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Hello, I'm a 30 year old network engineer from Madison Wi. I've been working with computers since I was in grade school. We were one of the firsts to get an Apple in our classroom so I've been fortunate enough to have seen about everything in the computer world.
Typically I'm super cynical when it comes to anything that wants to run on my machine. I monitor my CPU and RAM utilization all the time and am always looking for way to increase my speed. All this being the case, once I saw that there was a program to help the SETI group I didn't care how much it needed my PC, I was going to do it. I've been thinking about setting up a server that was just going to act as a file server at home, but now think I'll have it working on these data chunks as well. I have a broadband connection and won't be using the machine at all so why not. I also have a couple machines at work I can have doing some work as well. I'm all for doing my part, especially since it doesn't take any work on my end :)
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| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Do I think there is extraterrestrial life? For sure. Anyone with a real sense for just how utterly massive it is out there would know that it’s too naive to think we're alone here. It’s like looking out to my back yard from my house. Sure, I don't see the statue of liberty, but does that mean all there is in existence is what I've seen or heard about? Hell we're finding new species of fish in our oceans all the time, and we live on the same planet as they do. Why didn't we know they were there? They didn't communicate with us and tell us they were. It just takes a little while for us to find them is all. This is no different.
As for how or when we'll find (it) who's to know? I really don't feel there will be all that many dangers with the discovery for those of us who have a head on our shoulders and don't feel threatened by new and different things. Still, there are those out there that I'm sure will think "they're coming for us".
A beacon, I suppose we're already doing this with all the radio waves we're spewing already. I'm no scientist and I'm not even playing one on TV, but I've seen UFO movies and know that the air waves are full of garbage. I see it all the time dealing with wireless access points. Not that we're sending them deep into space or anything, but if anything was listening hard enough they could find us. It’s just a matter of time. This place is so big that by the time anything does reach something that can figure out what it is we might be gone already. That’s just how these things work.
I run SETI@HOME because I don't agree that there isn't a need to know. I believe that anything that still has a question mark by it needs to be answered. If I can help I will. As I've said, I'm not a scientist and don't know much about what's being monitored here (but I did see Contact) but know my help is welcomed. If its just my computer that’s needed so be it. As long as there isn't any funny business going on I'm all for it.
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