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Selfie From Deepest Space: How Voyager-1 Transformed the Humanities
LIGHTS OUT
I try to show it at least once a year, particularly in my Humanities and World Literature courses. Of course I tease it out first, telling them that one day we’re going to examine the most important image in the history of civilization. A photo that more than anything else encompasses the meaning of the word ‘humanities.’ I usually wait until around mid-terms, when we’ve grappled with several key ideas and the students feel more comfortable with the material and each other. Then, on that fateful day, I tell them: okay class, remember that picture I told you about? Are you ready to see it?
I pull down the screen and power on the projector. In the glare of florescent lights the first slide appears dark, out of focus. There it is, I tell them, the only textbook you’ll ever need for this class. The hush of the classroom deepens. Confusion, uncertainty, amusement. What’s going on here?
Whoops, I must have prepared the wrong slide; but after a careful check of the computer, I proclaim this is the right one after all. It must be the lights. So I flick them off while the slide looms ominously overhead. It’s a largely black square which contains three faint bands of color, the dimmest one at the far left, reddish in color, a greenish-blue one in the center, and a much bolder…
