Spied on by ET's?

[lpetrich]

I've thought of an interesting conundrum. Consider this scenario.

A huge extraterrestrial spaceship goes into Earth orbit, with an altitude of a few thousand mi / km. It is indifferent to attempts to radio it, but itsoon emits some much smaller spacecraft. These ones go to New York City's Central Park and land. People show up to visit this remarkable sight, and some of the spacecraft occupants come out of them.

They state that their purpose for visiting here is friendly contact. They speak very good English, and they also understand English very well. They also show a detailed knowledge of the likes of humanity's history and Internet memes. They even say:

"We wouldn't want to say 'Take me to your leader', but instead, 'We'd like to meet your leaders. Where can we find them? You can lead us to them if you wish.'"

But many people start suspecting that the visitors have been spying on us for some time, and that they may even have impersonated some of us as part of their espionage.

How would you feel about that? Would you feel violated?

 

[DBT]

Given the likely presence of technology that would be beyond my understanding, I'd try not to make assumptions, but wait to see how events unfold.

 

[dystopian]

But many people start suspecting that the visitors have been spying on us for some time, and that they may even have impersonated some of us as part of their espionage.

How would you feel about that? Would you feel violated?

It would make sense for them to study/observe us before making contact. I'd do the same in their position. By itself this isn't a problem; we can assume it's done to make sure it's actually safe/useful to make contact and/or out of scientific curiosity. No problem with that.

However: if they show up with this excellent grasp of English, human humor, history, etc... they would know exactly where to find and how to contact our leaders and would have no need to ask random people in central park. The only reasonable conclusion is that doing this is for show; which I'd assume was to make sure governments wouldn't hide their existence from the public. In theory, not a problem... far from it in fact... but it does demonstrate a capacity for deception that instills some concern for future dealings with them.

I don't see any evidence in the OP's scenario to conclude there'd be a reason that they'd have impersonated humans as part of their observation. If it's just people suspecting it, then I'd dismiss it as conspiracy nonsense. If there's evidence, then it depends on exactly who they impersonated. Impersonating people in sensitive positions and people in power? Yeah, that's a huge problem. On the other hand, if they just impersonated random people to get a feel for what life in human civilization is like: not a problem by itself, but again, does demonstrate a capability that provides some cause for concern.

 

[lpetrich]

Some things about us are easy to observe by picking up analog radio and TV broadcasts, but that is limited in some ways. One doesn't have the context necessary to interpret language from radio broadcasts, and one gets only a little bit of context from TV ones. However, analog broadcasts are generally easy to reverse-engineer. But digital broadcasts aren't, because they have lots of processing that makes them look like digital noise. Processing like data compression and error-correcting coding and encryption. Many nations have changed from analog to digital radio and TV broadcasting, and many of the rest are in the process of doing so ( Digital television transition,  Digital radio), so that means an end of an era for extraterrestrial eavesdroppers.

This also makes it difficult to reverse-engineer satellite Internet broadcasts, because the same sorts of coding are applied there also.

To get a better picture, one would have to visit on our planet and do such things as watch school lessons and read books at libraries and use the Internet. Some of that could be possible with small robots, but that likely has limits like limited angular resolution of vision. It would also have problems with powering and communication, though such a robot could stick some probes into an electricity outlet. But it's fun to think of -- robot tarantulas.

Using the Internet is not as passive as receiving radio and TV broadcasts, so it would be a big problem for would-be eavesdroppers. One would either have to get an Internet connection and use it, or else one would have to listen in on someone's Internet connection, or even look at someone's monitor display.

Even if one could tap into (say) a cable modem, one would find the Internet rather challenging to reverse-engineer. To understand why, let us consider its structure ( Internet protocol suite, sometimes elaborated as the  OSI model). Here it is:

• Application layer: the software that runs at each end node. It is the purpose of the networking
• Transport layer: the software for handling data to and from each end node
• Network layer: the software for routing across a network
• Link layer: the software associated with each bit of network hardware
• Hardware: the physical entities that carry the information

So if one taps into a cable for Internet access, one will see some rather complicated-looking data packets.

 

[lpetrich]

I was thinking Central Park because it has some nice VTOL landing area near the United Nations headquarters, though rather soft area. The UN is the closest thing that humanity now has to a world government, and it has delegations from just about every nation.

 

[DBT]

Who knows what a species that is capable of interstellar travel is able to do in terms of information gathering, they'd have quantum computing and stuff we probably have yet to imagine. Whatever their plans for our planet and our species, we could't do a thing about it. It'd be like a troop of monkeys trying to take on the US military war machine over a patch of land.

 

[Keith&Co.]

But many people start suspecting that the visitors...(fill in the blank).

How would you feel about that?

It's great.
Seriously.

Aliens from another planet would fulfill the conspiracy theorists dreams. Because they can plug ANYTHING into the equation and there's no way to dismiss or reduce the possibilities. They can have any tech, completely unrelated to whatever tech level they're willing to show us. Their history of surveillance can extend millions of years backwards, they can be blamed for Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Hurricane (any one), the Great Quake of (whenever), El Nino, global warming and all undersea, unexplained mass sponge migrations.

The good news, of course, is that compared to the alienity of aliens, mere differences in outlook or skin color will fade in comparison. Hard to pick on someone for being slightly darker when the neighbors are neon orange.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Depends on what they were spying on, I suppose. Were they eavesdropping on our public broadcasts. Not a problem. Were they on the Internet? Again, not a problem. Did they have a way to see into top secret areas or my bedroom? That's a violation of privacy among other things, but would they understand that?

I dunno. If such a scenario were to unfold, I find it hard to think it would be beneficial, and I'd really, really want it to be, but I doubt we're ready. Imagine someone lands and can literally solve most of the major problems on your planet. Energy, disease, weather, aging, but they won't share it. How would we feel about that? Worse yet, what if they do share it? What would we do with such power? What would ISIS do with such power?

Scary.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

But many people start suspecting that the visitors...(fill in the blank).

How would you feel about that?

It's great.
Seriously.

Aliens from another planet would fulfill the conspiracy theorists dreams. Because they can plug ANYTHING into the equation and there's no way to dismiss or reduce the possibilities.

Especially seeing how it was just a NWO plot and they weren't really aliens.

 

[Keith&Co.]

It's great.
Seriously.

Aliens from another planet would fulfill the conspiracy theorists dreams. Because they can plug ANYTHING into the equation and there's no way to dismiss or reduce the possibilities.

Especially seeing how it was just a NWO plot and they weren't really aliens.

That was Outer Limits, wasn't it? Robert Culp?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would be very surprised if they hadn't taken a long and careful look before ever entering orbit.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I would not feel violated in the least. I'd want to know everything I could about these mofos.

But I don't think such a scenario could ever happen.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

It'd be cool. While I'm not all that hot on the idea of them spying on me personally, it's not that big of a deal because I'm just one of the herd that engages in everyday, mundane human behavior. They'd have nothing special to learn from me. Second, it's not the same as the government putting spy cameras and listening devices all over my house. They're really not supposed to do that. Third, the fact that there were aliens pretty much reduces the spying aspect of it to nothing in the face of, "Holy fuck there's aliens!"

Then I'd go underground and lead an armed revolution against 'em n' shit because I have access to guns. Take that liberals!

But seriously, in the face of such overwhelming power, what are you going to do? It's like walking out to your garbage can and seeing that ants have invaded it. There's tens of thousands of them with a committed singularity of purpose. So you go get a can of Raid, wage brief chemical warfare, and that's that. That's what humans would be like to them except they would have come to the anthill.

I'd try to stay out of their way. If they wanted you they could take you.

Finally, Christians certainly wouldn't care. They already have an entity watching them stink up the bathroom every morning anyway.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I wouldn't feel the slightest bit violated. Learning everything you can about a new alien race before making first contact is just common sense, so I'm happy that the advanced society visiting us has at least a base level of common sense.

I'd be more concerned about the fact that, after learning all of this, they land in Central Park and ask random passersby where our leaders are. It makes no sense that they wouldn't already have this information and know where to go and who to speak to to being with. It concerns me that people who do things that odd are flying around my planet with their singularity cannons.