Over the course of time, V1 was programmed to shut down various functions to conserve fuel and power. They shut down the heaters. Then the cameras. And now the only working thing is probably the thrusters. Which propel that spacecraft away every few hours. Few months ago, scientist discovered that V1 was no longer sending us any proper information. It was actually sending some mysteriously encrypted signal which was beyond the comprehension of humans. In fact, soon it was actually finalized that all the data that V1 was sending us was actually random gibberish. Humanity concluded what they had concluded when poets wrote suicide notes and went to the lakes to die….V1 has gone insane. The endless darkness of the infinite space has finally driven our technology into lunacy. It is useless and futile and hopeless.
So, the spacecraft that had traversed so much of our solar system alone was considered non-functional till April 2024, when NASA found out that the info is not actually gibberish. The chip responsible for storing that info actually malfunctioned. So, what do they do? Those super smart ingenious computer scientists just reprogrammed the whole thing so now V1 stores info in some other chip. Until last month, V1 was lost. A flickering beacon. But now when it is still sending useful signals, who knows what could possibly happen?
The universe is so big. So humungous. And V1 is roaming in it. alone. chilling on its own. Probably the only man-made object that far away from earth. It will stop sending us info in the coming years because it will be too far away. It has already passed through the solar system. There’s no way it can return. So, it won’t have any purpose anymore. It will just move on alone in the vast space.
But it turns out that sending us all that detailed info and close up photographs wasn’t the only task V1 was responsible for. That space probe is accompanied by a golden record which is exactly what it sounds like, a gold-plated disk. The golden record is an audio video CD that contains almost a hundred classified images of the earth, the wildlife and humans from different cultures. It also contains a recorded message from the US president and the secretary general of the UN. It contains music from around the world including Mozart and local folk music. (I sincerely hope they included Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or at least Atta Ulla Esakhelvi)
The scientists knew what they were getting into when they launched voyager 1 with that disk. V1 will just roam alone in the universe until unless it stumbles upon any extra-terrestrial life. Yup, that golden record is there for the aliens. If there is any life in the universe except on our blue planet, then there is a chance they will stumble upon V1 and learn about our civilization. Maybe by that time we will long gone. We will certainly be long gone but chances are there that our entire generation will be clean swept from the face of this planet.
But there are also chances that that there is no other life elsewhere. Maybe V1 will just continue to wander alone in the endless universe. Maybe we are alone after all.
And I seriously am confused about what is more terrifying. The fact that aliens will someday learn about us and maybe come to visit. Or the fact that we are actually alone.
And guess what is more terrifying than all of this? Humanity is trying to reach the other end of the universe, trying to connect to extraterrestrial life, if it exists. And here we are. Screaming, crying, constantly complaining about our meagre problems. this universe is made up of meagre problems. maybe a rocket scientist out there at Space X thinks that blackholes are a meagre problem. From my perspective, they are one of the biggest riddles.
But that super genius socket scientist may think that one of his major problems is the fact that he can’t sleep properly. He suffers from insomnia or something. personally, I guess that’s a meagre problem.
Sometimes, I feel grateful for the infinite universe. I feel thankful for the fact that our existence doesn’t matter and the sun won’t stop rising when we’re gone. Its kinda hopeful. The world goes on. We will die. The world will go on. Voyager 1 will or will not find aliens. The world will go on. The found aliens may attack us. Only then is the slight chance that our world wont go on. And honestly, I don’t mind.
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