that your mother’s artwork is out there perpetually voyaging, just waiting for a prospective extraterrestrial to come along and discover it is a surreal but strangely satisfying feeling.  Long after you and I are gone, that iconic man and woman will still be around with hand raised in greeting.  It’s a fantastic kind of immortality.  For my mom, specifically, in the sense that her art will live on long after her, but also for the human race as a whole. 

Whatever foolishness we may do, there is a record of us.  A representation.  Who we are, what we look like, where we come from.  It’s possible that the Pioneer Plaque will some disastrous day become one of the few relics of our now mighty civilization, but hopefully years from now when we’re still going strong, our descendants will look fondly back at space missions like Pioneer and Voyager and appreciate them for carrying humanity’s optimism. 

The Plaque says a lot about us, not only to potential aliens, but to ourselves—it lives on as a commemoration of what drives us to reach out to others, a commemoration of our hope of encountering life beyond the confines of our beautiful blue-green world as we take our first fledgling steps into the vast cosmic dark.  

Comments

[Julio Velasquez]

Reading about the Pioneer Plaque just sparked a memory...I attended a summer program called College for Kids while growing up in San Diego in the early 80s...I took an astronomy class and was quite excited when one of the scientists/engineers who worked on creating the Voyager Golden Record visited to talk about NASA and space exploration...I remember him talking about your dad and showing slides of them together holding one of the golden records. I had forgotten about that until just now...

[Dec]

Hi Nick,

Just wondering if you know where one might obtain a faithful replica of this plaque. I found one vendor on Ebay but just wanted to check with you first to see if there might be an official outlet.

Kind regards,

Dec

[Juvenal Gordon]

Hi NICK:

We now December 20, 2010, do not forget your father, because I always remember, in the infinity of time, because among the living, guided between the starlight.
Gordon Juvenal Buritica.
RAC Pereira Cultural Station 97.7 FM
Program: Explorations Siglo XXI