Human and Animal Intelligence: Aquestion of Degree and Responsibility

When NASA launched its recent series of Voyager spacecraft on multi-year journeys to the outer planets of our solar system, jour­ neys that will take them beyond our solar system to destinations we know not where, the space agency included on each Voyager a cap­ sule containing artifacts designed to camn.m­ icate with alien beings. The artifacts were designed first to explain our location in the Milky Way galaxy, our fhysiogncmy, our cul­ tural institutions and symbols, and certain rudiments of a possible mathematical language of camn.mication. Presumably, any alien be­ ings that might chance upon these spacecraft 'NOUld be able to decifher the meaning of the contents, and if they are logical, benign, and intelligent beings, they will seek to comrmmicate with us and relieve us of our . sense of· isolation as possibly the only in­ telligent beings in the universe.