| Personal background |
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Marcel Beun - http://beun.net :)
SETI@home team Unimatrix Meibok: http://unimatrixmeibok.com |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I have always been very interested in astronomy in general, and I am a science fiction fan. So the "search for aliens" with the SETI@home project seemed fun.
Together with a friend of mine, I created the SETI@home team "Unimatrix 4", in order to compete with other SETI@home teams.
Later on several Dutch teams, "Unimatrix 4" being one of them, merged to form the team "Unimatrix Meibok".
I do however have my reservations concerning this specific method of trying to find "someone out there".
What I mean: A dolphin is the next most intelligent being on our own planet, but it's not like we can have a conversation with one...
So how far fetched is it to presume we would be able to understand, and in a later stadium maybe even communicate, with something (someone) that is not even from our own planet.
On the other hand... At this moment we're of course only trying to find something that might look like a radiotransmission of something (someone) intelligent.
And another point... Every time a scientist (e.g. an exobiologist) is talking about what a planet absolutely should have in order to sustain (intelligent) life, they always mention at least (liquid) water and oxygen.
I find that peculiar. Those conditions are necessary indeed... If you're looking for life on our own Earth...
Why is it so hard to imagine, that there may very well be intelligent life "out there", that does NOT need oxygen and water, in order to survive?
I do not believe that just because here on Earth we rely on water and oxygen (amogst other things), life on other planets in the vast universe would be impossible without it.
I actually think we should rephrase what we're doing here.
We're not looking for extraterrestrial life. What we are looking for is extraterrestrial life that has the same biological features as we do, given our search parameters.
There is this (in)famous phrase I find quite funny: "The best evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life is the fact they haven't contacted us".
--
If you can read Dutch, also check this blog post of mine. |
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