Our Radio Broadcasts into Space are a Monologue
Some individuals find the absence of a dialogue distressing – as if meaningful dialogues were commonplace on this planet. Philip Morrison, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has pointed out that such cultural monologues are entirely common in the history of mankind; that, for example, the entire cultural patrimony of classical Greece, which has influenced our civilization in a profound way, has traveled in only one direction in time. We have not sent our wisdom to the Greeks. The Greeks have sent their wisdom to us – on paper and parchment, and not by radio waves, but the principle is the same.
Notes:
Distressing some that it is not a dialogue, but the wisdom of the ancient Greeks is a monologue as well.
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Carl Sagan's cosmic connection