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The Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau recently beamed a message into space inviting aliens to visit Kentucky. Will it work? Has it already?
According to their website at VisitLEX.com, they and a team of scientists and scholars from Lexington “beamed a message toward potentially habitable planets in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system 40 light years away.”
“The first thing you’ll notice as you descend through Earth’s atmosphere above Central Kentucky is the lush green countryside that surrounds Lexington’s vibrant city center. That’s our famous bluegrass,” begins their message, sent from the Kentucky Horse Park to the aliens.
“We believe Lexington is the best place on Earth. It’s the ideal location for extraterrestrial travelers to begin exploring our world,” said VisitLEX President Mary Quinn Ramer.
“While other DMOs are looking to Artificial Intelligence as the future of travel, we’re thinking even further ahead and looking to deep space,” Ramer added.
The alien visitor campaign was led by Lexington native Dr. Robert Lodder, an expert in computer engineering, astrobiology, and Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, according to the Associated Press.
“It was quite the team effort. We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy, and science fiction to design, debate, and transmit this message,” said Lodder.
The message contained photos of Lexington, an audio recording of blues musician Tee Dee Young, and a coded bitmap image containing clues to the origin and intent of the transmission.
VISITLEX
“The bitmap image is the key to it all,” said linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Byrd. “We included imagery representing the elements of life, our iconic Lexington rolling hills, and the molecular structure for water, bourbon, and even dopamine…because Lexington is fun!”
VisitLEX officials say it will take 40 years for their message to reach its intended target and therefore could take another 40 years to receive a response from the aliens.
Now we just have to wait until the year 2104 to find out if anyone got it.