| Personal background |
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I am basically a nobody. Dreams gone, and too late to start over and try again. If any accomplishment arises from my life, it will probably be my very small part in the SET@home project!
I wish only to be known as one who tried to be a good person... who sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed in this. I don't really expect to be remembered, or missed, when I'm gone.
Woody Allen said in an interview that... the bottom line is success; good intentions mean nothing. So I have failed in this world. My only success is within, in that I have *tried* to do good for myself and others.
At any rate... basic stats:
Native Texan, transplanted to the Seattle, WA area for the past six years in an effort to get away from the Texas heat and humidity! (But I miss being able to see the stars!)
Age: 52
Hobbies: Amateur radio (still licensed, though not active), motorcycling, flying (once again, still licensed, though not active), photography, music (used to play the flute and alto sax, and have dabbled over the years with the bagpipe, harp, native flute, bodhran, and piano). I love the mountains and forests, though in recent years depression and chronic fatigue have kept me from enjoying getting out into them as much as I would like. My religion is eclectic, focusing on the nature religions, particularly Wicca and Druidry, though with a bit of almost everything from B'hai to Christianity to Buddhism thrown into the mix. (On that score, almost everyone rejects me! LOL!)
I'm a natural skeptic, though as Mulder said... "I WANT to believe!" And I do think that, "Hope springs eternal." |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Do I think extraterrestrial life exists?
Indubitably! (Or else I would not be here!) Contact in one form or another is just a matter of time... assuming, of course, that our own species survives long enough! This -- our own survival -- is a matter with which we MUST concern ourselves; not only with respect to the eventual contact with other life in the Universe, but also with respect to all our other endeavours as well.
The greatest possible benefit of contact with such other life is simply the change in our consciousness. The knowledge -- not mere speculation, or the acceptance of probability, but the true KNOWLEDGE -- that we are not alone in the Universe. This radical shift in the way we think will be by far the most important and beneficial aspect of contact. Of course, the potential advances in technology, medicine, politics, etc. are benefits which go without saying.
The dangers? They should not be denied, of course. We must not allow an idyllic view of extraterrestrial life to blind us to the dangers. Perhaps the life we encounter will be dangerous to our own survival, either in the form of disease for which we possess no natural immunity or treatment, or in the form of cultures which are inherently hostile. Surely we must be prepared for these possibilities; but we must not allow fears of these things, fears of the unknown, to keep us from exploring. After all, exploring is what we were meant to do. That is my belief, at least.
Another possible danger is that which might arise from within our own species. Fear. Fear that our way of life will be threatened; fear that our most closely held beliefs will be undermined and overthrown. Many in our world do not wish to see change. They do not want to be put in a position which forces them to reject the old ways of thinking -- their old paradigms -- and take up new ones. There are numerous examples of this in our history. Copernicus, Galileo, Pasteur, Einstein, et al. Surely the first contact made with life from another world will doubtless cause a ce |
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