The technology chosen to be introduced to the heptapods is a jigsaw puzzle. The origin of puzzles dates back to 1760 when European mapmakers cut and pasted pieces of a map on wood. They transitioned into being used as educational tools and later into forms of entertainment.
In The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, we learn that the heptapods communicate similarly to humans. Spoken words and written words did correspond to one another. While humans structure their sentences, the syntax of the heptapods’ sentences contained any number of semagrams that were joined together. The heptapods also have a different body structure than humans. They have seven eyes on the top of their body, allowing them to navigate the world differently. The heptapods can perceive every event at once, allowing them to be aware of their surroundings simultaneously.
Understanding this, in our pioneer plaque, we organized the pieces of a puzzle in an omnidirectional nature to provide the heptapods with an understanding of the technology as they do not process direction in the same way as humans. While humans see a change in direction as cause and effect—almost linearly—, the heptapods experience it as goal-oriented behavior, through multiple ways at once.
In the pioneer plaque, the pieces of the puzzle have been arranged with arrows, signaling the motion of how each piece should interlock with one another to create a picture.
Since the direction is constant and circulating, we hope that the aliens can see how a jigsaw puzzle works.