Edward Snowden has a really good theory as to why we've never heard from aliens.

[astr0144]

Edward Snowden has a really good theory as to why we've never heard from aliens.


I assume this is new and came about this week and not from past years since Snowden came on the scene. I think  It seems a possible theory to consider.

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden has some strong opinions on communications — even when those communications are coming from aliens.

The former intelligence-agency contractor turned fugitive was an unexpected guest on famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk podcast on September 18. And, inevitably, the two got to talking about extraterrestrials.

Snowden became an infamous household name in 2013 when he leaked classified documents divulging the government's top-secret mass-surveillance program, which involved collecting personal information on Americans via phone records without their knowledge.

When the news broke, the US charged him with theft and espionage, and he's now living in Russia where he has asylum.

But Tyson scored an interview with him in New York City. How? Snowden rigged a robot that he can control from Russia, and rolled right into Tyson's office at the Hayden Planetarium in New York with his face displayed on the screen.

The conversation turned to encryption and cybersecurity, but here's where an astrophysicist differs from a journalist: Tyson's line of questioning quickly turned to how encryption relates to communication with ... aliens.

Tyson asked Snowden if a highly intelligent alien civilization might be communicating with encrypted messages. And Snowden had an unsettling answer.

First, Snowden said, let's assume that most advanced societies eventually realize that they need to encrypt their communication in order to protect it. This could also be the reason why we've never heard from other civilizations — their messages may have just been melding into the background static of the universe.

Here's Snowden's full answer, from the StarTalk podcast:

So if you have an alien civilization trying to listen for other civilizations, or our civilization trying to listen for aliens, there's only one small period in the development of their society when all of their communication will be sent via the most primitive and most unprotected means.

So when we think about everything that we're hearing through our satellites or everything that they're hearing from our civilization (if there are indeed aliens out there), all of their communications are encrypted by default.

So what we are hearing, that's actually an alien television show or, you know, a phone call ... is indistinguishable to us from cosmic microwave background radiation.

So it could be possible there are alien messages constantly hitting our satellites, and we just don't recognize them because they're so heavily encrypted. (The cosmic microwave background radiation that Snowden mentions is thermal radiation throughout the universe left over from the Big Bang. It basically looks and sounds like static to us puny humans.)

Of course, that's assuming an alien civilization has the same security issues that we have here on Earth, and they need to worry about protecting their communication system from their alien governments, Tyson jokes.

Snowden agreed that aliens might be a little more politically sophisticated than us.

Listen to the entire StarTalk conversation with Edward Snowden >>

http://uk.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-talks-alien-communication-with-neil-degrasse-tyson-2015-9

[zorgon]

Radio waves travel at the speed of light. That means any aliens at the 60 light year mark from us are just now tuning in to Hitler and the Atom Bombs dropped on Japan.

Anything past that point is mostly too weak to be anything but back ground noise

People tend to think the Universe knows we are here but we have only been transmitting about 100 years  and the early signals were weak

There are not many planets withing that 100 light year zone.  We sent signals to one system  Gliese 581 with 6 planets a few years ago, That system is 20.5 light years away. The message will take another 14 years to get there


Also the Earth is moving in space in several directions.   574,585 MPH is the Speed of Earth within Our Galaxy.  The other planets with any Aliens on it are also moving...

Now while an astronomer might say that doesn't matter (for light coming from a star for example) it WOULD matter for a short focused signal... So say we pick up a WOW signal... a brief blip in all the noise. By the time we can focus our antenna on the source both we and the sender will have changed location by millions of miles  So catching a brief focused beam is harder than finding a needle in a haystack

And any advanced race would long ago have stopped using radio  as it is useless for faster than light drives

This is a fairly decent animation showing how we really orbit the sun

[Dyna]

 :)it could sound like Rosetta.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4374

[Sinny]

That's cool. 

[zorgon]

he has upgraded it adding the other motions. This is still not 100% but it is very close to reality based on the various movements of the Earth





You can get the data here

What is the Speed of the Earth?
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/02files/Speed_of_Earth.html


Anyone out there want to be a space navigator?

[astr0144]

Its good to be reminded "Z" as to how fast and far radio or light waves are likely to travel as we are led to believe.

What I was not sure about was if ETs may have had some other way to send messages that we may not yet be aware about...

then again... maybe they would not wish to do so if they could risk attracting unwanted interest...

Maybe we should wonder how would such highly intelligent civilisations think...

would they have maybe tried such things in the past that may have brought them unwanted attention.

Maybe its a case of at some point some races would have sent out messages and as they evolved later they may have reconsidered doing so... but from all points over the universe there will be races at all levels... and some will be at the stage of sending out messages like us Human have recently done so.

Radio waves travel at the speed of light. That means any aliens at the 60 light year mark from us are just now tuning in to Hitler and the Atom Bombs dropped on Japan.

Anything past that point is mostly too weak to be anything but back ground noise

People tend to think the Universe knows we are here but we have only been transmitting about 100 years  and the early signals were weak

There are not many planets withing that 100 light year zone.  We sent signals to one system  Gliese 581 with 6 planets a few years ago, That system is 20.5 light years away. The message will take another 14 years to get there

[Ellirium113]

Maybe they just aren't listening or interested. How many different species of life on this planet? We can communicate with how many of them after thousands of years with them? If an ant colony wanted to contact world leaders could we hear them?