I'm coming up on 1M credits. That, and my previous classic contributions means a lot of helpful computing has been done for the project (I hope!). So what have I/we actually done? Is there a roll-up of work somewhere, that translates the cobblestone efforts into some sort of true science? If nothing, is there a concrete schedule for processing all this work? It would be good to know we are actually doing someting, more than chasing meaningless cobblestones.

I'm coming up on 1M credits. That, and my previous classic contributions means a lot of helpful computing has been done for the project (I hope!). So what have I/we actually done? Is there a roll-up of work somewhere, that translates the cobblestone efforts into some sort of true science? If nothing, is there a concrete schedule for processing all this work? It would be good to know we are actually doing someting, more than chasing meaningless cobblestones.

Unfortunately, other than fiddling around with servers and gigabit switches, there's no actual science going on.

This is the depressing truth:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=37371



I almost forgot, we did help finding a stolen laptop. So at least seti accomplished something.

I'm coming up on 1M credits. That, and my previous classic contributions means a lot of helpful computing has been done for the project (I hope!). So what have I/we actually done? Is there a roll-up of work somewhere, that translates the cobblestone efforts into some sort of true science? If nothing, is there a concrete schedule for processing all this work? It would be good to know we are actually doing someting, more than chasing meaningless cobblestones.

Unfortunately, other than fiddling around with servers and gigabit switches, there's no actual science going on.

This is the depressing truth:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=37371

Its hear say...read matts post. There IS science...but they need more people and such...

I almost forgot, we did help finding a stolen laptop. So at least seti accomplished something.

There is plenty of science...we are looking at telescope data...if thats not science what is? ET is out there...its just a matter of how far away and when will we discover it...SETI had nothing to do with finding it other than the fact that it was on the computer. They did not make WU's to crunch to find it...

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

There is plenty of science...we are looking at telescope data...if thats not science what is? ET is out there...its just a matter of how far away and when will we discover it...SETI had nothing to do with finding it other than the fact that it was on the computer. They did not make WU's to crunch to find it...

Thanks Jason for being so positive! I needed that. Hopefully you can help cheer up other frustrated users as well.

To clarify my perspective on what can be considered progress, looking at data IS NOT science. Synthesizing a theory based on data, and then testing that theory with more measurement IS science. So if all we have done is look at data, we likely are not making progress.

If the fiddling around with switches and servers comment below is more correct than not, then I suggest slowing down and figuring out what we have learned. It is 'nothing', then please say so. Sometimes this happens; ask any experienced scientist. But saying nothing is irritating.

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May this Farce be with You

We have only searched a blade of grass in the whole (figurative) world, and only for a minute or so. We could do many, many orders of magnitude more computation and still not be certain that the search is over.

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We have only searched a blade of grass in the whole (figurative) world, and only for a minute or so. We could do many, many orders of magnitude more computation and still not be certain that the search is over.

:Thats true...there are hundreds of factors as to why we found no signal yet...Heck we might have but Berkeley only looks at the results about 1 or 2 times a year...factors: distance, intelligence level, interest in us or them, obstructions, etc...the list goes on.

These are telescope data WU's. What else would our computers be analyzing?

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

We have only searched a blade of grass in the whole (figurative) world, and only for a minute or so. We could do many, many orders of magnitude more computation and still not be certain that the search is over.

Even the mythical wandering hero develops a sense of where he is going and where she has been, and eventually why. Without that sense, the journey becomes stale and uninteresting, worthy only of drunken, rotund, hairless men and barren, toothless middleaged hags.

In the Seti case, however, can anyone provide a roadmap, a set of milestones, a reason to continue, short of the hackneyed rejoinder that space-time is too vast to measure (and variations on that theme).

Space-Time is too vast to measure (and variations on that theme)! If you don't agree with me then you must be either a drunken, rotund, hairless man or a barren, toothless middle aged hag! I'm reckoning the latter - but I've been known to be wrong.

So what kinds of things would you like to see, beyond the rather general and vague sounding 'synthesizing' theory?

Personally I'm not sure what more can be done (at the moment) without stopping the work units for several months whilst the database gets analysed.

I believe Matt Lebofsky mentioned in one of his posts somewhere that the results in the Database took light years to get here, so a few more years isn't going to kill it.

Even if Seti@Home dies, the raw data and the results will still be in the databases (barring fire/flood/etc damage), allowing future scientists to comb through the results we have generated.

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Join TeamACC

Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we are not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

We have only searched a blade of grass in the whole (figurative) world, and only for a minute or so. We could do many, many orders of magnitude more computation and still not be certain that the search is over.

Even the mythical wandering hero develops a sense of where he is going and where she has been, and eventually why. Without that sense, the journey becomes stale and uninteresting, worthy only of drunken, rotund, hairless men and barren, toothless middleaged hags.

In the Seti case, however, can anyone provide a roadmap, a set of milestones, a reason to continue, short of the hackneyed rejoinder that space-time is too vast to measure (and variations on that theme).

If space goes on forever then we have a lot to cover, which i think it does...Signals take time to get here and if a civilization is not looking for another civilization like us then we don't detect it...it all depends on what direction the signal is pointed, for how long, and why...and for who...like I said the list is endless...but if any of you truely thought that SETI@home is uselss or not worth it would you really be here or crunching numbers?

Things get found more often than not, its just that we probably don't hear about it if its not ET or something spectacular.

We crunch thousands of WU's a day and all those WU's and the ones still not looked at you need a heck of a lot of people looking at the results, or have several other large computers or something reading the analyzed data. Users do not realize how much data is in one WU let alone a few hundred thousand or more.

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=38480

Get ready to be happy













.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=38480

Get ready to be happy.

This is also a very recent find: Radio source SHGb02+14a

Here is a news article: Mysterious signals from light years away

That is supposed to be between Pisces and Ares it says...that roughly where those triplets are. I wonder what the update is on this signal??

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

It is good to be optimistic, but not biased. The two references Jason and MrGray provided really don't establish anything. (Has the 2004 article been followed up with additional postive results? I haven't heard, and so I doubt it given the three years since publication.)

Not sure if kinhull is trying to be funny (unsuccessfully) or what with his personal attack.

But his objective comment is a question of what would "I" like. First, "we" should want some sort of observational plan, and have it made visible for everyone to understand. "I" would imagine (given I'm not an expert) that one unsophisticated approach would be to slice up the observational sky into a countable number of areal locations of fixed solid angle. One could weight the solid angle size by the stellar density of our galaxy, or other relevant density function, or not at all. To each position, assign a fixed amount of observational detail (WU's, angular range, detector sensitivity). Ideally the amount of observation would be related back to a desired confidence level that a signal is 'not' there. Then the project could report to us the percentage of locations analyzed with a level of observational detail, and how much remains to be done at the given level of confidence. The project would also issue wu's based on attaining the same level of observational detail in each location, so that undersampling or over sampling is avoided.

Second, with the scheme outlined above (or similar/better one) I would envision SETI as a program of increasingly refined, reasonably well-defined project phases. Follow-on projects could focus on more refined data everywhere (finer grid, higher level of observational detail), or just on 'interesting' areas if some are found/proposed. But each phase of the program would have a clear-cut beginning and end. Progress in each phase would also be reportable as a simple number (98% done).

Looking at the other boinc projects, it seems to me that Seti@H is an outlier by not organizing its project in a discrete, measurable fashion. Some do it better than others, but generally the boinc projects are not open ended. Einstein is probably a good one to contrast to.

So again, "what have we done?" so far?

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May this Farce be with You

No matter if the results are made available to us or not it is in the interest of our species to continue. Had Galileo given up when the church told him to quit we would have been farther behind then we already are. This system was set up so we could participate in the greatest scientific experiment ever created, IMHO. We don't have to do anything but install and walk away. Compared to designing this system and every other scientific experiment we have less than nothing to bust our brains about. Install and forget. So don't be negative or lose hope. Just keep on going. Not if, but when we find something concrete we will ALL be part of the triumph. We are all bound together in the spirit of discovery. This is the human races greatest asset and we are actively using it!!!

Never give up. Never surrender! We are family! Secure your part in history!


All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

- Galileo


If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.

- Isaac Newton


He that can have patience can have what he will.

- Benjamin Franklin


To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.

- Aristotle


A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth.

- Christopher Wren


Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the system of procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, with eyes wide open.

- Nicholas Copernicus


In my youth I regarded the universe as an open book, printed in the language of equations, whereas now it appears to me as a text written in invisible ink, of which in our rare moments of grace we are able to decipher a small segment.

- Arthur Koestler


The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination, but the combination is locked up in the safe.

- Peter de Vries


The spread of civilization may be likened to a fire; First, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.

- Nikola Tesla


A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.

- Carl Sagan


The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.

- Albert Einstein


Carry on!!!

~ mrgray

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

A school assignment for MrGray:
1) Examine the lives of the scientific men you quote (interestingly no women were listed, although there are many) in the light of having a personal research plan, not just having patience and tenacity.
2) Review the live cycle of lemmings and contrast it to that of those who expect no more from Seti@Home than being a source of WU's and Giver of Cobblestones.

Due one week from today.

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May this Farce be with You

This is the first unusual radio information seti has recieved in 1977.

Can someone tell what happened with this and from what star did they receive this?

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Mandtugai!

A school assignment for MrGray:
1) Examine the lives of the scientific men you quote (interestingly no women were listed, although there are many) in the light of having a personal research plan, not just having patience and tenacity.
2) Review the live cycle of lemmings and contrast it to that of those who expect no more from Seti@Home than being a source of WU's and Giver of Cobblestones.

Due one week from today.

Assignment denied.

I believe you underestimate your fellow SETI participants. We are not Lemmings.

Gender played no part in my decision to post the quotes used. Just handy and applied to the argument for motivational purposes.

If your saying the people I quoted had diverse lives then I agree. Are all scientists saints? None that I am aware of.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

A school assignment for MrGray:
1) Examine the lives of the scientific men you quote (interestingly no women were listed, although there are many) in the light of having a personal research plan, not just having patience and tenacity.
2) Review the live cycle of lemmings and contrast it to that of those who expect no more from Seti@Home than being a source of WU's and Giver of Cobblestones.

Due one week from today.

Assignment denied.

I believe you underestimate your fellow SETI participants. We are not Lemmings.

Gender played no part in my decision to post the quotes used. Just handy and applied to the argument for motivational purposes.

If your saying the people I quoted had diverse lives then I agree. Are all scientists saints? None that I am aware of.

And you are correct :)

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

This is the first unusual radio information seti has recieved in 1977.

Can someone tell what happened with this and from what star did they receive this?

It remains unexplained. Here's an article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

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...Assignment denied.

I believe you underestimate your fellow SETI participants. We are not Lemmings.

And neither are the Lemmings!

It's all an unfortunate piece of film-making make-believe!


Amazin' what kids remember...

Keep searchin',
Martin

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