For this assignment, the human-made technology that we chose for our project is phone calls, a method of communication through mobile devices that sends an electronic signal to the recipient no matter their location. To begin, it is important to allow the aliens to have a better understanding of how humans communicate with each other, which is why we believe phone calls would be the best form of technology to introduce. The photo attached below is a visual representation of how phone calls work, and also a way to teach the Aliens or Heptapods how this human technology works. In Story of Your Life, the aliens seem to be able to understand descriptions of events or items through pictures, which is why we tried to make the illustrations for our plaque designs as easy to understand as possible. In our illustration, we first depicted the idea of speech and communication, which can be shown through the two figures trying to have a conversation with each other from across the world. We then have to explain to the Aliens how this is all possible, because of something called a cell phone or telephone, which we depicted through the different illustrations of what a cell phone or telephone looks like while using symbols to depict that these devices are used for communication purposes. We then have to show the aliens how this device is all possible thanks to signals or cellular services, which we depicted using an illustration of a cellular tower. We then illustrate how these cellular towers are used to receive and send signals from cell phones, which then transmit directly to the nearest satellite. Through the satellite, the data of the call can then be received or transmitted, which allows people to make short or long-distance calls. By introducing the technology of phone calls to the Aliens we will not only be able to teach the heptapods about a piece of advanced technology that we use but also highlight a different way that humans communicate with.
Based on the short story, the heptapods adopt a semasiographic writing system where their spoken language differs from the language they write in. After observing how the heptapods understand physics, Louise Banks, the linguist of this experiment, was able to see that the heptapods follow Fermat’s principle of least time which means they see the whole picture and all the components right from the beginning. This means that when the heptapods first view our pioneer plaque, they will see the whole picture and be able to analyze it based on their first impression. Upon seeing the pioneer plaque, it is clear it is some form of communication utilized by humans that allows them to converse worldwide. In addition, the bottom images of the cell towers and satellite provide some context for a signal to pass through the two and to the images of cell phones that the humans will use. There is also no clear form of punctuation, similar to the heptapod writing language, which shows the connection between the images could be read from any direction/angle and still hint to the same general mode of communication. Overall, it is clear for heptapods to see through our pioneer plaque that humans are able to connect globally through a signal that reaches from device to device.