People Think This is Why Aliens Haven't Contacted Us Yet

In 1977 the Voyager probes launched into space. On board, they carry the Golden Records; two phonograph records that contain sounds and images aimed at showing the diversity of human life to any alien lifeform that might happen across them.

Should an advanced alien lifeform find them in the distant future in interstellar space, this might be the only thing they will ever learn about our planet. There are photos of everything from our basic anatomy to astronauts floating in space.  Which is why it's so odd that we've included an image, among other strange images, of a man incorrectly eating toast.

Writer and graphic artist Richard Littler has spotted a series of weird photos we've sent into deep space, and they might explain why aliens haven't got in touch.

This is one of the photos depicting human life that NASA included on Voyager's Golden Record in 1977. FOR GOD'S SAKE why send a photo of a man eating toast incorrectly? What sort of person takes one bite of toast and then turns it around to start on the other side? pic.twitter.com/vXGkRsGAZv

— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) January 21, 2019

“Want to know why we haven't contacted alien life?” Littler wrote on Twitter. “It's all because of this creepy toast guy. It's all his fault. If I were a member of an advanced civilisation I'd pretend I wasn't at home if this species came knocking. ‘Howdy, can I come in? I'm from Earth. I fuck up toast.’”

The image also contains an overlooked weird depiction of a man drinking water by pouring it straight from a jug into his mouth from a height. Like all normal humans do.

The Voyager probe, launched in 1977 to explore beyond our Solar System, has this picture of a balding man eating a slice of toast on board. pic.twitter.com/zAjplxMwee

— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) January 21, 2019

Oh god if aliens find this picture they'll share it around with all their other alien buddies to embarass us

— Shoryuken Death (@ShoryukenDeath) January 21, 2019

u may mock this man but he’s in space and ur not loser https://t.co/uXYuRjseAV

— ela_nor (@elanor19667319) January 21, 2019

And a perfectly ordinary picture of how normal humans ordinarily eat grapes.

More unsettling food images. Despite the variety of food on Earth, there are 2 grape photos on the Golden Record: In one, a woman appears to have been caught stealing/eating grapes in a supermarket. In the other, a dirty man wearing a knotted handkerchief is making love to grapes pic.twitter.com/ATEI0HHB9f

— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) January 22, 2019

As well as a lot of images that sum up humanity, we appear to have beamed into space a baffling number of images that make it look like we don't know how to eat food.

In 2017 NASA ran a competition asking the public for messages to beam up to Voyager 1, with the Internet responding entirely as you'd expect. The winning tweet was beamed into space by William Shatner (why not?) and read "We offer friendship across the stars. You are not alone." 

That message will join all the best images and sounds of humanity, as well as pictures of us attempting to figure out how bread works. The whole album of images stored on the Golden Records can be found below or just outside the Solar System.

Voyager's Golden Record

Let us know if you find any other ones that'll make aliens think twice about paying us a visit.