WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Cicada 3301 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:05.320 Hello, we are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.319 we have devised a test. There is a message hidden 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.200 in this image. Find it and it will lead you 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.200 on the road to finding us. We look forward to 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.439 meeting the few that will make it all the way through. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:30.400 Good Lucke. Thinking Sideways, I don't understand you never know 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:41.120 stories of things we simply don't know the answer to. Hey, everyone, 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:47.160 it's Thinking Sideways the podcast. Like usual, I'm Devin, joined 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:54.000 by Steve and Joe. So yeah, let's just go for it. Yeah, 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.640 what are we doing? Yeah, obviously I'm sweet, definitely not 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.560 solving this mystery. This is actual, Lea, Steve, this is 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.920 one of the mysteries you're gonna hate that. Actually, there's 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.680 this quote about this mystery. It's uh it says that, um, 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.720 not all mysteries are solvable, but prize comes in the pursuit, 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:12.520 And I know you hate those ones where like there's 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:18.000 not an actual answer or anything. Yeah, So tonight we're 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.640 going to talk about cicada or cicada, depending on you 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.160 say the name of that insect. Let's just call it. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.399 Let's just cicada. Cicada is how I say it. So 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.960 I'm sorry if that you guys Cicada three three one, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.280 which is let's just talk about it. You're not even 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:39.840 going to do a preamble ready, Yeah. On January and 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.440 image was posted to four chan, which is the best 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.080 way to get your stuff out there. It was on 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.600 the slash x thread. I guess I don't know. I 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.360 don't really use four chan, so I don't actually know 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.800 what they call that anyways, proving our ignorance yet again. 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.320 The message that we put in the beginning, before we 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.639 even introduced ourselves, that was attached to an image that 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.520 was essentially led to a series of clues of basically 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.959 one more impossible than the next to solve, which led 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:20.880 to who knows what, because everybody who solved this mystery 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.240 or the puzzles, the set of puzzles, is essentially Internet 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.840 silent at this point. There's one person who said that 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.480 they solved it, but when you read every interview with them, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.760 they say they solved it up until it went into 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.760 real life situations and then suddenly they were like not 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.680 part of the solving it anymore. And there are some 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.839 people there's a lot of groups on the Internet that 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.959 are they are chats and forums and all that stuff 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.600 that worked together to solve it. But we're going to 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.160 talk about the puzzle, so it'll become apparent. But there's 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.880 only a select few people who have actually probably solved it. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.760 There's no confirmation that those people act really exist, that 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:06.280 the solvers were actually chosen or whatever. And it wasn't 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.280 one of the ground rules from zero one that you 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.160 had to solve it on your own. You couldn't get 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.040 you couldn't band together with a bunch of people. That. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.240 It's interesting because they do kind of say that, but 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.079 also many of the clues are are literally unsolvable unless 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.560 people from around the world come together. So let's we're 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.200 going to talk about the set of puzzles that came 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:32.679 about from the first round of these in two thousand twelve, primarily, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:34.600 and we're going to walk through that. You guys are 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.920 gonna hear me talking a lot. It's super interesting, though, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.520 listen to my words, the way did you solve the puzzle? 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.120 I definitely did not solve the puzzle. I didn't. I 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.680 didn't even bother to try. No. I think that's the 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.800 funny thing about the question of one person doing it 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:55.080 is it requires such a broad set of skills and 0:03:55.440 --> 0:04:02.000 you know, in terms of understanding code in cryptography and 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.000 all these things, like there's just such a massive breadth 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.280 of areas that it covers, not to mention literature and 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.960 using Yeah, it just it would seem impossible for one 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.040 person to have all that jammed in their head. Definitely 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.680 made for crowdsourcing. It turns out, actually it's not so 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.520 impossible because there's there's we're gonna talk about two groups 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.840 in this, and I was gonna wait until later to 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:24.640 kind of delve into it, but we'll just say now 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:29.520 there's two groups. Really, um, they refer to one group 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.040 as the solvers, which are the people who like are 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.480 the front line who are actively solving these things, who 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.200 have the know how, who you know, are figuring this 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.000 stuff out, and then the followers who once this stuff 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.200 started to hit the forums. Let's see, there's um, there's forums, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.280 web communities, websites, chat rooms, Skype groups, I I R 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.560 C groups, all sorts of different groups around solving these puzzles. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.320 And what happens is that there's like one or two 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.359 saw actual solvers quote unquote in that group, and the 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.960 rest are followers who are getting the information sec at 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.080 hand and like going to the websites or like submitting 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.360 the clues or whatever, and they aren't they're not actually 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.200 solving anything, or they're saying, like you know, they're they're 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.400 inputting like one little, tiny little bit of something. So 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.240 there's a group of active solvers, and then there's the followers, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.280 and the followers are what I was talking about a 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.000 little bit with like three three oh one was very 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.840 displeased with the followers, which we'll talk about again in 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.479 the context at the time. But you know, the interesting 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.479 thing is is I pondered this particular little mysteries that 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.360 of all the people on all those chat boards and 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.200 forums and stuff like that, how do you know that 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.800 members of three three or one aren't actually, you know, 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.560 posting comments in there. Yeah, you don't, you don't know, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.760 you don't, you have no idea? Yeah. Um. So the 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.960 puzzles are, as I said, kind of impossible to solve 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.520 on their own, and they're impossible for most groups to 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.880 solve as well. You have to be really, really smart, 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.159 as he was saying, there's a lot of information you 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.240 have to have in your head to know how to 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.360 do this. To even like you don't even have to 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.120 have the first hand knowledge but you know, like you 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.640 don't have to know how to like decode this one 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.680 specific kind of coding language, but you have to know 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.599 well enough that that's what that's in enough to like 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.479 google how to you know what for whatever. Anyways, Yeah, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:19.760 you'd be able to go out and get to get 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.840 that with that one specific thing which I can't remember 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.839 the name program, one program that that helps you to 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.640 find a messages embedded INFLUD. We're going to talk a 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.440 lot um now that we've trampled all over your train 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:38.320 of thought at the beginning. Sure, all right, you guys, Ready, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.040 it's a picture in a message, right, it starts out 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.279 that way. Let's talk about two, since it's the longest 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.680 to go and it was kind of the first one. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.239 There's good documentation of it two thousand thirteen. There's better 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:01.320 document documentation of the actual puzzle pieces, but not as 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.839 good documentation of what may have happened, like after there's 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:09.200 a there's a very distinct breaking point where the followers 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.400 stop being able to follow the puzzles, which we'll talk 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.280 about again. I'm sorry to keep doing this. Everybody hates 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:21.000 it when I think that comes after the break. Yeah, 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.880 but the stuff after the break from two thousand twelve. 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.400 There's actually some stuff from that from two thousand thirteen 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.840 and two fourteen, there isn't really and actually two thousand 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.120 fourteen it's hot. You can't. I don't even know if 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.840 it's actually been I mean, I think it probably has, 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.960 but I think that the people the solvers have kind 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.560 of wised up enough to know not to be solving everything. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.360 And the span of these puzzles is like a month, 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.840 and there are people, you know, there's one wiki which 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.840 you know, we're going to put on the website that 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:58.000 is is literally a community dedicated to solving these and 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.400 there are two thousand fourteen, they're still stuff gone like 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.640 one of the very early puzzles in two four and 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:09.040 they're you know, a large, large group of people. So okay, ready, okay, okay, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.200 And I want to start out on two thousand twelve 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.080 with the fact that in the two thousands, there was 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.600 this thing that was really really popular called our alternate 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:23.520 reality games. Do you guys remember those? No? Okay? So actually, Bungee, 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.720 the creators of the Halo series, used one of these 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.320 to promote Halo two before it's released, and I think 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.200 two thousand five, I think is when it came out. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.200 They released this game called I Love Bees. That was 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.120 a game that was it was a game that was 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.240 a game inside the Halo universe, so it was a 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.960 game that you played in an alternate reality. Okay, So 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.000 these were really popular, and the way that these were 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.120 often promoted or released was the same kind of way 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.280 that three three oh one made their presence known. First, 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:59.800 they you would release an image or basically a ta 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.280 I guess is the word I'm looking for. I don't 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.400 think that's the right word. I'm looking for a tease maybe, yeah, 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.360 a clue of some kind, and then you know, then 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.360 you would then they would drop the game and everybody 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.200 would be like, oh, that's so cool, We're gonna play 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.120 this game. And it's like an ultimariality. Yeah. So a 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.000 lot of people initially thought that this was just like 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.920 a really complex a r G. The image that was posted. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.840 People started to try and decodeed the picture. Which is 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.760 the really easy way to decode a picture, right is 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.360 you export it as a t x T file a 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.959 text file, and then there's probably some text attached to it. 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.120 Oftentimes it's just yeah, oftentimes it's just a string of numbers, 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.680 and letters, and that's fine. Sometimes if there's an embedded 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.280 message in it, it'll come up with something else. And actually, 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.320 when you downloaded this first picture as a t x 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.959 T file, they got what's called a Caesar cipher, which 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:54.360 Joe I know knows what it is, and we've talked 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.200 about well we've talked about it a little bit and 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.480 I'll remind people of it in just a second. But 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:03.079 it says type Arius Claudius Caesar says, and then a 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.320 string of kind of asky type numbers, letters, symbols. Wow, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.000 talking about making it easy, Well, okay, so this type 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.640 of cipher, the Caesar cipher, it's just like it's the 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.839 one where you just bump letters over a certain number 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.280 kind of and you you use the pad of Tiberius 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.160 Caesar de cide or whatever. Anyways, so people um decoded 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.680 this message, they were like, ah, this is super easy, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:27.600 this is awesome. This is a fun little game for 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.000 everybody to play. And it led them to a u 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.839 r L that contained all that was on this u 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.320 r L was an image of a duck decoy that 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.280 read whoops, just decoys this way looks like you can't 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.600 guess how to get the message out, which is hilarious 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.480 to me, but it's so much right, so people a 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.520 lot of people also were like, well, this is obviously 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.600 just a troll, like, but other people, that's just so 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.640 much work to go to. I mean, it's not that 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.520 much work, but it's a good enough amount of work 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.080 to go to just to like know that people are 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.400 going to think, oh, we'll just do this thing and 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.200 we're so clever, look at us solving a mystery and 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:09.840 have it, you know, not only to have that be 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.800 embedded in the t x T file of the image, 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.120 but to have it actually lead to your all that 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.079 actually has an image that points out how dumb people. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.920 If I'd been saying this puzzle up though, I would 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:26.679 have not done that. I would not have had a decoy. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.480 I would have had more clues and more false leads 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.840 and just lead people several steps down before you finally 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.840 show them the I gotta be honest with you. I 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.880 think that that's there's so much other stuff that goes 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.800 into this whole set of puzzles that like that was 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.000 probably all they had time for, Like really, that's all 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:48.600 they had time for. It turns out that you have 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:53.000 to have a program called out guests, which is a 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.719 stagnantography program. Is that how you say that word? I'm 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.200 not sure that's pounced at photography or something better know 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.480 how what that is. That's when you embed messages in 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.480 JPEG's or other photographs and you have to have this 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.680 specific program to pull the messages out right, Yeah, I 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.160 think so. And all those things you have a lot 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.440 of information embedded in them. I mean they all have 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.640 like the make of the camera, the date, um, it's 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:20.960 kind of made it metadata. Yeah, it's like yeah, as 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.120 it's got all kinds of information about the photo, you know, 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.880 like the you know, the lens and focal length and 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.680 all kinds of stuff. But there's no reason you can't 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.600 put other stuff in there, and a lot of people do, 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.960 like terrorists for example. Well, so okay, and and just 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.520 to be clear, you had to run that initial image. Yes, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.160 we're still talking about that first image. This is how 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:46.280 deep this is through out guests. And you got the 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:50.800 following message. Here's a book code. To find the book 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.040 and more information, go to our favorite website Reddit. There's 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:59.240 a subreaddit and then there's a list of numbers and 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.880 then it says good luck three three one. All of 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.600 their messages are signed good luck period three three o one. 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.640 This subredit is it's just full of ridiculous ciphers. Let 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.720 me show you, guys, and and we'll link it on 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.280 the website. Of course. This is the subredit. You're welcome. 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:20.400 What it is this subreddit, it's just ciphers. So these 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.600 are just ciphers that people have made up. No, these 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:28.520 are all from three three oh one. There's this one 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.840 poster you can see if you go through here. It's 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.000 all just one poster, but it's all you guys should 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.440 go check it out. I highly encourage it. I know 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.160 many of your redditors anyways, so just go on. Don't 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.480 up vote these things, don't do it anyways. It's just 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.680 ciphers and the metadata that you found by running through 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.720 this one the very first image throughout guests Lou sent 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.560 you there. I mean, this is like crazy already, right, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.160 this is crazy already to me at least, I'm not great, 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.679 not great with puzzle solving in ciphers, but already like 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.280 this is too much work for me, which means I'm 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.760 lazy and should be weeded out. Probably. I was gonna say, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:11.160 you get frustrated with you know, puzzles. It's true doing this. Yeah. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.160 The interesting thing about about the string of numbers, and 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:15.920 it could mean anything. It could mean like say a 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:21.800 given book sif as a book cipher the outright say 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.800 this is a book code. To find the book and 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.080 more information go to Yeah, and then you gotta bring 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:27.720 you gotta solve the puzzle to find out the book. 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:29.400 And of course they found out the name of the book, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.560 but what book it was. But what's interesting to me 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.120 is that it's a series of paired numbers. There's like 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.640 there's a number coal and another night like one twenty 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.520 could be page one, line twenty one character. But what's interesting, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.600 and I don't understand why they do it this way, 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.640 is that you know, it's the first digit of every 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.920 one of those pared sequences. You notice that they all grow. Yeah, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.240 they're sequential. There's a question. There's no reason for that. 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.400 Well except for that that's a that's a very three 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.560 three on one thing. They do this. There's no I 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.080 noticed that in a lot of a lot of their 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.440 ciphers that they were all doing that, and I thought, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.480 really that's necessary in a book code. In fact, it's 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.720 probably not even a good thing. If you want to 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.560 have an unbreakable code. Well they don't. They don't they 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.120 want them to be breakable. They just want them to 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.840 be difficult. And they also it cultivates this aura around them. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.560 You know, it's a style. It's a stylistic choice almost, 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.560 which is interesting because at this point we're so far 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:32.800 into code writers right and cipher makers that we're talking 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:38.040 about the stylistic merits of each individual code. So that's 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.560 that's interesting. But anyways, on this subreddit, not only were 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.040 all these like jumbled letters and all of that stuff, 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.360 there are also two pictures images. I guess pictures is 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.840 not the right word. One was called welcome and the 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.720 other one was called problems. And from here on out 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.400 when we're talking about images, I'll just add they, um 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.280 all of them are decoded without guests, because at this 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.080 point people have figured out that's how you do it. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.560 And they all contain a thing called a PGP signature, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.600 which stands for pretty good pass key signature You're welcome, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.720 which basically authenticates that the images and the embedded code 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.600 are coming directly from three three oh one. I'm not 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:24.360 going to get into how PGP codes work. Google it 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.720 if you're very curious it's kind of complex. It's a 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.800 little complex. It exists, and then you have to have 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:38.080 an authentication code. And yeah, so it's it's a go 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.960 google it if you have questions, or you can just 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.600 accept that that's a thing, whichever you prefer. And the now, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.440 the thing with PGP PGP codes is is you can't 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:54.120 forge somebody others, somebody else, somebody else's signature. Correct well 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.400 you And that's this is where the whole key thing 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.920 comes in, is that they only work with a certain key, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:04.760 and that it's impossible apparently to forge the signature plus 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.960 the key to get any kind of incorrupted data. As 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.960 I said, go google it if you guys have questions. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.399 I am not a computer science person. So much time. Also, 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.639 we only have so much time. The episodes are exactly 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.240 forty two minutes. That allows that allows time for commercial breaks. 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.680 So talk fast. I'll talk really fast. Welcome the image. 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:34.840 The code revealed in this essentially just said Hey, from 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.439 now on, all of the images that come from US 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.280 are going to have this pass key. Here's the here's 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.840 the key. This is this is how you this is 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.960 how you authenticate that this stuff is from US. Problems message, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.359 read the key has always been right in front of 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.119 your eyes. This isn't the quest for the Holy Grail. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.520 Stop making it more difficult than it is. Good Luck 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:59.240 three one. That's so kind of them, isn't it. Yeah, 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.639 that's so kind of them. Good luck to be split in. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.000 You guys are making this way harder than it is. 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.679 This is actually very simple. Just would you guys just 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.800 figure it out. It turns out that the subreddit header 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:17.600 is some symbols which were undecoded, and they gave some 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:22.600 numbers suce essentially, which was a key that allowed users 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.240 to decode all of the strings, and the subreddit which 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:30.080 produced some things useful, the most useful of which was 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:35.439 a phone number. So this is where things get a 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.359 little weird. You call the phone number and you get 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.000 a message. Do you guys want to hear what the 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:46.440 message sounded like? Very good? You have done well. There 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.720 are three prime numbers associated with the original final dot 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:55.320 j pegg image. One is one of them. You will 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.600 have to find the other two to apply all three 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.399 of these numbers together and at a dot com on 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:07.960 the end to find the next step. Good luck, goodbye. Well, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.200 that's not creepy or anything, No, not at all. So 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.880 actually the next little puzzle clue, this is actually very 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.239 simple for them. Uh you know, it said that you 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.280 would find the there are three prime numbers associated with 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.520 the original final jpeg image. Right. It turns out there 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.080 was the three three oh one was one of them, 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.480 which they said. The other two were actually the height 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.320 and width of the image, which okay, okay, yes, it's 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:37.480 interesting that they made the height and with prime number 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.119 prime numbers, sure, whatever, But that's pretty simple, right compared 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:42.720 to like some of the other stuff that we've seen 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:47.960 so far, that that's a simple way to hide the information. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.679 It's not a simple thing to figure out because you 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.639 know that everybody is combing back through the code of 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.720 the image and not looking at When you view a 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.880 image on your computer, you find it and it says 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.919 final name, and it says x by x size and 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.040 it gives you the dimensions. I met so many people 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.480 just blew right by that obvious thing that you see 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.359 all the time. Well now and and well you know, 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:17.240 and and they always put that up there. You know, 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.679 if you look at the image properties, they'll have you know, 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:24.040 twelve five pixels by pixels or something like that. But 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.680 you know, in retrospect, it seems pretty obvious, but probably yeah, 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.040 if you're like, a, yeah, they probably would not occur 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.240 to a lot of people. Now, So the two numbers 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.919 heighten them with multiplied by three three one resulted in 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.920 the number eight four five one five four five one 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.119 to seven of note this number is actually contained in 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:52.160 brackets in their PGP code. So that's cool. That right, 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:53.880 that's weird. That had to be a lot of work 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.080 to to figure out, Okay, what can we do? How 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.280 do we do this? That would be difficult. So I 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.399 guess if you were fairly savvy Internet user you could have. 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.800 I guess kind of guessed that, but probably not. And 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.480 it's interesting. This is something that you see kind of 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.200 happened a lot in these puzzles. There are these very weird, 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:18.399 really eerie coincidences that keep happening over and over again. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.280 This I think is one of them. I think it 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:25.240 was obvious. They're they're well engineered, they're very well engineered, 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.560 and they're they tie back into themselves. You know, a 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.359 lot of a lot of times puzzles just keep going 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.000 clue after clue, and they just spawn in kind of 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.119 a linear fashion. And this is more like a folded 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.600 piece of paper just suddenly wraps back on itself and 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.520 goes in the opposite direction and then comes back to 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.680 it like a piece of origami almost. It's very elegant. Yeah. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.280 So the website, obviously it was the number dot com. 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.000 If you went to it and it was too early, 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.639 you saw this countdown. It was an image of a 0:21:55.680 --> 0:22:00.000 cicado with a countdown and the image run throughout. Guests 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.920 told people when to return to the site. They said 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.199 to return to the site on January nine. Just for 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.440 two seconds, let's talk about the fact that that first 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:13.560 image appeared on January five, and four days later. This 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.080 is where we are. This is four days you guys, 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.240 like the one out for like a month about Yeah, 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:22.840 the very last day of two thousand twelves puzzle was 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.400 February three. The Internet nerds must have been going insane. 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.640 And that's so freaking fast have to figure out any 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.240 of that. Was there an expiration on that website? Yes, 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.359 there was a start and an end on that website. 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.200 How long was it you remember, I'm going to say 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.199 a couple of hours at the most. Really, Yeah, and 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:47.520 so it's gonna get even more interesting, Yeah, for real? 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.960 When users returned at the specified time there was There 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.199 wasn't in fact, like a universal time is the u 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.600 TM or something like that time code stamped on it. 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.879 The image had changed and when you ran it throughout guests, 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:10.360