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| Personal background |
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| I am a freelance journalist and copy-editor from Canterbury in England. I'm also the editor of the Kennel Gazette for The Kennel Club.aAlong the way, I have written on such diverse subjects as pets and animals, human resources, business, technology (including IT and communications), and even 'Used and Refurbished Confectionery Manufacturing and Packaging Equipment'!aI have three dogs, and enjoy dog showing, reading, music and playing with the computer.aI have a particular interest in Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy - an autoimmune disease which makes dogs' claws fall off. I run a mailing list for owners of dogs with this disorder, and for interested veterinarians. For more information on SLO and the list, go to http://www.bloodaxe.demon.co.uk/SLO.htmla |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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| Well, it's a big universe and it's rather egocentric to assume we're the only ones here. With so many stars and so many planets, I think I'd be more surprised to discover that extraterrestrials don't exist than that they do. We'll make contact with them when circumstances allow. aOf course there are many dangers, but mostly I think they are familiar to any student of history - those risks are taken whenever two societies that have never had any contact finally discover each other. Care must be taken to keep such discoveries in a global context, so that no individuals or nations can take advantage of them. Considering how much we've learned to date, and assuming that any extraterrestrial society will also have learned a great deal by the time we're likely to make contact, the benefits of sharing such knowledge is worth the risk.aAs far as beacons go, I suspect that their coverage of the sky would be pretty limited in comparison to the reams of information we're already scattering out there through radio and television transmissions and so on. I only hope that ET doesn't take all of it literally!aI run SETI at home because I enjoy feeling like I'm making a contribution to something worthwhile. Distributed computing is going to make such a difference to the way some research is done, and it's fascinating to be involved in such an interesting project.a |
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