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Google Earth Typography
In his 1867 classic From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne proposes a clever way to communicate with extraterrestrials - in this case, nearby inhabitants of the Moon.
`Every intelligent being,' said the geometrician, `must understand the scientific meaning of that figure. The Selenites, do they exist, will respond by a similar figure; and, a communication being thus once established, it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
I happened to run into this collage of photographs, all of which are taken from Google Earth. The "letters" are features of the Slavonia region in east Croatia visible by satellite.
I am bound to add that some practical geniuses have attempted to establish actual communication with her. Thus, a few days ago, a German geometrician proposed to send a scientific expedition to the steppes of Siberia. There, on those vast plains, they were to describe enormous geometric figures, drawn in characters of reflecting luminosity, among which was the proposition regarding the `square of the hypotenuse'...
(Read more about Verne's plan to communicate with extraterrestrials)
(Google Earth Typography)
When aliens look at Earth, do they see letters? If Giovannii Schiaparelli can look at Mars and see canali, I don't see why not. Besides, I'll take any excuse to write about classic sf, and you can't do better than Jules Verne.
From oriontrail on deviantArt.
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