Profile: Ian James

Personal background
I was born in the UK, and lived in Bedfordshire until I was 8 years old.
I in Johannesburg, South Africa from 1968-1977
Back in England until 1987, when I moved to the USA
After 8 months in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, I moved to the Seattle area where I have been ever since.

I have 1 girlfriend, 2 boys, and 3 cats.


I am an atheist, since that is the only logical conclusion to be reached by an intelligent being, based on observable reality.

I used to work in the computer industry (I wrote many parts of the user interface of Windows NT and successor operating systems). Now I am seeking more fulfilling employment.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I have always been interested in science and as a teenager I read science fiction voraciously. One of the biggest hopes is that we detect intelligent life somewhere else in the universe within my lifetime. Lately I have been thinking about biochemistry, the occurence of polyols in space (sugars have recently been detected in meteorites) and whether DNA is likely to be the basis of life everywhere. Perhaps the first thing we should ask ETIs should be "Explain your biochemistry"

I think SETI@home is a brilliant idea, it gets a lot of people involved and coordinated, as well as spreading the idea, and it may even get results! It is very heartening to know that an effort is being made, and that I can play a part, however small.

I think the screensaver could be a LOT more interesting. Possibly have a choice of displays: the current one appeals to the "techie" side of us, but it would be cool to have other features, like, pictures of Arecibo, a map of where our current date is coming from in the sky, a more accessible (easy to understand - say 1 through 10) measure of how interesting our results of analysis are, and more variation in the display (after all, it is supposed to be a screensaver, not a screen-burner!)
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