Science

Out of context: Reply #838

  • Started 12 years ago
  • Last post 3 months ago
  • 1,014 Responses
  • detritus7

    We cannot guarantee trust in ET messages.

    https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.02180…

    "Our main argument is that a message from ETI can-
    not be decontaminated with certainty. For anything
    more complex than easily printable images or plain text,
    the technical risks are impossible to assess beforehand.
    We may only choose to destroy such a message, or take
    the risk. The risk for humanity may be small, but not
    zero. The probability of encountering malicious ETI
    first might be very low. Perhaps it is much more likely
    to receive a message from positive ETI. Also, the poten-
    tial benefits from joining a galactic network might be
    considerable.

    It is always wise to understand the risks and chances
    beforehand, and make a conscious choice for, or against
    it, rather than blindly following a random path. Overall,
    we believe that the risk is very small (but not zero),
    and the potential benefit very large, so that we strongly
    encourage to read an incoming message."

    • Imagine throwing it away without reading it, out of fear. lol to that.
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    • That's not their actual conclusion, but you're pretty naive to simply assume ET = Good.
      If they even exist in any meaningful sense..
      detritus
    • I would never assume that..
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    • Not sure what would make you say that, either.
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    • You tend to deploy 'lol' sardonically so I assumed you were on your usual "Aliens Exist and are really great and if you don't accept this, you're a cretin"detritus
    • My bad if this wasn't the case this time.

      LOL
      detritus
    • Christ, you lot are odd.
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    • Strange assumptions, defensiveness, weird logic and completely made up accusations everywhere by the odd UK anti-set brigade.
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