From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everyone, Welcome back to stuff they don't want you to know. My name is Matt and my name is Ben. And today we're covering all of those cryptic things, the things that are hidden and encrypted, and you you're not supposed to know what it is. That's how you hide the stuff they don't want you to know. Ben, we're talking about it today, and specifically we're gonna be talking about Cicada three three oh one, which is a fascinating story and and whatever you want to believe it is. I don't know what it is, Ben, I don't think you know what it is. Oh man. We have some ideas, some thoughts on it. I'm sure you do too. So as we're as we're going through this, we we want you to really tell us what you think or how how stupid we are or what we think, or tell us tell us how you agree or you just disagree. You want to hear from you. If you were if you were on four chance threat on B when this first came up, then let us know because, of course, one of the big possibilities for Cicada three three oh one is that it could be just a massive trolling, trolling effort by somebody or some group of people with either a lot of money, a lot of time, some college students they're board. However, just the effort and kind of the the smart way. It was done in the cool way, much like an alternate reality game. I mean, essentially, that's what it was. Um, I'm a man, I just wish I had the ability to do that. Oh well, you do. You just have to focus your time and plan ahead. Before we go any further, let's explain what Cicada three three oh one is for our listeners who haven't seen our video yet. All right, so back on in January, I think it was January four, two thousand twelve, there was a post and it was a it was on four Chan and what'd you say it was? And it was a message that said it was a picture and it said, hey, there's a message hidden inside this picture. We're we're looking for intelligent people. Um, come and find us, essentially like follow the path and you'll find us. And there were bread crumbs hidden in this picture. There was some information in the metadata the picture I believe, which ultimately points to some websites, and these go to increasingly difficult or obscure codes and references and puzzles. So when we looked at some of our cryptography material, um, you know, we did uh we did an episode on just an intro to cryptography to build up to go to Cicado, which has some cryptography involved, but also just has some straight up puzzling stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and references to historic materials, occult sources. Mandius was involved at one point. And the the interesting thing is that this also spills over into the real world. It's not just online. The big question has always been what, who and why. Well, let's go over some of the possibilities and I'll just throw some out at you. You tell me what you think, alright, and vice versa. You go absolutely first one that it's some kind of intelligence agency trial or a recruitment. Uh. Possibly, I would say, but only possibly in that I could see a private contractor that's hired by an intelligence agency doing that. An intelligence agency itself would have a little bit more difficult time. Case in point, Google and am I five have both had things like this. You know, billboards at the sage you want to join, here's the break this code, and they'll lead you to the website. And Google at least came out and said that they didn't get great results or great hires from this. Yeah, so I can. I can kind of imagine someone who has enough free time to go through take the effort that it would take to do that. Okay, I've got one for you. Yes, all right. What if it's just uh, some more obnoxious viral marketing. I would say, if it is some kind of viral marketing, they're they're doing an ineffective there. They're not doing a great job just because there's not much branding there besides the Cicada word. And I don't know if you do what we did where you you're just searching the internet and trying to find more information, and there's no game that's kind of related to it. There's no there's no book or movie. I don't know. I don't think so, all right, But to your point, will both feel kind of foolish when Cicada Man thirty three oh one comes out, you know, in March or something. Yeah, maybe, but it's it's kind of an early start. When you say and just because they did it again. And you know, if you if you, if you get to the end, let's say, let's say you get to all the way to the end of this crumb trail, allegedly you find one of these posters that they had up in the real world in cities all over the United States, and nobody knows who made it, Like, it's not people who do make it don't talk about it. There's been one. I've seen one post of somebody who actually completed the game and it was allegedly nobody who completed the aim. And well, let let me throw one back to you, because this is what this person said. Yeah, he said, it's essentially a secret organization and secret society of sorts that has very specific beliefs about philosophy about how the world should be, and they want to they want to make changes in the world according to those beliefs. Right, yeah, So what do you think? Um? Is it? Are? You ask me? Is it possible that that global think tank idea is real? Well? Yeah, is it real? How plausible is it? Uh? It's it's totally plausible. I mean, it's totally possible, But it's also plausible because the world is full of people who start think tanks like this, you know, whether it's a commune or some people who get together and say, hey, you know what we should do, um plant more trees, you know, or you know, you know what we should do is kill more eagles. It doesn't necessarily have to be a good idea. I'm saying people band together for that kind of stuff all the time because they Everybody likes to feel like you're they're changing the world, right, and part of a group. People love being part of a group, man. And from this, I think it I think it could be possible. But also also you have to wonder, all right, let's do the ifs. Big if if this is true, as an if he really received a letter and it is true, which is a huge if, um, then that leads us to a second if. And that if, which is also big, is if these people are really um actualizing the philosophy that they have. Then that leads us to a third thing. The only way to see that or to measure that, would be to see concrete effects in the world that are traceable to this group. And at this point, the only thing that's happened that has been clearly identified as of this group would be the papers, the paper posters of cicadas um, which is not I think not the end goal of this group if they are legit. So with all those copyats in place, it's it's possible, But I I still don't have enough information to say one way or the other. Here's what I had a conversation with my friend Nick the other day and he, uh, he came up with an interesting idea. What if this is kind of a snare. It's a it's a trap catch the best and the brightest hackers that maybe that some group feels would be anti their establishment. Let's see these. Yeah, well that's that's pretty. And yeah, once you get to the end of the tunnel, it's bye bye because nobody knows you got there. M hmm. It's not only just straight to Guantanamo. Oh boy, Well that's a fascinating idea because it makes me think of a pretty scary what if. Um So, people used to think it was crazy that the n s A would be monitoring everything you do on the internet. Every they know what pornography look at. Incognito mode is not saving you, guys, No, it's not. But it's fine unless you're into something illegal. I'm sure it's just dirt that will be kept on you in case you go the wrong way. Isn't that the how the conspiracy theory goes. Yeah, the good thing that I take solace in is that, um, unfortunately a lot of people look at porn, so it's not that big a deal. Just don't feel too bad, guy listening to this right now while you're looking at porn. It's okay. You're You're gonna be okay, don't worry about it's not it's weird though. That's a weird situation right now. I am really sorry to call you out like this, but you know who you are. Be cool, man, Be cool. But the reason that we bring up this idea of this, this sort of panopticon situation wherein someone's entire life online and in the real world can be monitored, is to say that with this information, it is possible, again possible, maybe not plausible, that an intelligence agency would be able to take the metadata, construct the um the perfect demographic thing, maybe to catch just one person. So maybe they know enough about a group of people where they where they were able to build a profile and they said, well, the kind of person that we are looking to catch has a love of Victorian literature, a little bit of a maybe a rash, a little libertarian bent uh has a love of puzzles. They like these animals. They most they're most likely. It's like, you know, because is it Is it plausible? Now, that's a lot of work. Is it possible? Sure? And that to me, um makes for at least a very good short story. Yeah. The lesson is just don't do anything to piss off U enough for them to want to target you and spend the time and effort, right, And you have to wonder, if Cicada three three oh one is real, then are are they going to be gunning for us? I don't think so, because if anything, we're just we're just fascinated. And if it's just some eleven year old kid brilliant and his internet friends, then h that's amazing. And you know what if it's if it's like a forty year old person and or a group of four year old people, it's still it's still fascinating. Because these posters went up around the world globally, and that's the most impressive part, you know, from Soul Korea, Soul South Korea to u y E to what we should look up and see if you're how how close they were to embassies. I'd be interested to know. Yeah, how close each one of those posters was to an embassy or if there was a really at the panner, because I haven't truly looked at the pattern of where these things were placed. Yeah, we weren't able to do that for this episode. But but if they if there was any intelligence agency related to this, uh, they sure as hell would not put it near their own embassies. Oh yeah, no, absolutely, So you're thinking these are all near the U. S. Embassies must be the Russians? Well right, I mean I don't know that. I don't know. But one last thing I know. We have to wrap up ben Uh. I actually have a small team of guys that are going to be trying, if it happens again in early January, who are going to be trying to solve it. Um. I am not going to be very helpful on this team, but I'm going to be on along for the journey to see what happens. Oh wow, that's awesome. Maybe you can come back and updates. Maybe if they're cool with it, bring bring one of them in for an interview. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's actually that guy I was telling you about. Nick. Okay, Yeah, Nick the white hat cool. Alright, Well, as long as he's a good wizard, Uh, then let's let's have him on this show if something happens with Cicada. Uh. The reason that people think that January four Third Team may bring something new from this group is that they've been relatively quiet. Apparently they if the puzzles are real, they've been contacting the people figuring it out directly rather than sending open statements. Yeah, they make them open up a brand new email UM that's never been used before so they can have contact. Yes, and uh, this idea, this guess, this speculation is based entirely on the cyclical nature of the UM statements, right, because the January four a few years ago to January four in the coming year. So we will have to do one of my least favorite things, which is wait. Yeah, we'll just have to wait, and you know how I hate that. But uh, but in the meantime, we're gonna be off working on some other fascinating things that we hope you enjoy as much as we do. And well, in some cases, enjoy is not the right word. But I'm more big the fascination with uh in the meantime, Matt, Where can people find us? You can find us on Facebook We're conspiracy Stuff. You can find us on Twitter, We're at Conspiracy Stuff. You can head on over to test tube and check out all of our videos or YouTube. You can even we're on iTunes too. If you're listening to this on iTunes, just click over to the video podcast tab and my us. What would mean even more to us is if you write in with suggestions for upcoming episodes or topics, whether on our video stuff or our audio stuff. This is going to be something that we're really excited about because every time that we have a new format, every time we have listeners able to interact with us in a different way than we all start making some better stuff. You know. Yeah, we we improved together. Yes, it's pretty cool. A rising tide carries all vessels. Do you want to hop on board the high seas of this show? Oh? That was ridiculous? That one hurt. Well, if you will also forgive that horrible analogy, you can send us an email directly. Our address is conspiracy at Discovery dot com. From more on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon. Visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.

From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everyone, Welcome back to stuff they don't want you to know. My name is Matt and my name is Ben. And today we're covering all of those cryptic things, the things that are hidden and encrypted, and you you're not supposed to know what it is. That's how you hide the stuff they don't want you to know. Ben, we're talking about it today, and specifically we're gonna be talking about Cicada three three oh one, which is a fascinating story and and whatever you want to believe it is. I don't know what it is, Ben, I don't think you know what it is. Oh man. We have some ideas, some thoughts on it. I'm sure you do too. So as we're as we're going through this, we we want you to really tell us what you think or how how stupid we are or what we think, or tell us tell us how you agree or you just disagree. You want to hear from you. If you were if you were on four chance threat on B when this first came up, then let us know because, of course, one of the big possibilities for Cicada three three oh one is that it could be just a massive trolling, trolling effort by somebody or some group of people with either a lot of money, a lot of time, some college students they're board. However, just the effort and kind of the the smart way. It was done in the cool way, much like an alternate reality game. I mean, essentially, that's what it was. Um, I'm a man, I just wish I had the ability to do that. Oh well, you do. You just have to focus your time and plan ahead. Before we go any further, let's explain what Cicada three three oh one is for our listeners who haven't seen our video yet. All right, so back on in January, I think it was January four, two thousand twelve, there was a post and it was a it was on four Chan and what'd you say it was? And it was a message that said it was a picture and it said, hey, there's a message hidden inside this picture. We're we're looking for intelligent people. Um, come and find us, essentially like follow the path and you'll find us. And there were bread crumbs hidden in this picture. There was some information in the metadata the picture I believe, which ultimately points to some websites, and these go to increasingly difficult or obscure codes and references and puzzles. So when we looked at some of our cryptography material, um, you know, we did uh we did an episode on just an intro to cryptography to build up to go to Cicado, which has some cryptography involved, but also just has some straight up puzzling stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and references to historic materials, occult sources. Mandius was involved at one point. And the the interesting thing is that this also spills over into the real world. It's not just online. The big question has always been what, who and why. Well, let's go over some of the possibilities and I'll just throw some out at you. You tell me what you think, alright, and vice versa. You go absolutely first one that it's some kind of intelligence agency trial or a recruitment. Uh. Possibly, I would say, but only possibly in that I could see a private contractor that's hired by an intelligence agency doing that. An intelligence agency itself would have a little bit more difficult time. Case in point, Google and am I five have both had things like this. You know, billboards at the sage you want to join, here's the break this code, and they'll lead you to the website. And Google at least came out and said that they didn't get great results or great hires from this. Yeah, so I can. I can kind of imagine someone who has enough free time to go through take the effort that it would take to do that. Okay, I've got one for you. Yes, all right. What if it's just uh, some more obnoxious viral marketing. I would say, if it is some kind of viral marketing, they're they're doing an ineffective there. They're not doing a great job just because there's not much branding there besides the Cicada word. And I don't know if you do what we did where you you're just searching the internet and trying to find more information, and there's no game that's kind of related to it. There's no there's no book or movie. I don't know. I don't think so, all right, But to your point, will both feel kind of foolish when Cicada Man thirty three oh one comes out, you know, in March or something. Yeah, maybe, but it's it's kind of an early start. When you say and just because they did it again. And you know, if you if you, if you get to the end, let's say, let's say you get to all the way to the end of this crumb trail, allegedly you find one of these posters that they had up in the real world in cities all over the United States, and nobody knows who made it, Like, it's not people who do make it don't talk about it. There's been one. I've seen one post of somebody who actually completed the game and it was allegedly nobody who completed the aim. And well, let let me throw one back to you, because this is what this person said. Yeah, he said, it's essentially a secret organization and secret society of sorts that has very specific beliefs about philosophy about how the world should be, and they want to they want to make changes in the world according to those beliefs. Right, yeah, So what do you think? Um? Is it? Are? You ask me? Is it possible that that global think tank idea is real? Well? Yeah, is it real? How plausible is it? Uh? It's it's totally plausible. I mean, it's totally possible, But it's also plausible because the world is full of people who start think tanks like this, you know, whether it's a commune or some people who get together and say, hey, you know what we should do, um plant more trees, you know, or you know, you know what we should do is kill more eagles. It doesn't necessarily have to be a good idea. I'm saying people band together for that kind of stuff all the time because they Everybody likes to feel like you're they're changing the world, right, and part of a group. People love being part of a group, man. And from this, I think it I think it could be possible. But also also you have to wonder, all right, let's do the ifs. Big if if this is true, as an if he really received a letter and it is true, which is a huge if, um, then that leads us to a second if. And that if, which is also big, is if these people are really um actualizing the philosophy that they have. Then that leads us to a third thing. The only way to see that or to measure that, would be to see concrete effects in the world that are traceable to this group. And at this point, the only thing that's happened that has been clearly identified as of this group would be the papers, the paper posters of cicadas um, which is not I think not the end goal of this group if they are legit. So with all those copyats in place, it's it's possible, But I I still don't have enough information to say one way or the other. Here's what I had a conversation with my friend Nick the other day and he, uh, he came up with an interesting idea. What if this is kind of a snare. It's a it's a trap catch the best and the brightest hackers that maybe that some group feels would be anti their establishment. Let's see these. Yeah, well that's that's pretty. And yeah, once you get to the end of the tunnel, it's bye bye because nobody knows you got there. M hmm. It's not only just straight to Guantanamo. Oh boy, Well that's a fascinating idea because it makes me think of a pretty scary what if. Um So, people used to think it was crazy that the n s A would be monitoring everything you do on the internet. Every they know what pornography look at. Incognito mode is not saving you, guys, No, it's not. But it's fine unless you're into something illegal. I'm sure it's just dirt that will be kept on you in case you go the wrong way. Isn't that the how the conspiracy theory goes. Yeah, the good thing that I take solace in is that, um, unfortunately a lot of people look at porn, so it's not that big a deal. Just don't feel too bad, guy listening to this right now while you're looking at porn. It's okay. You're You're gonna be okay, don't worry about it's not it's weird though. That's a weird situation right now. I am really sorry to call you out like this, but you know who you are. Be cool, man, Be cool. But the reason that we bring up this idea of this, this sort of panopticon situation wherein someone's entire life online and in the real world can be monitored, is to say that with this information, it is possible, again possible, maybe not plausible, that an intelligence agency would be able to take the metadata, construct the um the perfect demographic thing, maybe to catch just one person. So maybe they know enough about a group of people where they where they were able to build a profile and they said, well, the kind of person that we are looking to catch has a love of Victorian literature, a little bit of a maybe a rash, a little libertarian bent uh has a love of puzzles. They like these animals. They most they're most likely. It's like, you know, because is it Is it plausible? Now, that's a lot of work. Is it possible? Sure? And that to me, um makes for at least a very good short story. Yeah. The lesson is just don't do anything to piss off U enough for them to want to target you and spend the time and effort, right, And you have to wonder, if Cicada three three oh one is real, then are are they going to be gunning for us? I don't think so, because if anything, we're just we're just fascinated. And if it's just some eleven year old kid brilliant and his internet friends, then h that's amazing. And you know what if it's if it's like a forty year old person and or a group of four year old people, it's still it's still fascinating. Because these posters went up around the world globally, and that's the most impressive part, you know, from Soul Korea, Soul South Korea to u y E to what we should look up and see if you're how how close they were to embassies. I'd be interested to know. Yeah, how close each one of those posters was to an embassy or if there was a really at the panner, because I haven't truly looked at the pattern of where these things were placed. Yeah, we weren't able to do that for this episode. But but if they if there was any intelligence agency related to this, uh, they sure as hell would not put it near their own embassies. Oh yeah, no, absolutely, So you're thinking these are all near the U. S. Embassies must be the Russians? Well right, I mean I don't know that. I don't know. But one last thing I know. We have to wrap up ben Uh. I actually have a small team of guys that are going to be trying, if it happens again in early January, who are going to be trying to solve it. Um. I am not going to be very helpful on this team, but I'm going to be on along for the journey to see what happens. Oh wow, that's awesome. Maybe you can come back and updates. Maybe if they're cool with it, bring bring one of them in for an interview. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's actually that guy I was telling you about. Nick. Okay, Yeah, Nick the white hat cool. Alright, Well, as long as he's a good wizard, Uh, then let's let's have him on this show if something happens with Cicada. Uh. The reason that people think that January four Third Team may bring something new from this group is that they've been relatively quiet. Apparently they if the puzzles are real, they've been contacting the people figuring it out directly rather than sending open statements. Yeah, they make them open up a brand new email UM that's never been used before so they can have contact. Yes, and uh, this idea, this guess, this speculation is based entirely on the cyclical nature of the UM statements, right, because the January four a few years ago to January four in the coming year. So we will have to do one of my least favorite things, which is wait. Yeah, we'll just have to wait, and you know how I hate that. But uh, but in the meantime, we're gonna be off working on some other fascinating things that we hope you enjoy as much as we do. And well, in some cases, enjoy is not the right word. But I'm more big the fascination with uh in the meantime, Matt, Where can people find us? You can find us on Facebook We're conspiracy Stuff. You can find us on Twitter, We're at Conspiracy Stuff. You can head on over to test tube and check out all of our videos or YouTube. You can even we're on iTunes too. If you're listening to this on iTunes, just click over to the video podcast tab and my us. What would mean even more to us is if you write in with suggestions for upcoming episodes or topics, whether on our video stuff or our audio stuff. This is going to be something that we're really excited about because every time that we have a new format, every time we have listeners able to interact with us in a different way than we all start making some better stuff. You know. Yeah, we we improved together. Yes, it's pretty cool. A rising tide carries all vessels. Do you want to hop on board the high seas of this show? Oh? That was ridiculous? That one hurt. Well, if you will also forgive that horrible analogy, you can send us an email directly. Our address is conspiracy at Discovery dot com. From more on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon. Visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.