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Delivering an Earth-Shattering Discovery?
An anonymous reader asks: "Just for fun... suppose you've made an Earth-shattering discovery that, when revealed, will cause massive social upheaval. Maybe you've discovered a new energy source or weapon, or figured out how to factor large primes in
seconds, or learned how to time travel back in time and affect the present. Being a nice guy, you decide to warn the world now and give
everybody a few years to prepare before revealing the discovery. How can you absolutely encrypt or otherwise protect your discovery, but guarantee its revealing at a certain future date even if you and everybody you know is long gone? For example, could you bounce an electromagnetic signal describing the discovery off a celestial body several light-years away?"
Hell, I can already do that.
int factorLargePrime( int largePrime ) {
return largePrime;
}
--
#include <malloc.h>
free(your.mind);
Write it down using my handwriting, it'll take them centuries to decipher that...
Encode it with Rot13 and pray.
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
On the other hand, if you are the guy in his own backyard or garage who has just made a startling discovery about nanotechnology or cold fusion....well, thats not going to happen so don't worry too much about it.
Send it through an AOL mail gateway!
why? What have you done now? Why are you asking such an interesting question whilst chosing to remain anonymous?
Feel that power? That's mah MOUSING FINGER
Encrypt your factoring method with a 4096-bit key. Then wait for them to break it.
Milhouse: We gotta spread this stuff around. Let's put it on the internet!
Bart: No! We have to reach people whose opinions actually matter! And I think I know how.
"All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
... they're still doing those encryption-breaking projects!
that is a really stupid idea. do not, i repeat, do not give the information to an alien race first.
The Segway has already been revealed!
Okay man, the fact that you're asking such a question is really creeping me out dude. A.) What the hell do you know, and B.) How long can i look forward to life as i know it?
I'm extremely paranoid.
I really don't want to die.
Not really. I don't.
on the other hand, perhaps that's a bad idea...
Just put all of your findings in a U.S. citizenship application, then send it to the INS for processing. With what's going on at the INS right now, it'll take YEARS before that application ever sees the light of day again.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
I have an earth-shattering discovery that I will reveal in ten seconds. Get ready.
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...
It's a slow news day on Slashdot.
... "can anyone locate an ask slashdot question lamer than this one?"
I think the answer to this question is "no" but I eargerly await a counterexample.
I know what his secret is. He found a way to end SPAM. It involves Lasers, GPS, and Traceroute. He uses traceroute to find where the SPAM came from then uses a laser with GPS to destroy the whole city. He wants to warn people that if they live next to a SPAMmer then they will be in danger of being vaporized.
Thats what this whole thing is about.
The above is not worth reading.
an Earth-Shattering Discovery
Look, it's the Vogons, isn't it?
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
If you password protect it on an NT 4.0 server running IIS and don't publish what the server is, well, give it a few months and someone will discover it.
To extend the length of time, put it on a more obscure network. Maybe put it on IPv6 with no IPv4 address...
At any rate, in a few days of discovery, script kiddies around the world will be working hard to show their talents on your machine. A few weeks later a PDF version will show up on alt.binaries.e-books.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
> For example, could you bounce an electromagnetic
> signal describing the discovery off a celestial
> body several light-years away?
Based on the example presented, I think we can guess that the secret doesn't have anything to do with long distance signal transmissions!
Build a gigantic secret base under an island somewhere. Equip with bad 70's decor, absurd super-weapons, henchmen, girls in swimsuits that inexplicably produce large caliber handguns when required, speed boats, hilicopters, and so forth. Put security cameras everywhere, and pay a midget or a guy with claws or something to monitor them. Obtain an absurd exotic pet, like a singing tapir or a farting oscilot. Train said pet to run errands about the island. Develop some mildly disturbing hobby, interest or passtime, such as bobbing for bat guano or hunting opera singers with a crossbow. The secret plans themselves, of course, should be encoded somehow in a fantastically ugly peice of fo-futurostic art. Where else?
In spite of the suggestions and all the tests that I have made, I have not cavato a spider from the hole.
If it's going to "shatter the earth", is the preparation evacuating the planet? If that's its only application, why use it? Can it be used against other planets? If so, and you simply MUST test it, why not Mercury, or better yet, a potentially-threatening asteroid? I can personally see no need to EVER shatter the earth.
On the other hand, if it's not actually directly destructive, just world-CHANGING, we might as well get on with it. Trying to guess when it's ok to reveal it is futile, unless it's time travel, in which case, you can use the problem as the solution.
If it has no positive application, get ahold of somebody in power in a limited government, who is in favor of limited government (I'm specifically thinking of G. W. Bush, here), secretly develop methods in place to detect research in that direction and prevent progress. You'd end up with a secret orginization like the conspiracy theories postulate about Roswell and such, but the fact is, there are people who would want to create and use such a thing, and there's been only one country ever who had an overwhelming advantage that didn't take advantage of it. Yes, we used nukes on Japan, but we couldn't leave it a stalemate, and to take the island conventionally would have killed millions of civilians, instead of a few thousand, and more importantly, thousands of our soldiers.
Afterwards many in our military wanted to keep rolling, and take out the Soviet Union before they could catch up. We didn't. Imagine if it had been Stalin with the bomb. Socialism would have finally been allowed to fail worldwide.
I didn't want to get so far off the topic, but I needed to point out that there actually are some in power who can be trusted.
Disclaimer: I am not enrolled in Amway, or anything like it. My reason is based on my goals in life, and not any problem with the organization.
SIG: HUP
I have discovered a truly marvelous method, which the margin of this Slashdot posting is too narrow to contain.
-- Terry
Don't bother. If it's actually earthshattering, no one credible will believe you until the full details of the discovery hits the light of day.
For example, if what you discovered was time travel, simply send the damn machine, or better yet, millions of the machine into the future 2 years from now.
Funny you shouild mention that. That's exactly what you're going to do in 5 years when you do invent time travel. Except then I will wait two years, take one of the machines back, steal your prototype, and bring it back to me last week, at which point I will announce that I have just invented it...
Take it down to your local western union, and tell them to deliver it to Marty McFly, during a thunderstorm on a deserted stretch of road about 60 years from now.
Simple comment... The spread is really a benefit. See, in this day and age, we're not so good at such things.. so if the beam was as small as it started, it may be reflected or disturbed in such a way that it would pass right by Earth on its way back. That's what the spread is for. There's a much more likely chance that the beam will hit earth. As for sensitivity.. come on :-P technology will advance between now and then :-)
And besides, if all that fails, just find a concave mirror-planet with the perfect radius that'll make it the same diameter when it gets here as when it left, and problem solved.
-DrkShadow
It's really easy. Put it in a manilla envelope, write "TPS Reports 08/2002" on the outside. Create another envelope, label it "TPS Reports 10/2002". Seal 'em, put them both on your desk. When you die, someone will have to look at those TPS Reports. Unlike your swingline stapler and the printer, noone will bother it, so you can safely leave it on your desk, but in the event of your death, someone will open the October TPS Reports wondering WTF Octobers reports were already done for, and find a reference the August TPS Reports which should have already been filed. Then, the cats out of the bag.