[ExI] Interstellar message decontamination is impossible

[Dave Sill]

Nothing Earth shattering here, but interesting nonetheless.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.02180.pdf

*Abstract*

*A complex message from space may require the use of computers to display,
analyze and understand. Such a message cannot be decontaminated with
certainty, and technical risks remain which can pose an existential threat.
Complex messages would need to be destroyed in the risk averse case.*

*...*









*While it has been argued that sustainable ETI is unlikely to be harmful
(Baum et al. 2011), we can not exclude this possibility. After all, it is
cheaper for ETI to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to
sending battleships.If ETI exist, there will be a plurality of good and
bad civilizations. Perhaps there are few bad ETI, but we cannot know for
sure the intentions of the senders of a message. Consequently, there have
been calls that SETI signals need to be “decontaminated” (Carrigan
2004, 2006).In this paper, we show that it is impossible to decontaminate a
message with certainty. Instead, complex messages would need to be
destroyed after reception in the risk averse case....6. DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSIONAs we realize that some message types are potentially dangerous,
we can adapt our own peaceful transmissions accordingly. We should
certainly not transmit any code. Instead, a plain text encyclopedia
(Heidmann 1993), images, music etc. in a simple format are adequate.
Noadvanced computer should be required to decrypt our message.Our main
argument is that a message from ETI cannot be decontaminated with
certainty. For anything more complex than easily printable images or plain
text, the technical risks are impossible to assess beforehand. We may only
choose to destroy such a message, or take the risk. The risk for humanity
may be small, but not zero. The probability of encountering malicious
ETI first might be very low. Perhaps it is much more likely to receive a
message from positive ETI. Also, the potential benefits from joining a
galactic network might be considerable (Baum 2014).It is always wise to
understand the risks and chances beforehand, and make a conscious choice
for, or against it, rather than blindly following a random path.
Overall, we believe that the risk is very small (but not zero), and the
potential benefit very large, so that we strongly encourage to read an
incoming message.*
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