Posted on 02/13/2018 1:12:06 AM PST by LibWhacker
Roughly half a century ago, Cornell astronomer Frank Drake conducted Project Ozma, the first systematic SETI survey at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. Since that time, scientists have conducted multiple surveys in the hopes of find indications of “technosignatures” – i.e. evidence of technologically-advanced life (such as radio communications).
To put it plainly, if humanity were to receive a message from an extra-terrestrial civilization right now, it would be the single-greatest event in the history of civilization. But according to a new study, such a message could also pose a serious risk to humanity. Drawing on multiple possibilities that have been explored in detail, they consider how humanity could shield itself from malicious spam and viruses.
The study, titled “Interstellar communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible“, recently appeared online. The study was conducted by Michael Hippke, a independent scientist from the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany; and John G. Learned, a professor with the High Energy Physics Group at the University of Hawaii. Together, they examine some of the foregone conclusions about SETI and what is more likely to be the case.
To be fair, the notion that an extra-terrestrial civilization could pose a threat to humanity is not just a well-worn science fiction trope. For decades, scientists have treated it as a distinct possibility and considered whether or not the risks outweigh the possible benefits. As a result, some theorists have suggested that humans should not engage in SETI at all, or that we should take measures to hide our planet.
As Professor Learned told Universe Today via email, there has never been a consensus among SETI researchers about whether or not ETI would be benevolent:
“There is no compelling reason at all to assume benevolence (for example that ETI are wise and kind due to their ancient civilization’s experience). I find much more compelling the analogy to what we know from our history… Is there any society anywhere which has had a good experience after meeting up with a technologically advanced invader? Of course it would go either way, but I think often of the movie Alien… a credible notion it seems to me.”
In addition, assuming that an alien message could pose a threat to humanity makes practical sense. Given the sheer size of the Universe and the limitations imposed by Special Relativity (i.e. no known means of FTL), it would always be cheaper and easier to send a malicious message to eradicate a civilization compared to an invasion fleet. As a result, Hippke and Learned advise that SETI signals be vetted and/or “decontaminated” beforehand.
In terms of how a SETI signal could constitute a threat, the researchers outline a number of possibilities. Beyond the likelihood that a message could convey misinformation designed to cause a panic or self-destructive behavior, there is also the possibility that it could contain viruses or other embedded technical issues (i.e. the format could cause our computers to crash).
They also note that, when it comes to SETI, a major complication arises from the fact that no message is likely to received in only one place (thus making containment possible). This is unlikely because of the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, which was adopted by the International Academy of Astronautics in 1989 (and revised in 2010).
Article 6 of this declaration states the following:
“The discovery should be confirmed and monitored and any data bearing on the evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be recorded and stored permanently to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, in a form that will make it available for further analysis and interpretation. These recordings should be made available to the international institutions listed above and to members of the scientific community for further objective analysis and interpretation.”
As such, a message that is confirmed to have originated from an ETI would most likely be made available to the entire scientific community before it could be deemed to be threatening in nature. Even if there was only one recipient, and they attempted to keep the message under strict lock and key, it’s a safe bet that other parties would find a way to access it before long.
The question naturally arises then, what can be done? One possibility that Hippke and Learned suggest is to take a analog approach to interpreting these messages, which they illustrate using the 2017 SETI Decrypt Challenge as an example. This challenge, which was issued by René Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, consisted of a sequence of about two million binary digits and related information being posted to social media.
In addition to being a fascinating exercise that gave the public a taste of what SETI research means, the challenge also sough to address some central questions when it came to communicating with an ETI. Foremost among these was whether or not humanity would be bale to understand a message from an alien civilization, and how we might be able to make a message comprehensible (if we sent one first). As they state:
“As an example, the message from the “SETI Decrypt Challenge” (Heller 2017) was a stream of 1,902,341 bits, which is the product of prime numbers. Like the Arecibo message (Staff At The National Astronomy Ionosphere Center 1975) and Evpatoria’s “Cosmic Calls” (Shuch 2011), the bits represent the X/Y black/white pixel map of an image. When this is understood, further analysis could be done off-line by printing on paper. Any harm would then come from the meaning of the message, and not from embedded viruses or other technical issues.”
However, where messages are made up of complex codes or even a self-contained AI, the need for sophisticated computers may be unavoidable. In this case, the authors explore another popular recommendation, which is the use on quarantined machines to conduct the analysis – i.e. a message prison. Unfortunately, they also acknowledge that no prison would be 100% effective and containment could eventually fail.
“This scenario resembles the Oracle-AI, or AI box, of an isolated computer system where a possibly dangerous AI is ‘imprisoned’ with only minimalist communication channels,” they write. “Current research indicates that even well-designed boxes are useless, and a sufficiently intelligent AI will be able to persuade or trick its human keepers into releasing it.”
In the end, it appears that the only real solution is to maintain a vigilant attitude and ensure that any messages we send are as benign as possible. As Hippke summarized: “I think it’s overwhelmingly likely that a message will be positive, but you can not be sure. Would you take a 1% chance of death for a 99% chance of a cure for all diseases? One learning from our paper is how to design own message, in case we decide to send any: Keep it simple, don’t send computer code.”
Basically, when it comes to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, the rules of internet safety may apply. If we begin to receive messages, we shouldn’t trust those that come with big attachments and send any suspicious looking ones to our spam folder. Oh, and if a sender is promising the cure for all known diseases, or claims to be the deposed monarch of Andromeda in need of some cash, we should just hit delete!
Looks more like a sperm penetrating an egg, which could be interpreted as saying F U.............
If it says “what are you doing for lunch?” I think it would be prudent to ignore it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IQO403K/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The book is called “The Three-Body Problem” by Cixin Liu. It deals with this very issue and the alien civilization cooks up a weapon to deal with Earth civilization. Very easy read considering that the author is Chinese and presumably is not a native English-speaker.
Everybody has the Star Trek idea of an alien; a guy in a rubber mask with different eyebrows than us. The idea that we’d be able to communicate with mind melds or universal translators is ludicrous. Suppose they don’t have eyes or voices. Suppose they communicate with pheromones or skin color changes. The idea that we could study the language of a species with probably few or maybe zero concepts in common is ludicrous. Suppose they aren’t even born, but instead they form, like crystals. Suppose they never die because their entire life is at the atomic level. What would they want to say to us? We can’t even communicate with whales and dolphins and everything indicates they are potentially as smart as us.
Yeah, by all means keep your eyes peeled for them. But let’s not try any harder to attract attention than we are now. Please.
tl;dr;
Obviously No!
First of all, how would we know for sure it was really from aliens without reading it and extensive analysis?
Second, how can we know to delete it without reading it first? The question presumes a higher authority on the issue of deletion. Higher authorities are to be damned! Especially if they prove their invalidity by directing deletion without reading. Any higher authority which directs such is self-evidently invalid.
May God Damn Higher Authorities!
Does anyone actually think that a message will be written in good, grammatical English, in a Word document?
It will take a lot of time and effort to figure out what the meaning is.
And the human oligarchy stooges have been swallowing the lies and orders--to the UN elite and other world leaders--of the fallen angels/ET's for decades.
Some time back people in the SW US were picking up TV transmissions from 50 years ago...they hit something and bounced back to Earth...
Paul Blart, Mall Cop
First alien contact will be a lost redneck in a space Winnebago with his family and possibly with a deranged doctor on board.
They agree with Trump. Aliens might be dangerous and need to be vetted. Seti is racist.
Whether or not aliens exist, the taxpayers should not fund SETI circle jerk philosophy.
Earth is the planet of intergalactic SPAN origin.
So many messages sent out, hoping for just one phish to bite.
>>We can’t even communicate with whales and dolphins and everything indicates they are potentially as smart as us.
Yep.
Do white blood cells have dreams and ambitions?
It begins to read, “ I am the Minister of Finance for Niburu and seek to deposit 50 million shugulots in a bank account of your choosing, in order to open an account on Earth for Niburu in the amount of 40 million shugulots ($SGLT).....”
http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm
Page last updated at 02:05 GMT, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 UK
47 year old television signals bouncing back to Earth
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico finds television shows lost in space.
While searching deep space for extra-terrestrial signals, scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have stumbled across signals broadcast from Earth nearly half a century ago.
Radio astronomer Dr. Venn described how he made the historic discovery after analysing a number of signals originating from the same point in space. “I realised the signal was in the VHF Band and slap bang in the middle of 41-68 MHz. It was obviously old terrestrial television broadcasts, but they seemed to be originating from deep space.” After boosting and digital enhancement the resulting video signals are remarkably clear...
“...we asked NASA if they could point Hubble at the centre of what we’ve named the ‘Bounce Anomaly’. NASA were very keen to help once they had seen our data.” However the $3 billion space telescope was unable to produce any clues as to what the signals are bouncing off. One theory is a massive cloud of asteroids is acting like a mirror in space reflecting radio signals from our past, back to us...
...A BBC team have been working closely with Dr Venn’s team to help recover the signals. BBC Television historian Peter Wells, explained “We now know these are original broadcasts. So far we have recovered about 7 weeks of old television signals from space. Every day in our lab is like traveling back in time. And speaking of which we have just started the digital recovery of signals that contain lost Doctor Who episodes.
Doctor WhoLost Doctor Who episodes recovered from space.
The BBC will be archiving all the recordings recovered from space and there are plans to broadcast some of the highlights later in the year.
April 1st
Ask He/She/It if it accepts Bitcoin.
If there’s no FTL travel and we’re talking interstellar distances, then 1) the signals would have originated centuries ago and 2) it would take an amazingly paranoid race of beings to purposely broadcast malicious signals on the off-chance that they are received by a sufficiently advanced race to receive and interpret them and tech similar enough that they could engineer the means to contaminate it. Even if those narrow parameters were reached, then there’s also the possibility of a race advanced enough to catch the malicious code and negate it, after which you have the risk that you’ve made enemies of people you didn’t even know existed.
Given the low probability of success in that scenario, would such a paranoid race risk building what is essentially a beacon in space that would, if their first plan went awry, essentially be a road map to finding them for some other malicious space-farers?
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