Alien computer viruses?

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Message 1255625 - Posted: 4 Jul 2012, 20:26:27 UTC - in response to Message 1255116.  
Last modified: 4 Jul 2012, 20:36:50 UTC

1: Viruses are made for defective products which were deliberately designed to fail,


Sorry, I can't agree with this premise at all. Viruses are nothing more than computer programs that are designed to cause havok on the system for which the virus was written (it is for this reason that the possibility of saving mankind by giving the alien mothership a "cold" a la Independence Day is completely laughable without hundreds of scientists studying the CPU and OS architecture of the target system).

All systems designed by imperfect beings have imperfections in their design. It is up to a good code writer to find those flaws and take advantage of them in code written as a virus. This can happen to any system - not just products that are "deliberately designed to fail".

2: Besides, we spend money to run this software on our computer in electricity costs, and we don't benefit from it in any way as the people who use our computers hold the discoveries in patent to themselves, to be locked away until they see the best financially viable opportunity to release the technology or decide to educate us.


Not true. There are guidelines in place to give credit to all participants who make the discovery. No one is going to patent any discoveries. By the way, Men In Black was just a fictional movie.

3: Or that any SETI discovery be censored from public eyes with the deliberately implanted idea that it is dangerous or harmful. hmm.. I am sure you guys can continue from where I left off as I am sure you know where I am going with this one.


Straw man argument. Who is going to do the shielding? And how long can they keep the facade up? How many people would need to be involved to keep it a secret? The more people that know the secret, the larger the chance that the secret comes out. Very high probability that it won't happen that way at all, but I do note that it is interesting how many people think this way.


#1: I have seen e-mails from Microsoft on many occasions from developers who identified holes in their software and the responses of "It is not a bug it is a feature" in responses full knowing the results which would incur as a direct result of being complacent with applying a quickfix, only later releasing the virus which would exploit that "feature" which was earlier identified. Fixes came months later after many people had their OS exploited by these issues, when it could have been proactively remedied. Time and time again, in good business sense, you can twist a situation in order to make money, and the designers are told to do things a certain way to maximize profits, even at the cost of disrupting and costing the end user with loss of data and downtime. This is Fact, but to what extent now I do not know as this has been my past experiences.

#2: Idea's have been in the past patented by those who did not discover the idea. Nothing is preventing the ethics of use from patenting anything. If I decided to Patent an idea which you discovered, then I can be the person who forces you not to use the technology that you created simply on the premis that if I Patented it "FIRST" then the technology belongs to me. It has happened in the past where individuals have had exploited public resources to further technological advances and then not share the technology but rather profit by them. No matter how fancy you make your guidelines, one principal always comes to mind: "Everything is legal, just as long as you don't get caught".

#3: This was just another idea I thought of sharing. Always good to remain objective at every possible angle a situation can lead. You could always slant things to your advantage if you set it up just right. About secrets, the internet is a valuable tool to leak information to the public in efforts to "enlighten" the public, but the US congress is working very hard to limit that with the false flag of "Piracy". There is much behind the scenes which occurs on a daily basis by certain people in power which are designed to limit freedoms and develop mechanisms of control on society. I won't mention the names of these many programs which were attempted to be passed. Not in the greater USA you might ask? Ever hear of Social acceptance? If the idea is acceptable in one place, then it can be applied everywhere.

Finally, "MIB" lets not involve Hollywood in this mess. It is already enough clouding our minds with misinformation than to be mixing mainstream entertainment into it.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and it is not always possible to be factual, but at least is possible to be objective.
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Message 1255668 - Posted: 4 Jul 2012, 22:34:49 UTC - in response to Message 1255625.  

#1: I have seen e-mails from Microsoft on many occasions from developers who identified holes in their software and the responses of "It is not a bug it is a feature" in responses full knowing the results which would incur as a direct result of being complacent with applying a quickfix, only later releasing the virus which would exploit that "feature" which was earlier identified.


Agreed, but I've seen the same out of some Linux distros too, if you want to be objective and fair about it. I've recently seen detailings of issues trying to get some distros to update known flawed software in their repositories, only to be told that "as long as it is the official version, this is the one we're going to use".

Fixes came months later after many people had their OS exploited by these issues, when it could have been proactively remedied. Time and time again, in good business sense, you can twist a situation in order to make money, and the designers are told to do things a certain way to maximize profits, even at the cost of disrupting and costing the end user with loss of data and downtime. This is Fact, but to what extent now I do not know as this has been my past experiences.


Agreed. However, none of this addresses the fact that all software, including OSes, are flawed inherently. Your statement that "Viruses are made for defective products which were deliberately designed to fail", as well as your direct comments here about Microsoft suggests that you are targetting Microsoft as if they deliberately design products to fail or are somehow inherently defective. Might I inquire as to what your framework of logic is that classifies a software product as "defective and deliberately designed to fail", and what direct evidence you might have which supports your claim that Microsoft specifically operates under this premise?

#2: Idea's have been in the past patented by those who did not discover the idea. Nothing is preventing the ethics of use from patenting anything. If I decided to Patent an idea which you discovered, then I can be the person who forces you not to use the technology that you created simply on the premis that if I Patented it "FIRST" then the technology belongs to me. It has happened in the past where individuals have had exploited public resources to further technological advances and then not share the technology but rather profit by them. No matter how fancy you make your guidelines, one principal always comes to mind: "Everything is legal, just as long as you don't get caught".


I fail to see how this pertains to aliens sending us computer viruses. I move that this is quickly moving off topic unless your claiming that someone is able to patent the first claim of discovery on an alien signal.

There is much behind the scenes which occurs on a daily basis by certain people in power which are designed to limit freedoms and develop mechanisms of control on society. I won't mention the names of these many programs which were attempted to be passed. Not in the greater USA you might ask? Ever hear of Social acceptance? If the idea is acceptable in one place, then it can be applied everywhere.


I don't exactly disagree, but you're quickly moving from topic to topic, and rather politically motivated I might add, which seems to be out of the context of this thread.

I never claimed that the government doesn't hide things from the public, only that something as large as alien visitations would never go unnoticed.
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Message 1255920 - Posted: 5 Jul 2012, 16:30:43 UTC - in response to Message 1255668.  

I apologize, but I must respectfully disagree with your statement, "I never claimed that the government doesn't hide things from the public, only that something as large as alien visitations would never go unnoticed."

Although not alien visitations, I do have first hand knowledge that the United States government has -successfully- hidden certain technological advances from the public for over sixty (yes, -sixty-) years. The nature of this technology would certainly spark some thought-provoking discussions, to say the least.

Unfortunately, I am unable to say more for several reasons, not the least of which is that I do not wish to end up in a worse situation than Julian Assange.
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Message 1255923 - Posted: 5 Jul 2012, 16:34:38 UTC - in response to Message 1255920.  

I apologize, but I must respectfully disagree with your statement, "I never claimed that the government doesn't hide things from the public, only that something as large as alien visitations would never go unnoticed."

Although not alien visitations, I do have first hand knowledge that the United States government has -successfully- hidden certain technological advances from the public for over sixty (yes, -sixty-) years. The nature of this technology would certainly spark some thought-provoking discussions, to say the least.

Unfortunately, I am unable to say more for several reasons, not the least of which is that I do not wish to end up in a worse situation than Julian Assange.


Please re-read my assertion. What I am getting at is the larger the secret, the harder it is to keep under wraps. Sure, there are lots of military advancements that are kept secret from the public, and probably has been so for many decades.

Something like alien spacecraft flying around our atmosphere would be nearly impossible and difficult at best to hide from the entire world's population.

I would certainly classify alien visitations as being a much larger secret than anything the military is working on or is planning on working on in the future.
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Message 1256190 - Posted: 6 Jul 2012, 2:51:54 UTC
Last modified: 6 Jul 2012, 2:56:34 UTC

One thing we should be able to notice from our knowledge of recent historical facts are that some things seem to be out of proportions when it comes to both time as well as size.

We all know that Adolf Hitler had to abandon or relinquish his plans for the conquest of the United Kingdom, because in the end, the battle for Britain was won in the air by means of the Spitfire.

The Battle of Britain, if I am not wrong, took place about 1940 or so.

According to Wikipedia, this battle occurred in the summer and autumn of that year.

At the same time, we also know that the Wright brothers were first successfully able to fly a plane in the summer of 1903.

That is a time span of slightly less than 40 years, more exactly 37 years.

If for some reason Adolf Hitler was able to "hijack" the ideas of the Wright brothers for the development of planes, possibly history went a little further some 5 years later with the transfer of eminent German scientists who were supposed to be "renegades" or refugeees (I really do not find the correct word for this, even with a quite big dictionary in front of me - any suggestions welcome).

Meaning with this that in the shadow of war, what may seem like a scientific exhchange program may constantly be happening and being in progress all the time.

Rockets, of course are not the same as planes and the ideas behind the invention and development of the helicopter is an even more complex story than the invention of the plane.

The end story behind it all is that something happened which may not be totally explained by known events alone.

My guess is that at least the time factor was involved. We may also speculate whether aliens or alien technology were behind some of these events as they happened.
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Message 1256508 - Posted: 6 Jul 2012, 17:38:06 UTC - in response to Message 1255616.  

I read in a blog at www.setiquest.org that radio and TV signals are too weak to be detected by aliens living within the Galaxy. Only Arecibo has enough power to be detectable in the galacttic center zone.
Tullio

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Message 1256606 - Posted: 6 Jul 2012, 20:18:44 UTC - in response to Message 1256508.  

I read in a blog at www.setiquest.org that radio and TV signals are too weak to be detected by aliens living within the Galaxy. Only Arecibo has enough power to be detectable in the galacttic center zone.
Tullio

That makes no sense. We can still hear the faint "squeekings" of our space probes (one of which just crossed the distance considered the border of the splar system). If we can hear it and when you think about how loudly we are blasting radio signals out into the galaxy, I would expect that aliens might be able to hear us (assuming they were listening).

It's more likely that we would have caught their attention with the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. If for no other reason that to make a point of avoiding us so they wouldn't face contamination.

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Message 1256706 - Posted: 7 Jul 2012, 0:29:56 UTC - in response to Message 1256606.  

In March 2012 NASA said Voyager was 119.9 AU out from the sun. That is only about 0.0019 light years, or 0.047 % of the way to the nearest star (4 light years). Since radio energy follows a distance squared rule, the Voyager signal arriving at Earth is about (1/0.047%) squared, or 4.4 million times stronger than the signal arriving at the nearest star. And it takes some very large antennas to pick up the signal at earth.

Tulio was talking about distance to the Galactic Core (27,000 light years, give or take). So, the Voyager is only -

.000007 %

of the way to the core. The Voyager signal arriving at earth today is 202,800,000,000,000 times stronger than the signal that will arrive at the core in about 27,000 years. (Roughly).

Its a big old Galaxy out there.

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Message 1256725 - Posted: 7 Jul 2012, 0:56:53 UTC - in response to Message 1256190.  

One thing we should be able to notice from our knowledge of recent historical facts are that some things seem to be out of proportions when it comes to both time as well as size.

We all know that Adolf Hitler had to abandon or relinquish his plans for the conquest of the United Kingdom, because in the end, the battle for Britain was won in the air by means of the Spitfire.

The Battle of Britain, if I am not wrong, took place about 1940 or so.

According to Wikipedia, this battle occurred in the summer and autumn of that year.

At the same time, we also know that the Wright brothers were first successfully able to fly a plane in the summer of 1903.

That is a time span of slightly less than 40 years, more exactly 37 years.

If for some reason Adolf Hitler was able to "hijack" the ideas of the Wright brothers for the development of planes, possibly history went a little further some 5 years later with the transfer of eminent German scientists who were supposed to be "renegades" or refugeees (I really do not find the correct word for this, even with a quite big dictionary in front of me - any suggestions welcome).

Meaning with this that in the shadow of war, what may seem like a scientific exhchange program may constantly be happening and being in progress all the time.

Rockets, of course are not the same as planes and the ideas behind the invention and development of the helicopter is an even more complex story than the invention of the plane.

The end story behind it all is that something happened which may not be totally explained by known events alone.

My guess is that at least the time factor was involved. We may also speculate whether aliens or alien technology were behind some of these events as they happened.

The first two episodes of Enterprise season 4 were highly entertaining, but I don't give them the slightest bit of credence as reality.

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

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Message 1257107 - Posted: 7 Jul 2012, 16:37:13 UTC
Last modified: 7 Jul 2012, 17:23:29 UTC

Since we have been discussing the capabilities and limitations of technology, both human and alien, I thought I'd pass this along.

Yesterday evening (July 6) I had a nice conversation with a young scientist from Beijing earning his doctorate in the United States. He and a group of his associates have recently published their success in creating a tunable and sizeable, stable, single atomic layer of graphene.

Translation: They have developed a workable transistor that is only -one atom thick-!!!

As many of you probably already realize, this achievement will most likely be comparable to the invention of the transistor to replace tubes!

Combine this with the work these talented young geniuses are also doing on applied quantum mechanics, and they most likely have opened the door on most of the futuristic technology man has always dreamed of in Star Trek, Star Wars, and other similar Science Fiction.

Anyone who is interested can check out their publication at http://www.nature.com/am/journal/v4/n2/full/am201210a.html.

If they haven't already heard about this, I suspect David, Dan, Eric and the rest of the SETI team will love to read it.

Imagine the possibilities!
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Message 1259217 - Posted: 12 Jul 2012, 3:29:34 UTC

I'm more worried to...
We are happy numen!Let's go research together!
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Message 1260356 - Posted: 14 Jul 2012, 17:01:13 UTC - in response to Message 1252673.  

?


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Message 1260390 - Posted: 14 Jul 2012, 18:40:30 UTC

PIX . What are you asking ?
It does not seem to be anything to do with an Alien computer virus.
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Message 1260579 - Posted: 15 Jul 2012, 6:59:25 UTC - in response to Message 1256056.  
Last modified: 15 Jul 2012, 7:04:24 UTC

Everlasting light bulbs were invented in the 1940's but suppressed because too many US firms would go bust. There are many more similar examples.

<< for fans of That 70's Show >>
"There is no gas shortage man. It's all fake. The oil companies control everything. Like there is this guy that invented this car and it runs on water man. It's got a fiberglass air-cooled engine and it runs on water."

Generally the level of conspiracy fear is directly proportional to the consumption of psychotropic drugs. Or something like that.
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Message 1260617 - Posted: 15 Jul 2012, 11:48:58 UTC - in response to Message 1252767.  
Last modified: 15 Jul 2012, 11:50:33 UTC

I've just got an alert from ET Antivirus 2013 telling me my system is infected. They only want fifty klaygaars for a twenty leeptoo licence, sounds like a bargain :)
If you think you understand quantum mechanics (or Extra-terrestrial computer viruses) you probably ARE ET. Cute tinfoil hat btw...
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Message 1261019 - Posted: 16 Jul 2012, 6:50:35 UTC

You have been looking for how many years? And you post this kind of story? Well thank god I did not go to college. My high school education says your nuts for responding to questions like this. Way to stupid for me. I understand your trying to hook a number of computers to run this search but you really have to explain it truthfully. You have to Tell them we have Norton AV and it checks all incoming packages of info. Except the info is coming from 300 light years away. Just a minor problem right?
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Message 1261121 - Posted: 16 Jul 2012, 14:04:33 UTC - in response to Message 1261019.  

You have been looking for how many years?


The SETI effort itself has been going on a few decades. SETI@Home has been searching officially since April of 1999.

And you post this kind of story?


Creating stimulating discussion and discourse is always a good thing.

I understand your trying to hook a number of computers to run this search but you really have to explain it truthfully.


I see nothing that suggests they've done otherwise.

You have to Tell them we have Norton AV and it checks all incoming packages of info.


Please tell me you're kidding. Every Anti-Virus program on the market works through virus signature files, which implies the virus must be discovered and a signature created, then the signature gets added to a "definitions" file. Being that we are working with largely random data, the probability of this random data having the same signature as a known virus is very high. So high in fact that several false-positives have been reported by users in the past.

You could do heuristics scanning, but that's largely guesswork and isn't ideal for catching an alien embedded virus.

Except the info is coming from 300 light years away. Just a minor problem right?


Not at all. If the virus is programmed similar to a computer worm but has an intelligence like we've never seen, it could easily infect our entire infrastructure.

However, I personally believe the optimal way to launch an attack on our civilization would be to go after our satellite communication devices.
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Message 1261150 - Posted: 16 Jul 2012, 16:07:33 UTC

article wrote:
Siemion stressed that this doesn't apply to such projects as SETI@Home and Astropulse, which he said are "thoroughly vetted by very competent computer security professionals, and every effort is made to ensure [their] safety."



What exactly is meant by that? That buffer overflows can't happen within the SETI@home and Astropulse software?

Well, I guess since thousands of users are working with lots of random data here, that any data sequence that could cause a buffer overflow should have occured mutiple times by now. If that is the case then we can consider the client apps being completely overflow-free. Therefore any harmful code within our workunits, be it written by ETI or another I (means: human hacker), would never be executed.

Well if the above is correct (There still might be an error within this chain of argument), then, provided you run the original software from Berkely and that there was no malevolent programmer involved in writing it, SETI@home is perfectly safe.
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Message 1261157 - Posted: 16 Jul 2012, 16:55:57 UTC - in response to Message 1261150.  
Last modified: 16 Jul 2012, 17:11:45 UTC

Well, I guess since thousands of users are working with lots of random data here, that any data sequence that could cause a buffer overflow should have occured mutiple times by now. If that is the case then we can consider the client apps being completely overflow-free. Therefore any harmful code within our workunits, be it written by ETI or another I (means: human hacker), would never be executed.


That is correct. The science applications are the ones performing the analysis and are therefore the only thing executing any code on our systems. The random data in the workunits is not executed/executable and therefore could not cause a buffer overflow or even execute a virus on our systems. A buffer overflow would have to come from the science app itself.

Well if the above is correct (There still might be an error within this chain of argument), then, provided you run the original software from Berkely and that there was no malevolent programmer involved in writing it, SETI@home is perfectly safe.


Agreed, but the above pertains to all software. You have to trust who it comes from before you can feel safe about assuming that there is no malevolent programmers writing malicious code that will execute on your system. I would imagine that if the SETI@Home code developers were to be that malicious, there would be enough reports of issues abound. Also, the SETI@Home developers have released their code as Open Source, allowing anyone who understands written code to review their work and possibly improve upon it - hence why there is a third-party option at SETI@Home known as the Lunatics Optimized Apps.
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Message 1261293 - Posted: 16 Jul 2012, 22:01:22 UTC - in response to Message 1252813.  

what is the word for the emote %)?
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