[cap-talk] Extra-terrestrials and timing/direction

[Ben Laurie]

On 1/10/07, Jed Donnelley <capability at webstart.com> wrote:
> At 02:44 AM 1/9/2007, John McCabe-Dansted wrote:
> >On 1/9/07, Jed Donnelley <capability at webstart.com> wrote:
> > > I also think that the case of the extra terrestrial communication
> > > that might come with public key identities but where "they" could
> > > in fact be collaborating behind the scenes is also relevant to
> > > this case.
> >
> >While this may not be directly relevant, if we have two extra
> >terrestrial civilisations A and B we are likely to know not only their
> >public keys, but also there position relative to us. From this and the
> >law of relativity we may be able to deduce that A is not a proxy for B
> >(although it may be an intelligent agent programmed to represent B's
> >interest).
>
> Good point.  It seems we can know more about extra terrestrial
> communicators than we know about communicators on the Internet ;-)

Not strictly, just the timing uncertainty on the Internet is large
enough to make this approach infeasible in practice. Which doesn't
stop people from proposing it on a regular basis.

>
> It's a Gedanken exercise.  The point is just to free the thinking
> of any possible physical contact.  In reality most contacts on
> the Internet act much this way.
>
> >We could also send a word macro virus to B (hey it works in
> >the movies) and warn A not to open any attachments from B. By the time
> >A's warning reaches B we could know that it would be too late to save
> >whatever is at B.
>
> Chuckle.  I don't recommend that for contacts made on cap-talk.
>
> --Jed  http://www.webstart.com/jed-signature.html
>
>
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