Latest blog post: How the comic is made (2025-12-26)
Author's comment:
Add Comment
Insert Link
Please enter the link of the website
Optionally you can add display text
Privacy Policy
This policy contains information about your privacy. By posting, you are declaring that you understand this policy:
- Your name, rating, website address, town, country, state and comment will be publicly displayed if entered.
- Aside from the data entered into these form fields, other stored data about your comment will include:
- Your IP address (not displayed)
- The time/date of your submission (displayed)
- Your email address will not be shared. It is collected for only two reasons:
- Administrative purposes, should a need to contact you arise.
- To inform you of new comments, should you subscribe to receive notifications.
- A cookie may be set on your computer. This is used to remember your inputs. It will expire by itself.
This policy is subject to change at any time and without notice.
Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions contain rules about posting comments. By submitting a comment, you are declaring that you agree with these rules:
- Although the administrator will attempt to moderate comments, it is impossible for every comment to have been moderated at any given time.
- You acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the administrator.
- You agree not to post any material which is knowingly false, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy.
- The administrator has the right to edit, move or remove any comment for any reason and without notice.
Failure to comply with these rules may result in being banned from submitting further comments.
These terms and conditions are subject to change at any time and without notice.
{"commentics_url":"\/\/leavingthecradle.com\/comments\/","page_id":950,"enabled_country":false,"country_id":0,"enabled_state":false,"state_id":0,"enabled_upload":false,"maximum_upload_amount":3,"maximum_upload_size":5,"maximum_upload_total":5,"captcha":false,"captcha_url":"","cmtx_wait_for_comment":"cmtx_wait_for_comment","lang_error_file_num":"A maximum of %d files are allowed to be uploaded","lang_error_file_size":"Please upload files no bigger than %.1f MB in size","lang_error_file_total":"The total size of all files must be less than %.1f MB","lang_error_file_type":"Only image file types are allowed to be uploaded","lang_text_loading":"Loading ..","lang_placeholder_country":"Country","lang_placeholder_state":"State","lang_text_country_first":"Please select a country first","lang_button_submit":"Add Comment","lang_button_preview":"Preview","lang_button_remove":"Remove","lang_button_processing":"Please Wait.."}
{"commentics_url":"\/\/leavingthecradle.com\/comments\/","language":"english"}
Comments (8)
The interesting one here is that whatever the "Ghosts" were getting from abductions, they got back in the 70's... But computer networks weren't really much of a thing back then... So if the Ghosts have been hacking computer networks, it suggests they've continued being active on Earth at least up to 10 years ago (its hard to believe that any systems or networks with traces of their involvement would still be active 10 years later).
All they had to do would be to simply tap into the systems and listen.
Global communication was already there, just as computer networks used by banks, universities and army. After all, Unix was kickstarted in 1971 because it was needed, not because it was an experiment.
I pity the handful engreyneers left behind to keep their listening equipment adapted to our wildly fluctuating network protocols.
(TCP/IP hails from 1974 and when I became a sysadmin at my U in the late 80s, DFN grants still came with a Thy Computer Shalt Use X.25 To Network requirement.)
"RFC 1356 shall NOT PASS!!"
[shrug] May have been (secretly?) in effect on the USENET server back then, I wouldn't know. My e-mail address at the time was not RFC821 but X.400, though. (And hosted outside my purview as well.) First grant actually paid out to us resulted in a bunch of SUNs, and thus TCP/IP (on Thinwire), which had gotten blessed by DFN in the meantime.
While the beginnings of what would become operating systems and the modern day internet may have begun in the 70's I still find it hard to belive that anything they did that far back would somehow still have traces in today's computer systems and networks. The way IT updates in modern times, it would be hard to imagine traces remaining from even 10 years ago.
More likely they have continued to hack and cover their tracks, much like the Raharr's recent hacking actions. This would either suggest they retain a presence on Earth or they have some technology on Earth which continues to function and hack systems, much like the Raharr satellite.
...Alternatively, there is a third alien species/group which found Earth more recently and conducted network hacks, covering their tracks afterwards.
Asking whether humanity is even familiar with the Greys two pages ago, now revealing that you already know about our experience with them, down to several decades of statistics. You're not exactly presenting yourself as trustworthy here, commander!
I like how the Peoples Republic of China & Protagonistan keep looking at the USA.
Social media algorithms detected! Check the programmers at Facebook, Twitter, and BlueSky!
It's a textbook case of an invasion disguised as help.
"Hey, look, there is a threat you had no idea about. We are going to help you. You better agree. It's for your own good"
Seen from their point of view , they would not fulfill their commitment to their
nations / all of us. if that exact thought had not crossed their minds.
We as readers from the sidelines have formed a different opinion but most people outside the 3 Stooges in this world-setting, would be concerned about a
"shadow invasion" going on, one slice of Salami after another and then....
BAM! : "All your bases are, belongs to us"
TBH aliens already did "admiral Perry" thing to Earth, so they have no reason to sugarcoat their demands.
"Good news" right...The only good news is that they look equally worried for once, so atleast they can agree on something. Now that´s progress!
I think maybe they want some proof of this "ghost" interference in the Terran internet before committing to in-depth cooperation.
So...Enter Quantum ? Maybe, they have never met him/her/Non-gender "artificial conscious being" before. Thats gonna be a bit of cultural shock for them.
Well, more cultural shock, since it will add to all the other before this one.
I wonder if they consider computer games' alien NPC enemies as a 'presence' in the networks.
Waouh, the roller-coaster he give them
We can still put things into perspective by saying that we are no longer under active investigation, but rather just under a passive surveillance now.
We can consider ourselves a polar bear, securely fitted with a radio-transmitter by some biologist.
They don't need to interfere with us, since there's no way we're getting out of their reach.