Why do you run SETI@home?

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A McKenzie

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Message 1487313 - Posted: 11 Mar 2014, 5:08:54 UTC

Hello all!

I'm a graduate student working on my masters thesis on the topic of extraterrestrial contact. I'm interested in how people who run the SETI@home program got interested in the idea of contacting ETs.

Anyone who is willing to be interviewed (by phone or email) please contact me and we can chat about your engagement with this project.

Thanks!
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Message 1487521 - Posted: 11 Mar 2014, 22:33:04 UTC - in response to Message 1487313.  

Hello A McKenzie

Maybe the different user profiles could help you. I did'nt read each profile but i'm sure many of them explain why their owner joined SETI.

Rolf
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Message 1487525 - Posted: 11 Mar 2014, 22:37:31 UTC

The humans here have as many reasons to run
this program as there are differences between
the individuals in the species.
Welcome to the forms!
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Message 1487530 - Posted: 11 Mar 2014, 22:50:16 UTC

SETI@home is the scientific experiment that most excites the imagination of people worldwide.
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Message 1487571 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 0:41:40 UTC - in response to Message 1487521.  
Last modified: 12 Mar 2014, 0:43:10 UTC

Maybe the different user profiles could help you.


I have one, so I volunteer it. :^)
(I've had it basically unchanged since the beginning too.)
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Message 1487585 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 1:13:54 UTC - in response to Message 1487530.  
Last modified: 12 Mar 2014, 1:16:08 UTC

SETI@home is the scientific experiment that most excites the imagination of people worldwide.


Hi A Mckenzie!

I adooooore SETI! Ask me anything you want! :)

I know we would all love to be "the one" that processed the task that proved we were not the most intelligent creatures in the universe... :) But it wouldn't matter if that glory went to another - because it's a team effort after all. We would all be proud of the part we'd played in it! SETI was the first to pull together people from all over the world in such a collaborative way. It remains true to the founding spirit of the world wide web to provide free and open access to information and the furthering of scientific knowledge. If it was being set up today I believe it still would be. The ethos behind it is uncontaminated by self-serving interest groups and political machinations.

For many the scores add an additional element of competition, because we are a competitive lot after all, but as it benefits the project, it can't be bad! The message boards are a mixture of fun, sorrow, technical support, education and mind expanding dialogue delivered in varying degrees of polite monologues :) If you enjoy the thrill of being impaled on a URL then this is the place to be!!! :) They make no difference per se to the project itself, but it bonds it's participants together under the same sky where we look up and find it hard to believe - in this vast cosmos of ours - that we could truly be alone.

And what Mr Kevvy said below :) but I haven't done one yet - newbie on tricycle you see :)
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Message 1487590 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 1:21:09 UTC - in response to Message 1487585.  
Last modified: 12 Mar 2014, 1:21:17 UTC

...but I haven't done one yet...


Well, if it's written like the rest of your post it's about time!
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Message 1487638 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 3:48:00 UTC - in response to Message 1487590.  

I second that.....
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Message 1487643 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 3:57:23 UTC - in response to Message 1487590.  
Last modified: 12 Mar 2014, 4:15:46 UTC

...but I haven't done one yet...


Well, if it's written like the rest of your post it's about time!


I second that.....


:) I'm not very good when it comes to thinking about me :/ tend to go a bit blank. :)
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Message 1487654 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 4:26:16 UTC

Why do I do Seti? That's complicated, lets see, something to do, I like PCs, heats the house, I like radio and optical astronomy, etc, etc, etc...
The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's
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Message 1487656 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 4:27:55 UTC - in response to Message 1487521.  

Hello A McKenzie

Maybe the different user profiles could help you. I did'nt read each profile but i'm sure many of them explain why their owner joined SETI.

Rolf

My profile is a pretty good summary.
Any additional questions, feel free to PM.
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Message 1487802 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 13:49:29 UTC

I'm a student in telecommunications engineering, and I'm intrigued by the prospect of other intelligent lifeforms. The SETI@home project seemed like a reasonable choice.
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Message 1487810 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 14:22:41 UTC

It was my first BOINC project. Now they are 7 plus three which ended. So I am still doing it.
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Message 1487821 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 14:50:37 UTC

I got hooked watching the SETI Screen Saver run on my friend's computers. So, now I run it on mine.
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Message 1487827 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 14:56:04 UTC

Many reasons.

Not so much to find ET..

but

Because I have resources available taht would otherwise go unused.
Because it is a genuine and valid radio-astronomy project and I can help.

but mostly

Because I want to make a difference and make things better for humanity. My ordinary life wont make that happen, but by participating in S@H I believe I am making things better by furthering human knowledge. S@H is real science. It produces results: hydrogen density was mapped from its data, micro black-holes were theorized and proven (Astropulse) and then S@H spawned BOINC.

S@H advanced radio astronomy, distributed computing, probably cryptography and other stuff by motivating GPU use outside of graphics, got the public interested in science again, made incredible resources available to other real and valid projects, allowed many of those projects to be possible in the first place while operating on a budget that would not have covered the coffee and donuts for the project that designed your MP3 player. Go ahead and compare the science per dollar that happend through S@H to anything else being done in the world... And I Helped.

I will be with the project for as long as I can because it matters.
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Message 1487941 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 18:51:25 UTC - in response to Message 1487827.  
Last modified: 12 Mar 2014, 18:52:55 UTC

Because I want to make a difference and make things better for humanity. My ordinary life wont make that happen, but by participating in S@H I believe I am making things better by furthering human knowledge. S@H is real science. It produces results: hydrogen density was mapped from its data, micro black-holes were theorized and proven (Astropulse) and then S@H spawned BOINC.

S@H advanced radio astronomy, distributed computing, probably cryptography and other stuff by motivating GPU use outside of graphics, got the public interested in science again, made incredible resources available to other real and valid projects, allowed many of those projects to be possible in the first place while operating on a budget that would not have covered the coffee and donuts for the project that designed your MP3 player. Go ahead and compare the science per dollar that happend through S@H to anything else being done in the world... And I Helped.

I will be with the project for as long as I can because it matters.


Now there's another profile that could use an update... that's inspirational. "PIGS IN SPAAAACE!"... er... not so much :^)
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Message 1487943 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 18:54:16 UTC - in response to Message 1487937.  

Because I do. My Profile is enough info.


+1


With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.
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Message 1487985 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 20:07:15 UTC - in response to Message 1487943.  

Because I do. My Profile is enough info.


+1


+2
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Message 1487992 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 20:09:55 UTC - in response to Message 1487985.  

Because I do. My Profile is enough info.


+1


+2

+3
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Message 1488018 - Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 21:10:02 UTC - in response to Message 1487827.  

make things better for humanity. My
ordinary life wont make that happen


Sir I disagree with your statement. I believe
that the reason that all of us are here is because
you and others like you, now and all through time do
what you do every day. You pay your taxes, you
keep the laws, you make small children smile and feel
safe. You should not say that you are not important to the
big picture. With out people like you and me, and all
the others who put in the time and effort to live every
day, there would be no Seti project, there would be
no town, city, country, or even human race. If you only
once had some one say, "You made my day" you are
important. I am glad that I know that you are alive,
and I am willing to bet that there are great many other
people in your life who are able to say the same thing. I'll
even say that the whole human race would have reason
to say the same thing. With people like you, me, or the
others in here, the future looks as bright as it can ever be.
I have read that there have been millions of other kinds
of animals that have come and gone on this world, but
we are here now. the reason for all of this is because of
individuals who living as we do, make things better for
humanity.
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