www.space.com/scienceastronomy/space_hackers_031111.html
Add one more worry to the computerized world of the 21^st century. Could a signal from the stars broadcast by an alien intelligence also carry harmful information, in the spirit of a computer virus? Could star folk launch a "disinformation" campaign -- one that covers up aspects of their culture? Perhaps they might even mask the "real" intent of dispatching a message to other civilizations scattered throughout the Cosmos. Those engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), he contends, should think about decontaminating potential SETI signals. The so-called "SETI Hacker" hypothesis, Carrigan argues, is an issue of interstellar discourse that should be taken seriously. We should exercise caution when handling SETI downloads, he said. Carrigan notes that Earth's early radio ramblings have already traveled some fifty light years away. Turns out that on the order of 400 stars are within 50 light years of Earth. Any civilization out at that distance may have immediately responded and sent a signal back to Earth. A key question is whether or not a SETI signal might be altruistic, benign, or malevolent. It has been fodder for science fiction writers over the years. But today, given the reality of scanning the heavens for other advanced civilizations, it's time to take an analytical look for means to "denature" SETI signals, Carrigan proposes. New and exciting efforts like the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array, for example, will allow a targeted SETI search to proceed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This new instrument is a joint effort by the SETI Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. Because of its novel construction -- an array of inexpensive antennas -- it can be simultaneously used for both SETI and cutting-edge radio astronomy research. The character and size of an ET signal will shape the approach to treating the signal content. Say that we're on the receiving end of a beacon with a message of less than a hundred kilobytes repeating every 10 seconds or so. That could be handled without too many precautions, Carrigan said. Electronic condom But for some SETIologists, there is the hoped for prospect of tapping into some type of galactic Library of Congress. Carrigan notes that a signal from the stars will have to provide some attractive "advertisement" or lure to enlist the help of a host. Almost certainly, he adds, actual messages will have gone through some sort of compression. On a first level it is to the advantage of the sender to have the compression algorithm totally clear," Carrigan said. The message size can easily be so large that the underlying intent of the message would not be apparent, he said. Striking the motherlode of SETI speak, however, could cause an overload -- an inability on our end to handle oodles of information. Yet even a beacon could point to a signal in a different wavelength band where a message was coming in. The prospect of a virulent microbe from Mars doing damage to Earth's ecosystem cannot be dismissed. Those engaged in SETI work have already hammered out a protocol to follow if any ET signal is detected. But that code of behavior is more meant to avoid public relation problems if a signal is announced prematurely, Carrigan said. Look at the big picture Is there a serious "threat" here? I don't think that there's much to worry about, however," said Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. To begin with, Shostak said, all radio SETI experiments "average" incoming signals for seconds or even minutes. Shostak said that you've got to look at the big picture. Give our nation's leaders your 'Go for Launch' for this bold vision to return robots and humans to the Moon, then send them to Mars and beyond.
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