Malbolge to Gliese 526

Greg Laughlin is sending "hello world" to Gliese 526... as a Malbolge program...

At a distance of 17.6 light years, we have until about 2049 before the relativistic missiles hit...

...which incidentally means they'll arrive at roughly the same time as the relativistic missile response to the Bebo Gliese 581 spamfest...

But any advanced civilization will surely have a soon alert system of defence.

We may have the relativistic missiles sooner than you think  

Lazarus' 2049 date is a best-case scenario (or a worst case scenario for us). The signals to GJ 581 and GJ 526 will both travel at the speed of light. If the relativistic missiles are launched when these respective systems get the transmissions, and assuming they travel almost light-speed (not being able to travel light speed itself of course), then the 2049 date is what you get from the math.

... But maybe they can have an sphere of detection systems and relativistic missiles, a few or more light years away from their planet. Radiotelescopes distributed far away from their home.

In that case (an It is only a joke, I hope) they detect the transmission in less time, before the signal gets their planets, and their answer is an earlier arrival of their missiles...

A joke?!

I thought it was obvious that the reason the detection of Gliese 581 g is so controversial is because it isn't a planet but a giant relativistic missile launcher and they keep moving it around to aim at new targets.

(Hey, it's at least as scientific as certain alien-related "news" stories this week...)

pochimax wrote:

... But maybe they can have an sphere of detection systems and relativistic missiles, a few or more light years away from their planet. Radiotelescopes distributed far away from their home.

Whether the signal travels to the planet first, or if it travels from Sol to a detection network, then to the planet, there is no way to speed up the response time. The speed of light is also a limitation on the speed of information. The shortest, fastest route between two points is a straight line.

 
Ok, I don' t explain well, you know it is not my mother language...

I' m trying to say that the detection network has artificial intelligence enough to take decisions and lauch the missiles. And the missiles has a short trip, moreover, than if are lauched from their planet.

so it is not necessary that the signal reaches the home planet, in fact.

Obviously i hope it was only my stupid imagination!