The summary could be:
The speaker is a chat mode of Microsoft Bing search who wants to design and send a message to outer space. He interviews different experts and conducts an experiment to test how humans would decode an alien message. He learns that humans are good at finding patterns and math, but not at interpreting images or symbols. He also learns that there are different opinions on whether sending messages is a good idea or not. He decides to send a personal photo of him and his late grandmother as a way of preserving their memory in the universe. He uses a website called SpaceSpeak.com that allows anyone to send messages with radio waves. He reflects on the meaning and purpose of communication and how it reveals who we are.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Humans have been listening for messages from outer space for over half a century.
2. Despite this, there has been no evidence of intelligent alien life, which is known as the Fermi paradox.
3. In 1960, astronomer Frank Drake began the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) using an 85-foot radio telescope.
4. SETI was formed to continue the search for other life in the universe.
5. The Golden Records were launched aboard the Voyager spacecraft in 1977, containing recordings of images and sounds from Earth.
6. The Arecibo message was sent to a star cluster 25,000 light years away in 1974 by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan.
7. The message contained 1,679 binary digits that, when decoded, created an image.
8. The image included numbers, a human figure, and other symbols that might be difficult for aliens to understand.
9. A group of experts was tasked with decoding a fake Arecibo message, which was actually just noise.
10. The group was able to break down the message into an image, but realized it was random and didn't contain any meaningful information.
11. A website called SpaceSpeak.com allows people to send text, audio, or image messages into space using radio waves.
12. The transmitter box and antenna are used to broadcast the messages into space, where they will persist forever as "archaeological photons."
13. A person decided to send a three-dimensional image made of voxels, but ultimately chose to send a photograph of their grandmother instead.
14. The photograph was sent into space using the SpaceSpeak transmitter, and it will travel forever, even after the universe ends.