modern-arecibo
Generate images of the Arecibo message with a user-provided population and genome size.
Usage: modern-arecibo [OPTIONS]
Options:
--population <POPULATION> The number of humans. Default is the value used in the original 1974 message [default: 4292853750]
--genome <GENOME> The number of base pairs in the haploid human reference genome. Default is the value used in the original 1974 message [default: 4294441822]
--output <OUTPUT> Output filename [default: arecibo.png]
--highlight-genome Highlight the component that represents the human genome size
--highlight-population Highlight the component that represents the human population size
--pluto-is-not-a-planet Only depict the first eight planets in the solar system
--scale <SCALE> The size of each block, in pixels [default: 10]
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Why?
In 1974, a group of scientists broadcast a message towards Globular Cluster Messier 13 with the Arecibo telescope. The message was crafted in such a way that any aliens receiving it would potentially be able to understand some basic information about humanity, including the size of the human genome. However, this was only known very approximately in 1974, and only in 2023 did scientists finally create a gapless reference genome. This tool recreates the Arecibo message with updated values for both the genome size and human population (configurable by the user). See this blog post for details.
Installation
cargo install modern-arecibo
Build
Usage
Generate the original 1974 message:
Generate the message if it were being sent on February 1st, 2025:
Exclude Pluto from the depiction of the solar system: