Snowden speaks about Aliens again. Not sure what to think

I don't agree with what he is saying. The bottom line is encryption requires resources.

Also, I think other ET life out there somewhere would be searching for other ET's too, and keeping plenty of unencrypted channels of communication open solely for this search alone. And why wouldn't they have something like public radio?

Besides, if there are intelligent, advanced ET's out there, they probably don't need to keep secrets.

originally posted by: charlyv
However, there should be an increase in broadband, if you were focused in the general area of the source.

If the aliens are sending stuff by radio (or light, or gravity waves, or something else in the EM spectrum), it will still require a carrier wave of some kind. We don't need to know what the message is. We just need to find the wave sending it.

If they're sending signals on something besides EM waves, then we're boned, because we don't know what those could be (PSI waves?) and don't know how to detect them. Our eyes are built for EM waves, our ears pick up mechanical waves in the air. The rest of our senses respond to chemical signals. We're not built to pick up polarized trans-luminal chronoton waves or whatever science fiction thing you can think of.

Hi. I dont know whether it is real that we wouldnt be able to listen to signals from aliens given our encrypted communications. Would we, anyone???. Thanks in advance, friends!...

He's confusing Snowden with the Brit what's his name. a reply to: chr0naut

why do people think we can outsmart advanced civilizations? a reply to: Macenroe82

originally posted by: moonrunner
Publicity hungry Snowden, maybe he just realised that he's borderline unemployable now and is desperate for attention.

It appears to me that you did not bother even reading thread or article in question, before making such a rush judgement and biased comment.

Snowden was guest @ StarTalk podcast, hosted by Dr. Tyson. He never claimed or produced any documents that point to government working with aliens. Title for this thread, as well opening post is misleading.

Now, article and podcast itself covers rather simple truth, that with advance of digital and electronics, signal changes and later addition of encryption makes it rather unusable... just look at our own signal that floats from earth at ~70 light years and recent jungle of digital signals...

Still makes me sad that one of first pictures that floats away from earth is Hitler's pictures...

originally posted by: bottleslingguy
He's confusing Snowden with the Brit what's his name. a reply to: chr0naut

If you are thinking of Gary McKinnon, who perpetrated a number of hacks into US defense computers, then it is possible.

McKinnon claimed to have found evidence of "non terrestrial officers" and a number of "ships" which weren't US Navy registered, which he claimed were space ships.

But aside from that, the Exopolitics article is deliberately misleading, drawing inferences that are too tenuous to be credible.

yes that's the bloke cheers m8 a reply to: chr0naut

originally posted by: evc1shop
This is perfectly logical. Remember the old day when tv signals were analog any you could turn your tuner to a station filled with snow (noise) on the screen. There were a few UHF transmitters in operation that would actually use a very small amplitude signal right before the video blanking signal of unused or undocumented stations to carry some data, a short pulse train then dead video information or hide it in the chroma channel of the signal. In any case anyone flipping through the channels would just see snow but if you had a decoder and knew which channel to look at, you could receive the bits, assemble the data stream over time and then unscramble/decrypt the payload.

Snowden, was just saying that we may not be able to find intelligent life once they move from simplistic communication methods to something capable of masking the activity which we can not easily discern, encryption offers a randomization of the data that can seem like just noise to anyone who does not know the methods employed.

He really had nothing to say that we wouldn't be able to surmise already.

Well random noise isn't all the same thing is it? Random noise in computers for example is psuedo-random. I'd expect we could figure out what we'll get from background radiation. Maybe the only way communications channels will look like background radiation is if it's intended to.

Another thing is if aliens want to communicate they can send unencrypted messsages. Moreso, they can light up their solar system with waste heat emissions which we'll possibly detect. How're they going to hide that? It eventually is the case they must intentionally hide, otherwise we'll spot them. Same thing for their interstellar ships.

This is an example of (not yet) detecing the waste:
www.astrobio.net - Advanced Alien Civilizations Rare or Absent in the Local Universe ...

As Professor Garrett explains: “The original research at Penn State has already told us that such systems are very rare, but the new analysis suggests that this is probably an understatement, and that advanced Kardashev Type III civilizations basically don’t exist in the local universe. In my view, it means we can all sleep safely in our beds tonight — an alien invasion doesn’t seem at all likely!”

Joking aside, Professor Garrett is still looking at a few candidate galaxies that lie off of the astrophysical correlation: “Some of these systems definitely demand further investigation, but those already studied in detail turn out to have a natural astrophysical explanation too. It’s very likely that the remaining systems also fall into this category, but of course it’s worth checking just in case!”

The technique applied by Professor Garrett can also be used to help identify less advanced (Kardashev Type II) alien civilizations that command more limited resources on sub-galactic scales. Such civilizations are still considerably more advanced than our own (Earth is not yet on the Kardashev Type I scale) but they might be more common as a result.

Professor Garrett has plans to look for these less advanced civilizations: “It’s a bit worrying that Type III civilizations don’t seem to exist. It’s not what we would predict from the physical laws that explain so well the rest of the physical universe. We’re missing an important part of the jigsaw puzzle here. Perhaps advanced civilizations are so energy efficient that they produce very low waste heat emission products — our current understanding of physics makes that a difficult thing to do. What’s important is to keep on searching for the signatures of extraterrestrial intelligence until we fully understand just what is going on.”

originally posted by: 3n19m470
I wasn't aware snowden had said the gov were working with ET.

Me either...Maybe the OP is thinking of that guy from the UK, McKinnon?

He hasn't really said anything specific. I think he would have already talked about it given it to a journalist if he had any concrete evidence.

originally posted by: 3n19m470
I wasn't aware snowden had said the gov were working with ET.

It was ginned up by Sorcha Faal.. Quotes taken out of context and sensationalized..

I realize that Snowden has made a lot of headlines in recent years, but has anything he's said or "leaked" actually changed anything at all with how countries interact with each other? Is he responsible for anything GOOD or BAD that has occurred, on a large scale?

a reply to: Macenroe82

Perhaps im reading it wrong?

Yes, you are. This is the trap you fall into...these sites take things out of context and use vagary to lull the reader into believing that they've actually made a connection. What the article says is that the documents Snowden leaked contained information about NSA using Sentry Eagle to hide ECI, and that this information appears to support the claims made by a completely different person sixteen years prior that NSA programs were a cover for a top secret alien communications program hiding behind them. Snowden was not the one who made those allegations. He simply provided documents that appear to support them. From your link:

NSA leaked slide showing SENTRY EAGLE program where different DHS, DOD, and NSA clasified programs are hidden within less classified national programs. (NSA)

On October 10, Peter Maass and Laura Poitras writing for The Intercept, released more powerpoint slides from leaked NSA documents concerning highly classified programs that are hidden from public scrutiny. The documents, originally leaked by Edward Snowden, reveal that “Sentry Eagle” is used as an umbrella term for hiding the NSA’s most sensitive programs that are classified “Exceptionally Controlled Information” (ECI). Several powerpoint slides show how ECI programs are hidden beneath less classified programs as a cover. The leaked documents support claims made 16 years earlier by Dan Sherman, another NSA whistleblower, who revealed that he worked in a secret communications program with alien (extraterrestrial) entities that was hidden beneath less classified NSA programs as a cover.

He seems like he's legit.

a reply to: 3n19m470

If E.T. phones home, the NSA will be listening.

a reply to: AllNewsCenter

Imagine a scenario after the NSA deciphered the alien message "Hello ugly face,wanna kiss my butt?" Turns out it was sent by an alien kid and his androgynous friend messing around the garage... ok, not funny... moving on.

I just wasted 5 more minutes scrutinising the article!!!

Nothing to see here!!!

I do not recall Snowden saying anything about ETs working with the feds... but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were. As far as trying to say send a signal encryption would work against us, they wouldn't know it from plain old noise. I think the best way to send a message out to locate and get the attention of anything smart out there would be base math(pick one they are pretty much interchangeable) and then send it on as many bands as we could at once in a repeating very unnatural sequence that could not be mistaken for noise. Start with radio and run the spectrum, than microwave (don't get on the that is still radio bit please), then laser. Wash, rinse, repeat for a few years. Somebody is gona notice that if there is anybody to notice.

...but, nobody really wants to be found.