Overview
In this talk I will present a critical account of previous attempts at sending messages into space and provide insights into the work of the Interstellar Foundation’s messaging team (of which I am a member).
I will focus on ‘messages in a bottle’, i.e. messages embedded in artefacts such as the golden records attached to the Voyager space probes. These messages are interesting for humanities and social science research as they provide insights into how humans – through those designing these messages – view themselves vis-à-vis a hypothetical extraterrestrial recipient. Based on an analysis of the Voyager golden records and data from a pilot study I conducted with colleagues, I will argue that when faced with a hypothetical extraterrestrial recipient, humanity could be considered an imagined community (following Anderson) and ‘being human’ becomes a salient identity trait (following social psychological approaches).
The talk will close with an account of how we used reflections on previous messages and insights from our interdisciplinary team to develop the latest message we sent to the moon on board the Blue Ghost moon lander earlier this year – and what we learned in the process.
Speaker
Dr Bettina Beinhoff is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and Director of Studies and Bye-Fellow at Wolfson College. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (Trinity Hall) and studied for an MPhil at Wolfson College back in 2005/6. Bettina's main research interests are in the areas of attitudes towards language, language ideologies and the negotiation of identities in intercultural settings.
Details
This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Teams.
If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link.
Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.
Access
This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - events@wolfson.cam.ac.uk
Wolfson Humanities Society
The Humanities Society organises regular talks spanning a wide range of topics which take place every Tuesday during term time - please sign up to their mailing list to keep up to date with their upcoming events.
