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Question Of Meaning = SETI Is Useful Currently : Yes Or No?
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Sutaru Tsureku Send message Joined: 6 Apr 07 Posts: 7105 Credit: 147,663,825 RAC: 5 |
I saw a TV show with inter alia Dr. Michio Kaku. On his website you can read: (...) So far, we see no hard evidence of signals from extra-terrestrial civilizations from any earth-like planet. The SETI project (the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) has yet to produce any reproducible evidence of intelligent life in the universe from such earth-like planets, but the matter still deserves serious scientific analysis. The key is to reanalyze the objection to faster-than-light travel. (...) SETI project = SETI@home? Which frequencies are searched through here at SETI@home and AstroPulse? How SETI@home works. It's still just a bit around 1420 MHz? I don't understand very well what Dr. Michio Kaku mean. And Google Translator don't help much. If I understood him 'correct', currently we can't find extra-terrestrial intelligence. Maybe in a few thousand years with new/better equipment it would be possible? My understanding is right? What you think about this? Thanks. |
jason_gee Send message Joined: 24 Nov 06 Posts: 7489 Credit: 91,093,184 RAC: 0 |
SETI project = SETI@home? No, he (correctly) means the entire SETI initiative, and is using generalisations to illustrate his point: has yet to produce any reproducible evidence of intelligent life in the universe from such earth-like planets As Dr Kaku well knows, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, space is big and old, and our tools very primitive. He's saying we have a long search ahead (as we knew), but does appear to leave out the value of proving where ETI or other life isn't. Vacant space means 'free stuff' floating around. "Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions. |
Raistmer Send message Joined: 16 Jun 01 Posts: 6325 Credit: 106,370,077 RAC: 121 |
1) More for Science-SETI thread, not Crunchers corner. Consider to move there and read some related threads there also. 2) Looking on our own civilization development, broadband connections take more and more of data traffic. So, random catch will be less probable (only some strong radar beams remain). From other side, chances of random catch should be quite low anyway. We must search for deliberate transmission (and provide own one). And that transmission hardly will be broadband cause advanced civilization will know dispersion properties of space and will have intention to pass readable data, not just dispersed broadband noise. Currently we do some de-dispersion and possible Doppler drift corrections but naturally assuming initial signal as narrow-band deliberately detectable one. So, SETi just as actual as before. And with increased ability to compensate signal distortions by medium it just becomes more and more relevant. |
Cosmic_Ocean Send message Joined: 23 Dec 00 Posts: 3027 Credit: 13,516,867 RAC: 13 |
Every search has to start somewhere. Over time, you can either refine your search parameters, or broaden them. We've actually done just that here at S@H. We started off with only MB, and then broadened the search to include AP. Granted, it is still focused around one frequency for now, but until science suggests a better frequency to look for, 1420MHz seems the most likely. Of course, an advanced civilization probably uses quantum communications and so forth, and we have no idea how that might even work, so we have no idea how to search for it. It's even possible that if String Theory is right and there really are 10 or 11 dimensions, one of these advanced civs might have even figured out how to move into one or more of those dimensions, and they could be along side us right now and we wouldn't even know it. There's a lot of unknowns, but that's what searching for something aims to fix: turn unknowns into knowns. I think at present, the search is not a waste of time, but we certainly are not making a whole lot of what would be called progress, simply because we are not digging through the results (NTPCkR) for the time being. As Matt said in one of those short videos last year.. we may have already found more than one signal that we're looking for and don't even know it, because we haven't had the chance to go through the mountain of results. But the time for that is approaching. Linux laptop: record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up) |
betreger Send message Joined: 29 Jun 99 Posts: 11361 Credit: 29,581,041 RAC: 66 |
As Matt said in one of those short videos last year.. we may have already found more than one signal that we're looking for and don't even know it, because we haven't had the chance to go through the mountain of results. Amen |
Zombu2 Send message Joined: 24 Feb 01 Posts: 1615 Credit: 49,315,423 RAC: 0 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes Very easy to say...that 'someone needs to go through it'. Are you willing to fully fund the resources to do so? The computer time, the manhour time. A couple of new astrophysicists on the Seti staff? Many complain that our work to date has not been fully analyzed yet. There are reasons why. We are lucky enough that Eric and others have kept the project together with string and bailing wire and duct tape to at least continue to accumulate the results of the data we have crunched and send back to them. It could be a treasure trove, once fully processed. Meow. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
HAL9000 Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 6534 Credit: 196,805,888 RAC: 57 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes Wait... they had a budget for duck tape? SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[ |
kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes Actually, I think the poor guys cut that from the coffee fund. A true sacrifice. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
Mr. Kevvy Send message Joined: 15 May 99 Posts: 3776 Credit: 1,114,826,392 RAC: 3,319 |
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kittyman Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004 |
Red Green and 3M...in Canada... The 3M duct tape factory in Canada. Good going, ya Canuks....LOL. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster |
Cosmic_Ocean Send message Joined: 23 Dec 00 Posts: 3027 Credit: 13,516,867 RAC: 13 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes They want to.. but need 10TB of SSDs and at least 512GB of RAM in a single server to do so, if they want to keep it in-house. Renting Cloud computing time for running through it would cost a fortune, but it would be faster. The minimum specs for that server is estimated to still take several months to run through the science DB's ~17-year backlog. Linux laptop: record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up) |
Zombu2 Send message Joined: 24 Feb 01 Posts: 1615 Credit: 49,315,423 RAC: 0 |
Well haha send it to me i got a small 96 core server loads of ram and prolly more then 10tb drive space haha I'd run it I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap |
HAL9000 Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 6534 Credit: 196,805,888 RAC: 57 |
Well then someone needs to go through it we probably have petabytes of data just loitering on the hdd's and tapes It was mentioned recently that they were working on making NTPCkr cloud based. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR91rObbfqs All hopes rest in the hands of Kevin. So no pressure for them! SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[ |
Filipe Send message Joined: 12 Aug 00 Posts: 218 Credit: 21,281,677 RAC: 20 |
Is there any news about kevin work? It has been 4 months since this video. he was then working on 10% of the database at the time, testing new nitpickr for amazon cloud servers. |
HAL9000 Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 6534 Credit: 196,805,888 RAC: 57 |
Is there any news about kevin work? That is the most up to date, and only, information about the subject. SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[ |
Super Nova Nerd Send message Joined: 12 Feb 16 Posts: 73 Credit: 2,915,787 RAC: 0 |
They want to.. but need 10TB of SSDs and at least 512GB of RAM in a single server to do so, if they want to keep it in-house. Renting Cloud computing time for running through it would cost a fortune, but it would be faster. The minimum specs for that server is estimated to still take several months to run through the science DB's ~17-year backlog. Then what are we wasting our time and computer power doing? Can't it be done through Boinc? |
Raistmer Send message Joined: 16 Jun 01 Posts: 6325 Credit: 106,370,077 RAC: 121 |
Can't it be done through Boinc? As any reduction procedure it requires much more bandwidth capability than computational power. So no, data reduction should be done as locally as possible. Ideally - in single RAM space (but impossible for financial reasons), next best would be in single PC, next - in single optical-wired network cluster... (but quite possible that even this stage will be painfully slow bandwidth-wide). |
Cosmic_Ocean Send message Joined: 23 Dec 00 Posts: 3027 Credit: 13,516,867 RAC: 13 |
They want to.. but need 10TB of SSDs and at least 512GB of RAM in a single server to do so, if they want to keep it in-house. Renting Cloud computing time for running through it would cost a fortune, but it would be faster. The minimum specs for that server is estimated to still take several months to run through the science DB's ~17-year backlog. The problem is.. you need access to the entire ~10TB database. There are some DB queries that will take days to complete just one query, and it will consume hundreds of GBs of RAM in the process. That type of analysis just cannot be distributed. As Raistmer said, optimally, it should be on one machine. You can cluster it on multiple physical machines, but it would still have to be a single logical computer--with the physical machines being interconnected with a 10+gbit interface. Linux laptop: record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up) |
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