Pioneer Plaque Assignment

I have attempted to explain the concepts of radio waves and wireless communication to the aliens through a walkie talkie and headphones. I have modified the characteristics of a walkie talkie to the anatomy of the aliens. Since there’s no clear distinguishment between “hands” and “legs”, and instead they have 7 limbs, they would be unable to hold the walkie talkie to their ears: their ears and limbs are on the opposite sides of their body (it would be like holding a phone to your ears with your feet). Therefore, I’ve added the characteristic of automatically transmitting the input audio through the headphones by connecting the two devices, making this technology usable to the aliens. 

Introducing these technologies teaches the Heptapods two important aspects of the history of human technology: radio waves and satellites, and the rapid advancement of wireless communication, whilst also aiding with Heptapodic communication.   

The way that walkie talkies operate is through radio waves and antella transmissions. When you talk inside a walkie talkie, your voice is picked up by the mic and transmitted through radio waves in the form of radio frequencies with the help of the antennas and radio towers. The receiver’s antenna can decode the voice and output the voice through the speaker of the walkie talkie, or in this case through the headphones of the aliens. 

This technology can be especially useful to the aliens considering the complexities of their writing system. The aliens use a logographic writing system, unlike the alphabetic writing system most human languages use (the only thriving logographic human language is Chinese). However, for Heptapods, their choice of using this system means difficulty sending messages over distances since writing these characters require precision to write and are time consuming . The introduction of walkie talkie will allow Heptapods to communicate over distances (of up to 5 kilometers), which would be more convenient than sending notes or written messages, especially since there doesn’t seem to be any electronic method to store alien writing at the moment.  Additionally, speech seems to be an easier mode of communication than writing and since there seems to be no phone communication, introducing radio towers seems to be a good first step. 

The combination of wireless headphones and radio technology emphasizes the rapid advancement in human communication technology. Within the span of four decades, communicating through radios went from being revolutionary to being nonexistent. In the 21st century, radio technology has been diminishing, with radios being replaced with ipods and later our phones, and walkie talkies being replaced by phones as well. Whereas, headphones are relatively a new technological device aiding with modern communication technology like laptops and cellular phones.

Giving Heptapods access to these technologies from essentially two eras would allow them to understand the progress of human communicational technologies and the knowledge to form a wide understanding of radio waves and towers, and allowing them to potentially recreate a similar system in their planet for more convenient communication.