3 ms·

Well, at least we can be certain that there hasn't been any contact made before that's been kept secret for decades.

KMag 6y ago
> we can be certain that there hasn't been any contact Conspiracy theories always find a way. Someone can believe that 5G causes COVID (and equally inexplicably, 4G doesn't) can believe this is still part of a cover-up.
- wyldfire 6y ago
  Those theories are bogus however under the big umbrella of technologies in '5G' are new frequency bands. Those bands may have different absorption characteristics in tissue than previous ones. Buuuuuut they're not viruses, and they're not used for 'spying' any more or less than 4G.
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    Most 5G is at LTE-ish frequencies. The mm-wave stuff is relatively rare and will probably remain so for a while (if not forever; it’s arguably a solution in search of a problem).
    - wyldfire 6y ago
      I know that. And you know that. But it's a kernel or truth that conspiracy theories are able to weave their way about.
      - ithkuil 6y ago
        Yeah. Sadly you can always find something somewhere at some point in time that proves the general point of "the government and corporations being assholes". Like when lead poisoning was covered up by corporations and researchers discredited by corrupt "scientists". Yes this happened, and society learned from such incidents and became more resilient. But if you keep getting back at those incidents as "proofs" that everything is corrupt forever, how you're going to solve the problem?
    - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
      > mmWave I thought the problem was that houses and most buildings outside of North America have solid internal walls which blocks or attenuates mmWave signal strength to such a degree it's practically worthless for anything besides Wi-Gig between consumer appliances within a few feet of each other?
      - rsynnott 6y ago
        I mean, that's one problem, but even with the most radio-transparent walls available, you're looking at something with a very limited range, really only suitable for deployment in dense urban areas. And dense urban areas normally have decent fixed-line broadband. And pretty good LTE. One edge-case application _might_ be stadiums, large train stations etc. But in practice these days these can often be covered quite adequately with small LTE nodes. And that will improve with 5G, even without mmWave.
- retsibsi 6y ago
  Someone(s) competent to cover up aliens would also be smart enough to muddy the waters and lull us into complacency. I don't think the conspiracy theorists are wrong not to treat minor, easily-stageable signs of transparency/incompetence as extra evidence against their beliefs.

KMag 6y ago

> we can be certain that there hasn't been any contact Conspiracy theories always find a way. Someone can believe that 5G causes COVID (and equally inexplicably, 4G doesn't) can believe this is still part of a cover-up.

wyldfire 6y ago
Those theories are bogus however under the big umbrella of technologies in '5G' are new frequency bands. Those bands may have different absorption characteristics in tissue than previous ones. Buuuuuut they're not viruses, and they're not used for 'spying' any more or less than 4G.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  Most 5G is at LTE-ish frequencies. The mm-wave stuff is relatively rare and will probably remain so for a while (if not forever; it’s arguably a solution in search of a problem).
  - wyldfire 6y ago
    I know that. And you know that. But it's a kernel or truth that conspiracy theories are able to weave their way about.
    - ithkuil 6y ago
      Yeah. Sadly you can always find something somewhere at some point in time that proves the general point of "the government and corporations being assholes". Like when lead poisoning was covered up by corporations and researchers discredited by corrupt "scientists". Yes this happened, and society learned from such incidents and became more resilient. But if you keep getting back at those incidents as "proofs" that everything is corrupt forever, how you're going to solve the problem?
  - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
    > mmWave I thought the problem was that houses and most buildings outside of North America have solid internal walls which blocks or attenuates mmWave signal strength to such a degree it's practically worthless for anything besides Wi-Gig between consumer appliances within a few feet of each other?
    - rsynnott 6y ago
      I mean, that's one problem, but even with the most radio-transparent walls available, you're looking at something with a very limited range, really only suitable for deployment in dense urban areas. And dense urban areas normally have decent fixed-line broadband. And pretty good LTE. One edge-case application _might_ be stadiums, large train stations etc. But in practice these days these can often be covered quite adequately with small LTE nodes. And that will improve with 5G, even without mmWave.
retsibsi 6y ago
Someone(s) competent to cover up aliens would also be smart enough to muddy the waters and lull us into complacency. I don't think the conspiracy theorists are wrong not to treat minor, easily-stageable signs of transparency/incompetence as extra evidence against their beliefs.