Is SETI at risk of downloading a malicious virus from outer space?

io9 ^ | 6/27/12 | George Dvorsky

[ctdonath2]

“I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”
- Babbage (1864, father of computing)

[freeandfreezing]

Siemion speculated that, if an extraterrestrial intelligence had very deep knowledge of the software systems we use for our experiments and the architecture of our computers, they might be able to send a sequence of signals that would cause a memory buffer to overflow and perhaps allow arbitrary code execution.

Speculating without thinking is a common source of arbitrary stupid statement creation. Any signal describing a software system on earth can't propagate at more than the speed of light, so the information frontier for computers on earth is about 70 light years from where we are. Of course those machines used punch cards, and the information frontier for a Windows 7 machine is less than 5 light years out.

Assuming the aliens are only 10 light years from us if they write a virus and send it back we'll get it ten years from now, and it will be targeted at something like Windows 2000. I doubt it will have much effect on the SETI receivers. For the radio sources SETI is focused on the round trip time is measured in thousands of years. So the aliens are just getting signals representing the construction of the pyramids, or early Greek plays, assuming such signals could be detected by the aliens.

If we get directions for a better pyramid we'll know somebody is listening.

[Sudetenland]

Okay, I admit my view is rather pessimistic, but it appeals to my since of irony that we should rush out and broadcast to the universe, "Hey, everybody in the universe, here we are!" only to be wiped out by a super-paranoid predator race. We're out there announcing our presence without really knowing what we're doing or having a sufficiently advanced defense system to protect us from a civilization advanced enough to come to us--just in case.

Of course Sagan could be right . . . we (America) no longer walk completely rough-shod over primitive cultures--not since we became enlightened. :)

[Sudetenland]

Probably a wise strategy. Might be the Posleen coming. :)

[SunkenCiv]

Probably not, because they wouldn't have adopted Windows in the first place. /rimshot! Thanks LibWhacker.

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[bigheadfred]

Back in the day a friend had male gray cockateil. Always screaming. One day we recorded it and played it back to the bird. It had a freaking MELTDOWN. Just sayin’.