Fable
Magic Molly posted the following very good piece:
Picture this: two friends, Alice and Molly, are lying next to each other on a bed, staring up. Suddenly, Alice gets a mental picture of their prone selves and giggles. “Hmm?” says Molly.
The image that has occurred to Alice is of the Pioneer Plaque— the little sign affixed to NASA spacecrafts in case they encounter extraterrestrial life. It is one of those government quirks that sounds fictional but isn’t.
The plaque was designed by Carl Sagan, and it has all sorts of information on it. There are numbers in binary, a schema of the solar system, and outlines of a man and a woman:
This last thing is what Alice has thought of, suddenly, lying next to Molly with their hands almost touching. The figures on the plaque had originally been drawn holding hands. The image was revised when it was objected that aliens might misinterpret the figures as one creature.
Alice liked that story. Everything about it.
