For this assignment, my partner Clarissa and I decided to illustrate the city metro system. We divided this system into a couple main components that completes the concept of this system. For example, we used a coin to describe the token of monetary value in the logogram and used that as a form of exchange for the service of transportation. The token initially was with the human until it exited the metro. Leaving the token behind to can show that the exchange was complete. Furthermore, we used specific icons of humans to depict the direction of travel and movement. When the human and standing still, it does not move, but when one of the legs or lower limbs come up, this represents motion of humans in order to move from place to place. Because humans have two legs that aid them to walk as well as two more arms, the aliens may have trouble understanding this initially since they have “four legs, three non-adjacent arms curled up at its sides..limbs had no distinct joints…it’s “torso” rise atop the rippling limbs as smoothly as a hovercraft…seven lidless eyes ringed the top of the hetapod’s body” (Chiang 5). This description shows the fluidity in the movement of the heptapods whereas humans must move each joint individually based off its biological and physical making. Additionally, one of the key concepts of transportation is for travel. We showed this step by including two distinct logos to portray distinct locations. Then used the direction of the train moving towards one “destination-logo” to denote that the metro and the human inside of the metro are both heading towards that direction. Finally, when the human arrives at the destination, it will exit the train while leaving behind the coin token. Now for comprehending the plaque as a whole, we need to acknowledge that heptapods communicate in a way similar to humans as they also verbally communicate and have the same senses as humans. For example, they also have eyes and a medium for verbal communication. In addition, in the reading, it shows how the heptapods can understand simple concepts so it can be inferred that this type of communication is feasible.
