I think that for a flag that humans will see and care about, it’s great to go metaphor (since we live here; we know what it literally) looks like.
If an alien came across our flag, I’d rather that it be a picture of our planet with its continents or even a diagram of our solar system… or a star map. It would be clearer to someone/thing that had never been to Earth if it looked like the thing they were looking for.
(Unless of course the aliens are hostile… in which case, a map to where we live might be bad).
But this is all assuming that alien organisms see the same light spectrum that we do and are land-walking. (I.e. the UN map is mostly a map of landmasses, but maybe these aliens are water-based… or air-based… or really small or really big?)
I think that for a flag that humans will see and care about, it’s great to go metaphor (since we live here; we know what it literally) looks like.
If an alien came across our flag, I’d rather that it be a picture of our planet with its continents or even a diagram of our solar system… or a star map. It would be clearer to someone/thing that had never been to Earth if it looked like the thing they were looking for.
(Unless of course the aliens are hostile… in which case, a map to where we live might be bad).
But this is all assuming that alien organisms see the same light spectrum that we do and are land-walking. (I.e. the UN map is mostly a map of landmasses, but maybe these aliens are water-based… or air-based… or really small or really big?)
Now I’m just rambling.
Serious Designer Thoughts