PLANCK'S 1899 STATEMENT OF UNIVERSALITY

A remark made by Max Planck in a paper on the thermodynamics of radiation, which he delivered to the Prussian Academy in May 1899. He was talking about the set of natural units which he had just discovered and which is now known by his name. It's to Planck's credit that he made the point about the universality of the units in a courageous and forceful way:

These necessarily retain their meaning for all times and for all civilizations, even extraterrestrial and non-human ones, and can therefore be designated as "natural units"...

...ihre Bedeutung für alle Zeiten und für alle, auch ausserirdische und ausser menschliche Culturen nothwendig behalten und welche daher als "natürliche Maasseinheiten" bezeichnet werden können.

As Planck observed in 1899, the set of quantities he called "natürliche Maasseinheiten" might arise outside our immediate context:

[The same quantities] must appear over and over, measured by the most different intelligences in accordance with the most different methods.

...sie müssen also, von den verschiedensten Intelligenzen nach den verschiedensten Methoden gemessen, sich immer wieder als die nämlichen ergeben.

Reference: Max Planck: 'Über irreversible Strahlungsvorgänge'. Sitzungsberichte der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. 5, p. 479 (1899).

Although we do not know of any cultures existing elsewhere than on earth, if some did exist and if there were any crosscultural or shared features, then awareness of these quantities would likely be among them.