Delivering an Earth-Shattering Discovery?

An anonymous reader asks: "Just for fun... suppose you've made an Earth-shattering discovery that, when revealed, will cause massive social upheaval. Maybe you've discovered a new energy source or weapon, or figured out how to factor large primes in seconds, or learned how to time travel back in time and affect the present. Being a nice guy, you decide to warn the world now and give everybody a few years to prepare before revealing the discovery. How can you absolutely encrypt or otherwise protect your discovery, but guarantee its revealing at a certain future date even if you and everybody you know is long gone? For example, could you bounce an electromagnetic signal describing the discovery off a celestial body several light-years away?"

factor large primes?

[Francis]

Hell, I can already do that.

int factorLargePrime( int largePrime ) {
return largePrime;
}

Easy...

[RinkSpringer]

Write it down using my handwriting, it'll take them centuries to decipher that...

Simple...

[TheWickedKingJeremy]

Encode it with Rot13 and pray.

You likely already have the channels...

[Ars-Fartsica]

If you are in the professional vicinity of making such claims, you are probably already a staff researcher at a government, academic, or private lab. All of these have PR facilities to release discoveries.

On the other hand, if you are the guy in his own backyard or garage who has just made a startling discovery about nanotechnology or cold fusion....well, thats not going to happen so don't worry too much about it.

Easy!

[MediaBoy77]

Send it through an AOL mail gateway!

Um...

[awx]

why? What have you done now? Why are you asking such an interesting question whilst chosing to remain anonymous?

Factoring?

[Anonymous Coward]

Encrypt your factoring method with a 4096-bit key. Then wait for them to break it.

Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[I Love this Company!]

Milhouse: We gotta spread this stuff around. Let's put it on the internet!
Bart: No! We have to reach people whose opinions actually matter! And I think I know how.

So that's why....

[Soft]

... they're still doing those encryption-breaking projects [distributed.net]!

That's simple

[Aceticon]

Encode it in an EULA for some program or other.

The probability of somebody really reading an EULA is so low that in all likelyhood the thing will be burried in the EULA for a couple of years before it's found.

to serve man....

[Anonymous Coward]

For example, could you bounce an electromagnetic signal describing the discovery off a celestial body several light-years away?"

that is a really stupid idea. do not, i repeat, do not give the information to an alien race first.

Too late...

[InsaneCreator]

The Segway has already been revealed!

Freakin' me out, man...

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay man, the fact that you're asking such a question is really creeping me out dude. A.) What the hell do you know, and B.) How long can i look forward to life as i know it?

I'm extremely paranoid.

I really don't want to die.

Not really. I don't.

I would assign a code name to the project, like...

[bmooney28]

"It" or "Ginger." Then I would invite a book publisher to get a sneak peak behind the scenes, documenting the release process in great detail... Included in this release process would be sharing my secret with important people such as the head of Apple computers... then, upon release... In order to insure that the public found out about it, I would then allow the book publisher to send out a teaser to major news media outlets letting them know some worldchanging invention is coming...

on the other hand, perhaps that's a bad idea...

Simple...

[tunabomber]

Just put all of your findings in a U.S. citizenship application, then send it to the INS for processing. With what's going on at the INS right now, it'll take YEARS before that application ever sees the light of day again.

Re:factor large primes?

[Anonymous Coward]

I just broke the function... I passed the number 8 to it...

Psst. 8 is not prime. Get a clue.

C programmers never die. They're just cast into void.

This is the first time I've seen someone who was unworthy of their own .signature.

Here's a discovery...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an earth-shattering discovery that I will reveal in ten seconds. Get ready.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

It's a slow news day on Slashdot.

i've got a better question ...

[akb]

... "can anyone locate an ask slashdot question lamer than this one?"

I think the answer to this question is "no" but I eargerly await a counterexample.

Re:Easy!

[archen]

Hi,

How are you?

I give you this discovery to have your advice.

Attachment: [discovery.exe]

Re:factor large primes?

[Virtex]

No, you got it all wrong. The story said "factor large primes *in seconds*". Yours works in microseconds. Better to do it like this:

int factorLargePrime( int largePrime ) {
sleep( 2 );
return largePrime;
}

Ending SPAM

[rawg]

I know what his secret is. He found a way to end SPAM. It involves Lasers, GPS, and Traceroute. He uses traceroute to find where the SPAM came from then uses a laser with GPS to destroy the whole city. He wants to warn people that if they live next to a SPAMmer then they will be in danger of being vaporized.

Thats what this whole thing is about.

Re:Simple...

[RedCard]

That would be known as the "Adobe Ebook Method", and it's proven not to work.

--R

Re:factor large primes?

[selectspec]

MY God!!! THE World as we know it HAS BEEN Shattered !!!!!! SOCIAL UPHEAVALL..... WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! SOMEBODY'S FINALY DONE IT!!!!

Heston on beach: You bastards really did it! You factored primes in seconds!

I'll get me towel

[Subcarrier]

an Earth-Shattering Discovery

Look, it's the Vogons, isn't it?

NT Server

[bildstorm]

If you password protect it on an NT 4.0 server running IIS and don't publish what the server is, well, give it a few months and someone will discover it.

To extend the length of time, put it on a more obscure network. Maybe put it on IPv6 with no IPv4 address...

At any rate, in a few days of discovery, script kiddies around the world will be working hard to show their talents on your machine. A few weeks later a PDF version will show up on alt.binaries.e-books.

Well, we know what the secret ISN'T.

[AtariDatacenter]

> For example, could you bounce an electromagnetic
> signal describing the discovery off a celestial
> body several light-years away?

Based on the example presented, I think we can guess that the secret doesn't have anything to do with long distance signal transmissions!

Tried and true

[rneches]

Build a gigantic secret base under an island somewhere. Equip with bad 70's decor, absurd super-weapons, henchmen, girls in swimsuits that inexplicably produce large caliber handguns when required, speed boats, hilicopters, and so forth. Put security cameras everywhere, and pay a midget or a guy with claws or something to monitor them. Obtain an absurd exotic pet, like a singing tapir or a farting oscilot. Train said pet to run errands about the island. Develop some mildly disturbing hobby, interest or passtime, such as bobbing for bat guano or hunting opera singers with a crossbow. The secret plans themselves, of course, should be encoded somehow in a fantastically ugly peice of fo-futurostic art. Where else?

"prepare" for what?

[n9hmg]

If it's going to "shatter the earth", is the preparation evacuating the planet? If that's its only application, why use it? Can it be used against other planets? If so, and you simply MUST test it, why not Mercury, or better yet, a potentially-threatening asteroid? I can personally see no need to EVER shatter the earth.
On the other hand, if it's not actually directly destructive, just world-CHANGING, we might as well get on with it. Trying to guess when it's ok to reveal it is futile, unless it's time travel, in which case, you can use the problem as the solution.
If it has no positive application, get ahold of somebody in power in a limited government, who is in favor of limited government (I'm specifically thinking of G. W. Bush, here), secretly develop methods in place to detect research in that direction and prevent progress. You'd end up with a secret orginization like the conspiracy theories postulate about Roswell and such, but the fact is, there are people who would want to create and use such a thing, and there's been only one country ever who had an overwhelming advantage that didn't take advantage of it. Yes, we used nukes on Japan, but we couldn't leave it a stalemate, and to take the island conventionally would have killed millions of civilians, instead of a few thousand, and more importantly, thousands of our soldiers.
Afterwards many in our military wanted to keep rolling, and take out the Soviet Union before they could catch up. We didn't. Imagine if it had been Stalin with the bomb. Socialism would have finally been allowed to fail worldwide.
I didn't want to get so far off the topic, but I needed to point out that there actually are some in power who can be trusted.

Re:Vaporware

[autocracy]

Amway comes across wrong because the people who market it (are part of it) are the same type of people who are Linux zealots, but without the technical background. Amway isn't earth-shattering, but it does work. The reason so many people fail is they aren't capable of talking with large numbers of people consecutively.

Disclaimer: I am not enrolled in Amway, or anything like it. My reason is based on my goals in life, and not any problem with the organization.

Re:factor large primes?

[HanzoSan]

Too bad that program doesnt compile because you dont have a main function main() you dont have any header files either,

If you are going to post some fiction source code, at least do it like they do in movies.

1010110101 1010110101
1010101011 1010110101
1010101011 1010110101
1010101011 1010110101

Re:Interesting question

[Credne]

Time travel would also be useful for pizza delivery.

Re:Easy!

[Anonymous Coward]

ha ha ha ha hah ha ha ah aha haha aha hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
HAW HAW HAW HAW
hahahahahahahahahaha ahahahahaha a haha HAH haha hHAHAh HahahhhhhhhhhHAHAHAAAAA hhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAA
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahhaha

Re:factor large primes?

[the_skuncle]

Now children, play nice and I'll bring you both out to bash some Window$ later, OK?

I have discovered...

[tlambert]

I have discovered a truly marvelous method, which the margin of this Slashdot posting is too narrow to contain.

-- Terry

Don't bother

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't bother. If it's actually earthshattering, no one credible will believe you until the full details of the discovery hits the light of day.

Pair-a-ducks.

[zCyl]

For example, if what you discovered was time travel, simply send the damn machine, or better yet, millions of the machine into the future 2 years from now.

Funny you shouild mention that. That's exactly what you're going to do in 5 years when you do invent time travel. Except then I will wait two years, take one of the machines back, steal your prototype, and bring it back to me last week, at which point I will announce that I have just invented it...

Simple to do.

[BoneFlower]

Take it down to your local western union, and tell them to deliver it to Marty McFly, during a thunderstorm on a deserted stretch of road about 60 years from now.

Re:Reflections on bouncing signals

[__aawavt7683]

Simple comment... The spread is really a benefit. See, in this day and age, we're not so good at such things.. so if the beam was as small as it started, it may be reflected or disturbed in such a way that it would pass right by Earth on its way back. That's what the spread is for. There's a much more likely chance that the beam will hit earth. As for sensitivity.. come on :-P technology will advance between now and then :-)

And besides, if all that fails, just find a concave mirror-planet with the perfect radius that'll make it the same diameter when it gets here as when it left, and problem solved.

-DrkShadow

Re:I'll get me towel

[Anonymous Coward]

> Look, it's the Vogons, isn't it?

Why do you think he wrote that book, and had it published so many years ago?.. ;-)

Plain Site, Duh....

[thelizman]

It's really easy. Put it in a manilla envelope, write "TPS Reports 08/2002" on the outside. Create another envelope, label it "TPS Reports 10/2002". Seal 'em, put them both on your desk. When you die, someone will have to look at those TPS Reports. Unlike your swingline stapler and the printer, noone will bother it, so you can safely leave it on your desk, but in the event of your death, someone will open the October TPS Reports wondering WTF Octobers reports were already done for, and find a reference the August TPS Reports which should have already been filed. Then, the cats out of the bag.

Re:factor large primes?

[jcoy42]

Dude! She's hot- come on, type in the rest!