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| Personal background |
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Hello Universe.
I live in Capetown South Africa, and as a Radio & Radar technician from way back I am interested in the field, although this is more a hobby these days. I am currently employed in high end computer storage systems (I'd be interested to know SETI's Storage Setup).
I think SETI is a great project and a shining example of what can be done with a limited budget, and unlimited imagination.
I can't help but think there must be some commercial application of the SETI distributed computing model which could help fund SETI.
Surely there must be people out there with huge number crunching needs, small budgets, and long time scales that would pay for such a service.
SETI is a great way to use your computer for something useful.
Best Regards |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Yes. I think extraterrestrial life must exist. Given the astronomical (pun intended) size & age of the universe I find hard to believe that we are the only spark of life in that almost unimaginable volume. In fact I think it is probable that there could be many instances and varieties of life in the broadest sense.
I can't help but wonder on the time scales needed to achieve anything in radio based extraterrestrial signalling. Even at the speed of light, galactic and universal distances are so colossal that vast time spans must surely be needed to achieve anything.
Our galaxy is around 163,000 light years across.
We have only been "listening" for a few tens of years, so our "Listening Horizon" only extends across a tiny portion of our galaxy.
If we find a signal it is likely to be thousands of years old. What kind of conversation can be conducted with a turnaround delay measured in thousands of years.
I still can't help but think that any really useful inter-stellar communication is going to have to rely on something that beats the speed of light.
So keep up the good work, and even if we don't find the aliens (in our lifetimes) I am sure some good science will have been done, and the human body of knowledge expanded. And at any point along the way knowing there are probably NOT any aliens within a given volume of space is also good knowledge ;-) |
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