From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Jul 09 1999 - 16:37:07 MDT
I think that the idea of intercepting and decoding communications
between ETCs is fundamentally misguided. The Powers are using
data-compression techniques so powerful as to be indistinguishable from
line noise. The human-level civilizations are using encryption
techniques so powerful as to be indistinguishable from line noise - as
John McCluskey points out, galactic economies are likely to be based on
data exchange, so looking for unguarded information is like searching
for 20 dollar bills on the streets of Manhatten.
What we should be looking for is byproducts - for example, a
sphere-shaped region inside a galaxy that contains no stars of a certain
type. Our telescopes aren't up to that, I think, but you get the idea.
Does anyone have any ideas about what kind of involuntary signatures
might be left by alien civilizations?
I still think the idea is fundamentally misguided, but it's less
misguided than looking for deliberate signals.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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