Could signal encryption explain the Fermi Paradox?

[TakenItSeriously]

This wasn’t my idea but Edward Snowdens which I heard on an episode of Startalk and it just struck me as a very compelling argument.

He posited that an intelligent species would have a relatively small window of broadcasting radio signals in the clear before they started encrypting all their radio communications to be indistinguishable from background noise as a matter of course.

Personally I can’t think of any reason why this couldn’t be true and it makes perfectly good sense.

It also makes me think that it may already be happening but that’s besides the point.

What do you guys think?

 

[Strange]

It is possible. But even without encryption, their communication would be likely to use broadband spread-spectrum techniques (as most terrestrial comma does). This means that the signal is indistinguishable from noise and can also be transmitted at lower levels than normal signals. 

[Airbrush]

On 11/24/2019 at 8:45 AM, TakenItSeriously said:

...an intelligent species would have a relatively small window of broadcasting radio signals in the clear before they started encrypting all their radio communications to be indistinguishable from background noise as a matter of course.

ETs have nothing to gain by being detected by any other civilization.  I agree that they would likely mask their presence and use stealth.  Aliens that use UFOs with colorful blinking lights would be likely robotic probes to attract attention.  The next question is why would they want to be seen?

[hu??]

I think encryption would complicate making sense of things, but it would not make detection impossible. The mentioned broadband spread-spectrum techniques would complicate detection and making sense of things.
The nail on the coffin is that i think that each generation of wireless communication is lower-power and relying on a finer grid. Also, the frequency is increasing by which absorbption in the atmosphere is increasing. The spillover radiation would simply be too weak to be distinguish from background noise.

All we can detect is a very strong directional signal send by a civilization that wants to be seen...

I think seeing megastructures in space is a better candidate for detecting alien civilizations level 2 and 3 (Kardashev scale).

[MigL]

On ‎11‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 10:17 AM, Airbrush said:

ETs have nothing to gain by being detected by any other civilization.  I agree that they would likely mask their presence and use stealth.  Aliens that use UFOs with colorful blinking lights would be likely robotic probes to attract attention.  The next question is why would they want to be seen?

More pertinent is what would they have to gain by actively hiding themselves.

You realise we sent out Voyager1 into interstellar space with a gold record with 'greetings' to extra-terrestrial civilizations ?
IOW, one meant to be seen by aliens.

Aliens who could then 'backtrack' Voyager's journey and easily find Earth.

[Duda Jarek]

Even deducing compression might be extremely tough, starting with question if it uses Huffman, arithmetic or ANS coding, for what probabilities ... deducing video compression from signal alone seems impossible task.

[Airbrush]

11 hours ago, MigL said:

More pertinent is what would they have to gain by actively hiding themselves.

You realise we sent out Voyager1 into interstellar space with a gold record with 'greetings' to extra-terrestrial civilizations ?
IOW, one meant to be seen by aliens.

Aliens who could then 'backtrack' Voyager's journey and easily find Earth.

They could observe the progress of one of very few intelligent civilizations in the galaxy without our interference.  Do you think that ETs that are so advanced they could back-track either Voyager to find Earth would not care if we detect them when they arrived here?

Voyagers golden messages were sent naively.  In the 1970s Carl Sagan and company had great optimism about contact with a superior ET.  More recently, Stephen Hawking was more pessimistic about the fateful encounter with a superior ET.  Like Europeans encountering the Native Americans, it was a bad outcome for the Americans.