20 ms·

I have something urgent I need to tell you. Your life could be in danger. You need to contact me immediately.

IntronExon 9y ago
Or more effective and sinister, appeal to one person in a posotion to run the code. “Want be rich/immortal/powerful beyond human limits?”
- perl4ever 9y ago
  Furthermore, that strategy doesn't have to be a one shot deal, where the message says "believe me" before it is proven trustworthy. You can have little pieces of information that demonstrate neat tricks, leading to progressively increasing trust until the full payload is unveiled, for better or worse.
lkrubner 9y ago
I mean, that's an example. There are many ways they could try to trick us. Presumably we are talking about hyper-intelligent beings.
biesnecker 9y ago
This civilization colonized half the galaxy thanks to this one weird trick. Execute the rest of the message to find out more.
jwfxpr 9y ago
"Hello mister sentient being! I am the informational treasurer for the dying civilization of Nigerium, with access to great technological and cultural wealth that is about to be lost forever. I wish your help in establishing a vast database for our future descendents to recover our advancements, and would like to send you the entirety of our knowledge in a format that will be accessible to you and our great-great-grandspawn. All I need is an example of the informational structures used by your civilization, with a complete and robust list of all known vulnerabilities that may have an impact on the safety and integrity of our heritage." The simplest of tricks have been proven to work again and again.
pavel_lishin 9y ago
"They're following this signal at 0.98c. You might be able to defeat them, but you must act immediately or face utter annihilation."
- IntronExon 9y ago
  If they’re following at that velocity, then we’re already dead, and “they” are a relativistic bombardment we won’t even see coming.
  - wging 9y ago
    Depends on how far away the signal came from. 10^9 light years away, and your .98c attackers won't be here for 20 million years. Even 10000 light years away, you have 200 years to play with. Though it's likely pretty hard to get a signal 10000 light years, especially if you don't know the direction to send it.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    Then the promise of safety is all the more tempting, isn't it?
    - IntronExon 9y ago
      Maybe, but if they’re sending us EM signals then we know we’re doomed. Physics as we know it, with c as a limit, strongly implies that it is simply impossible to defend against a relativistic strike.

Or more effective and sinister, appeal to one person in a posotion to run the code. “Want be rich/immortal/powerful beyond human limits?”

perl4ever 9y ago
Furthermore, that strategy doesn't have to be a one shot deal, where the message says "believe me" before it is proven trustworthy. You can have little pieces of information that demonstrate neat tricks, leading to progressively increasing trust until the full payload is unveiled, for better or worse.

lkrubner 9y ago

I mean, that's an example. There are many ways they could try to trick us. Presumably we are talking about hyper-intelligent beings.

biesnecker 9y ago

This civilization colonized half the galaxy thanks to this one weird trick. Execute the rest of the message to find out more.

jwfxpr 9y ago

"Hello mister sentient being! I am the informational treasurer for the dying civilization of Nigerium, with access to great technological and cultural wealth that is about to be lost forever. I wish your help in establishing a vast database for our future descendents to recover our advancements, and would like to send you the entirety of our knowledge in a format that will be accessible to you and our great-great-grandspawn. All I need is an example of the informational structures used by your civilization, with a complete and robust list of all known vulnerabilities that may have an impact on the safety and integrity of our heritage." The simplest of tricks have been proven to work again and again.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

"They're following this signal at 0.98c. You might be able to defeat them, but you must act immediately or face utter annihilation."

IntronExon 9y ago
If they’re following at that velocity, then we’re already dead, and “they” are a relativistic bombardment we won’t even see coming.
- wging 9y ago
  Depends on how far away the signal came from. 10^9 light years away, and your .98c attackers won't be here for 20 million years. Even 10000 light years away, you have 200 years to play with. Though it's likely pretty hard to get a signal 10000 light years, especially if you don't know the direction to send it.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  Then the promise of safety is all the more tempting, isn't it?
  - IntronExon 9y ago
    Maybe, but if they’re sending us EM signals then we know we’re doomed. Physics as we know it, with c as a limit, strongly implies that it is simply impossible to defend against a relativistic strike.