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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...
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
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!
on the other hand, perhaps that's a bad idea...
... "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.
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
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.
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
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...