Dr. Maya Nasr, co-founder of the innovative HUMANS project, is leading an exceptional initiative. She hopes to collect as many as 100,000 voices from across the world before the project’s expected launch in 2027. This project seeks to create a more introspective reflection of humanity compared to the Voyager mission, which famously sent the Golden Record into space in 1977. It’s these rich, textured layers of lived experience that the HUMANS project hopes to convey. It will engrave this message into an eight-inch silicon wafer using extreme nanotechnology for a unique deep space message.
The initiative recently launched its first recordings of Indigenous voices at the proposed site of the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Sydney. It intends to broaden this campaign to Parramatta next. Our event gave participants the empowering platform of storytelling to share their experiences, unique work, and viewpoints. Dr. Nasr goes on to describe this personal storytelling approach as an homage to the Voyager mission. We’ll turn the resulting recordings into colorful, beautiful audio waveforms. That’s how we’ll begin to weave an incredible tapestry of human expression intended for an audience far beyond our pale blue dot.
A Tribute to Voyager
The Voyager space probes—launched in 1977—are still operating. They took with them this weird capsule full of Earth, which was called the Golden Record, featuring animal sounds, wind and thunder. As NOAA noted at the time, this historic artifact was meant to serve as humanity and earth’s calling card to any potential extraterrestrial life. Dr. Nasr points to the fact that as much as the HUMANS project pays homage to Voyager, it’s doing something new.
“We wanted to get this kind of shared story that echoes the timeless legacy of Voyager and the Golden Record,” – Dr. Maya Nasr
According to Dr. Nasr, HUMANS’ overarching goal is to explore humanity’s navel-gazing side. It aspires to make emotional and personal connections. This method gives a normative account of who humans ought to be today.
“HUMANS wanted to do a bit more of an inside reflection of who we are,” – Dr. Maya Nasr
In this new creative project, winners like participants Saanvi Singh and Rishabh Dilip Nair are telling their stories. Their narratives richly express their experience and perspective on human evolution and feeling.
Voices from Around the World
Ideally, Saanvi Singh would like to inspire people to take action making our planet sustainable through her recorded message. She thinks it is really important to tell a narrative about the positive ways that humanity has changed over the years.
“We started off as a single cell that couldn’t see, think or feel and we became an evolved species that has a power to harness all the resources on Earth,” – Saanvi Singh
Singh hopes that her creative approach will make her message relatable to everyone on our planet. She imagines it playing for audiences beyond our planet.
“And maybe even in the future, in space.” – Saanvi Singh
Rishabh Dilip Nair echoes these sentiments, underscoring the necessity of conveying human feeling in his piece.
“I want to show that we’re expressive, emotional beings,” – Rishabh Dilip Nair
Both participants embody the spirit of the project’s mission of celebrating the complexity of the human experience.
The Technology Behind HUMANS
The technology behind the HUMANS project is pretty revolutionary. By deploying nanotechnology, the group will engrave audio waveforms as spirals into an eight-inch wafer. This approach is a major leap from earlier versions of the module, which utilized smaller six inch and two inch wafers.
Dr. Nasr explains that this innovative approach will enable a more profound sharing of humanity’s essence with other potential life forms in the universe.
“We are taking it to a new era,” – Dr. Maya Nasr
The HUMANS project is an ongoing effort to lift up diverse voices. Most importantly, it seeks to establish a permanent legacy that expresses the nature of humanity’s collective pilgrimage through time and space.
