Edward Snowden Says Encryption Is Why We Haven't Heard From Aliens

Thought-provoking comments making news this morning thanks to the StarTalk Podcast. Scientist Neil Degrasse Tyson and NSA leaker Edward Snowden discussed the potential of alien life and the Fermi paradox. The Fermi paradox essentially wonders why if the universe is infinitely large why we haven't made contact with other intelligent life forms. Snowden brought up an excellent point that we may not be receiving messages not because there's nothing there, but rather because we can't decrypt them!

“When you look at encrypted communications, if they are properly encrypted, there is no real way to tell that they are encrypted. You can’t distinguish a properly encrypted communication, at least in the theoretical sense, from random noise...so if you have an alien civilization trying to listen for other civilizations, or our civilization trying to listen for aliens, there’s only one small period in the development of their society where all of their communications will be sent via the most primitive and most unprotected means.”

So basically the aliens are afraid of getting their credit cards stolen by other people on their planet? Quite possibly. The fact of the matter is we may have missed our window for audio contact as most civilizations may have gotten too advanced to be widely dispersing information we might just happen to pick up! It's a strange concept to think encryption could potentially be protecting us from invaders as well as ourselves!

Honestly the whole concept sounds like a cool idea for a TV show or something...I just don't know what exactly! Think of something and develop it for me, okay? Listen to the awesome interview below.