致外星人的信

行者上美国前总统卡特在1977年写了《致外星人的信》

This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.

这艘“旅行者”号宇宙飞船是美利坚合众国建造的。我们是一个具有

1.4亿人类生命的集体，我们与居住在地球上的40亿人类共同生存着。我们人类现在仍以国家划分，但是这些国家正在迅速地成为一个单一而又综合的文明世界。我们向外星致文。此文可能在未来的10年中长存，届时我们的文明世界将会发生深刻的变化。当地球面貌也大为改观时，这一信息可能依然存在。在银河系2000亿颗恒星中，一些（也许很多）恒星的行星上有人居住，并存在着遥远的宇宙文明。如果一个文明世界截获了“旅行者”号，并能理解它所携带的录制内容，就请接受我们如下的致文。这是来自一个遥远的小型世界的礼物。它是我们的声音、我们的科学、我们的意志、我们的音乐、我们的思考和我们的情感的象征。我们正努力延续时光，以期能与你们的时光共融。我们希望有朝一日在解决了所面临的困难之后，能置身于银河文明世界的共同体中。这份信息将把我们的希望、我们的决心、我们的亲善传遍广袤而又令人敬畏的宇宙。