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If aliens do exist and are in our vicinity, they absolutely have access to every digitally-transcribed mote of data or communication, should they wish. I kind

If aliens do exist and are in our vicinity, they absolutely have access to every digitally-transcribed mote of data or communication, should they wish. I kind of view this as a bit of a problem: If it is so, presumably they have orders of magnitude more capacity for control and amendment and could have very plausibly been editing every last bit of digital data we've relied upon over the last 70+ years. They could well have been re-writing our entire view of the universe. We need an order of Analogue Eternally-watching Monks we rely upon to fact-check basic assumptions using entirely non-digital means. Which could get complicated.

idiotsecant 3y ago
Huh? You think they're literally editing radio broadcasts, network transmissions, printed media, etc? And that nobody has noticed? I think your tinfoil is leaking!
- detritus 3y ago
  I'm mooting it as a possibility, tin foil or not. I more meant they could be editing transmissions and inputs from all the digitally-based means we have analysing the universe - including Voyager, telescopes, gravity wave detectors... CERN. It was an idea I pondered trying to turn into a short story, but I'm not a writer, so.. here we are.
  - vimax 3y ago
    Ready the short story True Names by Vernor Vinge. My favorite short story . https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor/True%20Names%20-%20Vinge%2C%20Vernor.pdf https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor... His later book A Deepness in the Sky also revolves around the same ideas.
    - BatFastard 3y ago
      That was an awesome story! I think I had read it 40 years ago, but in an age where AGI is close to real.... its thought provoking.
- mistermann 3y ago
  > And that nobody has noticed? I think your tinfoil is leaking! An excellent, highly scalable (and scaled) way of not being able to notice things.
titanomachy 3y ago
I love Vernor Vinge's "Deepness in the Sky", where a very diminished force of humans arrives at an alien planet during the aliens' industrial revolution. The humans decide to go into cold sleep until the aliens are advanced enough to help rebuild their ship, and they spend hundreds of years subtly manipulating the aliens' social and technological development to their benefit. Of course, among the aliens are a small faction of tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists who are constantly trying to prove the existence of the aliens and their manipulation of the planet's information systems.

idiotsecant 3y ago

Huh? You think they're literally editing radio broadcasts, network transmissions, printed media, etc? And that nobody has noticed? I think your tinfoil is leaking!

detritus 3y ago
I'm mooting it as a possibility, tin foil or not. I more meant they could be editing transmissions and inputs from all the digitally-based means we have analysing the universe - including Voyager, telescopes, gravity wave detectors... CERN. It was an idea I pondered trying to turn into a short story, but I'm not a writer, so.. here we are.
- vimax 3y ago
  Ready the short story True Names by Vernor Vinge. My favorite short story . https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor/True%20Names%20-%20Vinge%2C%20Vernor.pdf https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor... His later book A Deepness in the Sky also revolves around the same ideas.
  - BatFastard 3y ago
    That was an awesome story! I think I had read it 40 years ago, but in an age where AGI is close to real.... its thought provoking.
mistermann 3y ago
> And that nobody has noticed? I think your tinfoil is leaking! An excellent, highly scalable (and scaled) way of not being able to notice things.

titanomachy 3y ago

I love Vernor Vinge's "Deepness in the Sky", where a very diminished force of humans arrives at an alien planet during the aliens' industrial revolution. The humans decide to go into cold sleep until the aliens are advanced enough to help rebuild their ship, and they spend hundreds of years subtly manipulating the aliens' social and technological development to their benefit. Of course, among the aliens are a small faction of tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists who are constantly trying to prove the existence of the aliens and their manipulation of the planet's information systems.