What Image Should Represent All of Humanity On Wikipedia? (wired.com) 349
An anonymous reader writes: If aliens ever do come across the Pioneer spacecraft and make assumptions about the entire human species based on the man and woman etched onto the plaque it carries, this is what they will think of us: We all look like white people; we all look about 30ish years old; we do not wear clothes. It's a problem you encounter anytime you have to choose a few individuals to represent an entire group, and it's one that the editors of Wikipedia have debated for years: What image should grace the top of the "human" entry in the online dictionary?
The photo that's there now, after years of feverish debate, is of an Akha couple from a region of Thailand along the Mekong river. "The photo of the Akha couple remain humanity's type specimens on Wikipedia," writes author Ellen Airhart. "Just as a shriveled northeastern leopard frog at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology represents its whole species, so this couple stands for all of us."
Such musing about the taxonomic representation of the human species could actually have a big impact on our digital future. "Future scientists will have to teach computers, not aliens, to recognize the human image. Right now, software engineers program artificial intelligence to recognize people by feeding them millions of pictures of faces," she writes. "But whose faces? Computer scientists run into the same questions about gender, race, and culture that the Wikipedia editors encountered. Being able to use more than one photo expands the conversation but does not necessarily make it easier."
The photo that's there now, after years of feverish debate, is of an Akha couple from a region of Thailand along the Mekong river. "The photo of the Akha couple remain humanity's type specimens on Wikipedia," writes author Ellen Airhart. "Just as a shriveled northeastern leopard frog at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology represents its whole species, so this couple stands for all of us."
Such musing about the taxonomic representation of the human species could actually have a big impact on our digital future. "Future scientists will have to teach computers, not aliens, to recognize the human image. Right now, software engineers program artificial intelligence to recognize people by feeding them millions of pictures of faces," she writes. "But whose faces? Computer scientists run into the same questions about gender, race, and culture that the Wikipedia editors encountered. Being able to use more than one photo expands the conversation but does not necessarily make it easier."
Boot on a face (Score:5, Insightful)
a 'Boot on a face'. It sums up most of history marvelously.
Re:Boot on a face (Score:5, Funny)
Or a picture of a steaming pile of fresh human feces.
It's the one thing we all have in common and, adjusting for local diet, it all looks pretty much the same no matter the race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, or wealth.
Shit is the one thing and the one symbol that binds the human race together and describes with one image the results of our existence thus far and likely the legacy we leave behind, and the universe could not have chosen more appropriately. It's so uncanny, in fact, that it might even be an argument for intelligent design! :D
Strat
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And only MINE doesn't stink!
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...a picture of a steaming pile of fresh human feces... It's the one thing we all have in common...
There's a song [youtube.com] by an artist named 'Mr. Hankey' that you might be interested in.
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If the asians were just a tiny intelligent, they would do whatever they could to REDUCE their numbers
Actually if they were intelligent they would reduce YOUR numbers given you could sustain two of them for the resource consumption of one of you.
We Are All Fucked (Score:5, Funny)
...if Aliens look to Wikipedia for anything.
A photo (Score:3)
A photo of one of the survivors of Auschwitz (day of liberation).
Re:A photo (Score:5, Funny)
If we are going to be putting these images on deep space probes, that might be found by aliens, we need to ensure that the images do not portray us as being "tasty".
Otherwise, the aliens might visit us with Soylent Green intentions.
We need to dress up the images of humans with huge pointy teeth, porcupine spikes, eagle claws and a nasty Stegosaurus tail.
Or, just plain giant armadillo pictures might work:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
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And that says what? (Score:2)
Humanity is good and evil, only portraying one side of our nature is pure bias.
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It says that even the least members of human race are still human.
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How about having some fun then, best image, a monkey shoving a banana up their butt, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]. Still mired in silly beliefs and even worse some really, really destructive beliefs. Mud monkey religiosity, forever shoving bananas up their butts because they are the perfect shaped fruit ;D.
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Most of the time humans are Offtopic. It is our defining tendency.
So, you're saying the picture should be of a cat?
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KL Warchau (right inside the capital) operated until 1956
1948-49 operated as a camp for German soldiers not a death camp - substantial difference. Majority of them were released in fall 1949. After 1949 it was converted to prison.
Bereza Kartuska
I agree that these should not have happened. But you are making equal a political camp where there were up to 20 deaths with Auschwitz where over 1 milion of people died! There were worse camps than you have mentioned. Again there is no justificat
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I don't know what you are going with this. Did Soviet controlled Poland reuse the facilities used by the National socialists? Yes. Does it matter? No.
The very idea of a concentration camp is old(-ish) and we still have them. USA have them, several in fact. They aren't called concentration camps anymore but they are. A large camp divided into several sub-camps in order to maintain control.
If you want to complain about the conditions in Soviet/Polish camps do so but don't bullshit around by trying to connect
goatse (Score:5, Funny)
.cx
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Would be a pretty good representation of humanity. First, we all look the same there, no gender or racial bias visible (if needed apply a color filter to ensure you can't even tell if the person is black, white or polka dotted) and second, most humans are actually huge assholes.
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I, for one, welcome our life-altering image overlords.
Musings from selfish people (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not about you. It's not about inclusion. It's just a stupid picture and not important.
Stop categorizing each other and creating divisive conversations all because you expect life to be fair. Stop getting upset because your color/ethnic background isn't getting the spotlight. Your pride is causing all of us to fall.
Move on with your lives and concentrate on doing something important.
Not like me wasting my time commenting on this post.
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Identity politics is a tool (one of many) to keep the proles divided and distracted and bickering amongst themselves. When the entire world is partitioned into a giant Venn diagram of competing "identities" - each obsessed over which group among them is the most oppressed - there's zero chance of mustering up the will or numbers to tackle any problems that actually matter, and the 'elites' are free to plunder the world at their pleasure. [counterpunch.org]
Just imagine a left wing group trying to get something like OWS going
Re:Musings from selfish people (Score:4, Interesting)
They do seem to be over-thinking it a bit. Take this bit of the ideal image criteria:
"All of the humans would be clothed, because that's how human beings are most commonly encountered: unclothed depictions should be used at the top of the "biology" section, in order to clearly depict their anatomy, but it is potentially misleading to use such an image as the lead image in the article"
Yeah... People will be mislead by a naked photo and think that's how human beings are, despite a literal lifetime of counter-examples.
Having said that, some of the submissions are clearly unsuitable. The woman in a burka is atypical and her clothing hides many important features of humans such as legs and arms. Many of the others only have one person when really there should be at least two to represent both genders.
Kind of amazing how hard to is to find a photo of a clothed man and a woman in neutral poses that is reasonably interesting and attractive, which fits in the side bar area and is freely licenced. The Akha is actually by far the best that anyone has proposed, much better than the current Pioneer drawing.
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So you don't think it should a picture of President Donald Trump since he is the leader of the world's most powerful country and therefore represents humanity best?
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He would be better than the shriveled northeastern leopard frog at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
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I think the plaque works (Score:5, Insightful)
We're bipedal, have two arms with five fingers each, a mouth, a nose, two eyes and two ears and our species has two sexes.
The proportions are also about accurate for most of us.
I think that's enough for first contact information. I mean where does it end? Do we need to tell them our social structures and capacity for empathy and destruction as well?
I'd think those are info bits for a second or third contact...
We can make the next plaque with black or Asian people, I don't care.
Re: I think the plaque works (Score:2, Insightful)
two sexes
Speak for yourself you binary-lovin cissy!11
triggered
Seriously though, there are growing numbers of people on here that get personally offended by this.
Literally arguing against human genetics by trying to use genetic disasters as evidence.
Other species might have naturally differect sexes, humans don't. They aren't functional components in producing offspring, their literal purpose for existing.
Doesn't mean they are useless, just not a distinct, useful sex.
Of the many transgender people I've talked to ove
Probably davinci (Score:4, Insightful)
The Vitruvian Man to be more specific.
Pass the Plexaderm Please (Score:2)
Meanwhile, a message arrives from the stars. . . (Score:5, Funny)
. . . .that reads:
"Stop sending us naked pictures of yourselves and directions to your home planet. It's ***CREEPY***. . . . ."
(evil grin)
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"Come on over, our parents aren't home!"
African roots (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I think the Thailanders photo works OK. (Forget about ethnicity for a moment: Their clothing and context imply a pre-industrial way of life that was dominant throughout human history but now is diminishing rapidly!) However I would have more likely have suggested a recognizably African couple. My reasoning: Humans originated from Africa, and it still holds the greatest genetic and cultural diversity of any region. People elsewhere in the world are offshoots from that root.
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Shouldn't the picture show where we've got to rather than the primitive roots we came from?
Africa may hold the greatest genetic and cultural diversity but the entire continent (aprt from maybe SA) achieves virtually nothing in the scheme of things today.
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Shouldn't the picture show where we've got to rather than the primitive roots we came from?
Which would be where exactly? Currently, it would be an IMDB-link to "Idiocracy".
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Well, cultures rise and fall. A modern person transported in time a thousand years back would find Europe to be quite horrible, and certain places in Africa far more civilized, like Ghana for example. Even five hundred years ago you'd probably prefer living somewhere like Benin to anywhere in Europe, which was at the start of a two hundred year period of religious warfare.
If you look at history quite a few civlizations achieve a kind of cultural and political domination Europe achieved after, say 1700.
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it cant be done with a single couple (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:it cant be done with a single couple (Score:4, Interesting)
Otherwise I think you're going to need to either do a computer generated average image
A computer generated image based on a global model which would include all most recent census data from all over the globe would work great for that.
Particularly if the whole process was automated, updating itself on its own as new data arrives.
And as for anyone feeling underrepresented by such an image, you can legitimately tell them to go and reproduce themselves.
Reproduce themselves billions of times.
Why does one need to represent all? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do we require one image to signify humanity on wikipedia? The pages for cats [wikipedia.org], dogs [wikipedia.org], birds [wikipedia.org], bats [wikipedia.org], spiders [wikipedia.org] and fruit [wikipedia.org] all feature composite images of the many species represented in one image. Why would the page for humans be any different? Indeed, the page goes on to show many examples of humans.
Am I missing something here?
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Am I missing something here?
An opportunity to shame those whom the article's author disagrees with.
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Yes, you are. There's only one species of human right now. Unlike the many species of bats, birds, spiders, etc...
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Yes, you are. There's only one species of human right now.
Your argument doesn't hold up, because the domestic dog is a single species; as is the domestic cat.
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This is a rather pointless mode of arguing. "Cat" and "dog" both have alternative standard definitions referring on one hand to the domesticated animal and on the other to any member of the wider genus. You can argue either side by selecting a definition. In logic this is called "equivocation".
You've also selected "cat" and "dog" to represent the poster's entire argument because these particular words happen to have this property. That's called "cherry picking".
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Well, in my mind race is a "just so" story that doesn't hold up under genetic scrutiny.
However people from different regions *do* have superficial resemblances, e.g. very, very pale skin among northern Europeans. That's actually a somewhat unusual trait.
National Geographic a few years ago attempted to identify what the "most typical" human would look like, and the answer is a 28 year-old Han Chinese male. While culturally speaking light skin is prized, Han people's skin varies tremendously with sun exp
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Why do we require one image to signify humanity on wikipedia? The pages for cats [wikipedia.org], dogs [wikipedia.org], birds [wikipedia.org], bats [wikipedia.org], spiders [wikipedia.org] and fruit [wikipedia.org] all feature composite images of the many species represented in one image. Why would the page for humans be any different? Indeed, the page goes on to show many examples of humans.
Am I missing something here?
Having a single example of every fricking thing, and then arguing over it endlessly, demonstrates our basic tendency towards absolutist/fundamentalist positions. We want to have the "right" example, with the rest explained away as exceptions, rather than a bunch of examples which together cover the space.
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Why would the page for humans be any different?
None of those things gets pissed off when they feel like they are either miscategorized or excluded. Humans are unique in that way, at least.
Two arms, two legs, one head (Score:2)
Hoping the aliens interpret the weird etched lines correctly, they'll see two individuals with two arms, two legs, one head each and come by to get further details about such strange animals.
If they misinterpret, they'll see the head of the one of the left is between its legs, and ask why the one on the right has such big eyes towards the upper end. They'll also wander why the one of the left has its ciliated antenna at a right angle - ask if it was caught while feeding, or if it's a reproductive organ in a
Worth a thousand words... (Score:5, Insightful)
Norman Rockwell's The Golden Rule
https://i.pinimg.com/originals... [pinimg.com]
Either one of these (Score:2)
1) A human running in a hamster wheel
2) A human running on a treadmill with a fishing pole tied to their back chasing a carrot dangling out in front of them
Oh wait that's just for the United States (disclaimer: I'm American). Ok, we need one for the United States and one for the rest of the world. For the rest of the world, it should be a dove circling the planet.
A photo of Bruce Jenner before and after (Score:4, Funny)
Or Caitlyn Jenner. Anyway, sure to confuse our alien overlords.
Why? (Score:2)
Being able to use more than one photo expands the conversation but does not necessarily make it easier.
I think using a bunch of photos would easily solve the problem of conveying what humanity looks like as a whole. The photos can show people of every visibly different racial background, at every age, in various states of health, and in various types of clothing or lack thereof. Any aliens whose social structures are at an appropriate level of advancement, and/or close enough to those of Man, will be able to extrapolate from that info and would recognize our species, should they ever see us in person. A simi
Most (Score:3)
Whichever race is the most prevalent. That would be Chinese I guess.
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Whichever race is the most prevalent. That would be Chinese I guess.
So... a container of Kung Pao Chicken then with chopsticks then?
World press photo winner (Score:2)
Just take any winner of the world press photo - it will most likely portray conflict and suffering.
Computer generated (Score:3)
Feed a computer algorithm millions of pictures of people, as diverse as possible, and let it then generate what the average human looks like.
The guy from Idiocracy (Score:2)
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This is why aliens don't visit or at least don't let us know about it. "We're here because of Elvis, cheeseburgers, and fuel.
Let me guess: they drank the fuel, stuffed the cheeseburgers into their Mr. Fusion, and took Elvis back home with them?
any healthy member of H. sapiens (Score:3, Informative)
Any healthy adult members of H. sapiens will do, since they are biologically interchangeable. If you object to one member over another on racial grounds, it simply means that you're a racist.
The Mountain (Score:2)
Has this not been ridiculed to death on Community? (Score:2)
Easy... (Score:2)
A red circle with a slash through it...
Training set (Score:2)
Right now, software engineers program artificial intelligence to recognize people by feeding them millions of pictures of faces," she writes. "But whose faces? Computer scientists run into the same questions about gender, race, and culture that the Wikipedia editors encountered."
At least that problem will solve itself as soon as the training set grows to 8 billion pictures.
Running in terror (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
You forgot about (Score:2)
We all look like white people; we all look about 30ish years old; we do not wear clothes.
You forgot to include that we are also quite athletic and not obese, and do not have pubic hair.
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Head up ass (Score:2)
So many people have their heads firmly lodged up their ass that it sums up humanity quite nicely.
That said, no image is better than a single misrepresentation.
Look Like "White People"? Not So Much (Score:2)
The images created for the plaque were explicitly not intended to look like "two white people", and the female figure definitely has an Asian look to her. They both look a trifle pan-ethnic, given the level of detail.The dude's hair? Well, you do have a point there.
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A pack of jackals (Score:2)
...fighting over something trivial.
Your own photo (Score:2, Insightful)
When you go to the wikipedia page, it takes a picture of you and puts it there to represent the whole humanity. That way you can feel special and represented. Because that's what's important in life.
Chuck Norris (Score:2)
The Human Being (Score:2)
XKCD (Score:2)
If ever there was a perfect case for an obligatory XKCD, this is it!
Show stick figures.
Johnny cash giving the finger (Score:2)
thats what i think of when i think of humanity! [google.ca]
well, ok then (Score:2)
The only real answer: Multiple images (Score:2)
Alternative solution: Like the Voyager golden record, use a generic, line-drawn representation of male and female humans.
Alternative solution: Use morphing software to 'blend' images of male and female humans from all over the world into one ho
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Maybe include the human genome in case the aliens want to build any bioweapons.
Easy. (Score:2)
https://imgprod60.hobbylobby.com/sys-master/migrated/hde/h71/h00/9120365412382/1129832_1[5].jpg [hobbylobby.com]
This says everything.
My guess? (Score:2)
Right now I'd say a crying baby is probably the most realistic representation.
Please, proceed with arguments over what color the baby should be.
Same as always -- backwards and useless (Score:2)
I don't know of a single child who's been trained to recognize humans by being fed a million faces. I also don't know of a single child who can't recognize any human face -- black, white, healthy, disfigured, old, young, or partial.
Same goes for my dog, by the way. i don't need to see every fish in order to recognize a new fish as being a fish. Fins swim. Grade 9 science was "how to read your fish".
AI is certainly artificial, but the "intelligence" part is being taken far too literally. More intel isn't
A serious suggestion (Score:2)
I suggest the number 1, represented by a line of 'stars' on a black background.
Something to represent the ideal of unity of our species, and demonstrate understanding of the common source of all life and all things.
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If it can hire a lawyer and win the case, it is a human.
This will get more important when we start to do weird shit with genetics and AI.
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I agree but someone will probably complain about which continent is visible... maybe an image with both halves showing or something?
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There is no continent visible in the pale blue dot. Anyone who claims they can tell what continent is facing the camera is full of it.
They don't have to be able to tell which half is showing to "know" one half is being discriminated against.
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Though you're probably right on that, can we maybe lie and say that due to the low light, photos like this require longer exposure times (this is true) and it took a 12 hour exposure so both sides of the planet got photographed?
Hey, now there's an idea! Just say it was a 24 hour exposure so it evenly imaged the entire planet.
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Multipass.
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I'm still trying to figure out how you determine we are all white from a simple outline sketch? Looking at the plaque on the Pioneer... For all the aliens know we could be purple.
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You can tell by the hair. That's 100% white people hair on that plaque.
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And that alone makes it a topic that should be thoroughly discussed.
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I identify as a land mine.
Want to trigger me? Feeling lucky, punk?
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Because then they'd actually have to DO something. And that's hard. Complaining and bullying others into changing themselves into what they want them to be is way easier.