| Personal background |
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| I am 58 yrs. old and live in East Chatham, New York. I have a masters degree in Atmospheric Science. I taught math and physics in community college and 29 yrs. as a high school Earth Science teacher. As a retiree I now spend my time reading, traveling, fishing, gardening, gourmet cooking and ,of course, I keep up with SETI. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I believe that life exists beyond the bounds of our solar system. I find it a bit anthropocentric to believe that the only intelligent life in the galaxy is found on Earth. That we will make contact with at least one of these civilizations is inevitable. Projects such as SETI offer the best hope for contacting extraterristrials but I don't believe this will occur in the near future. I hope I'm wrong about that. The greatest initial benefit from "first contact" will be to allow humankind to take a step back and reassess our position on Earth and in the universe. The feeling of being the "highest form of life" gives humans an arrogance in their dealing with other species. Finding another civilization will make us realize that there are other life forms out there perhaps "superior" to us. I see very little danger in discovering extraterrestial civilizations. My greatest fear would be that governments would become too closely involved and perhaps misuse any information we gather. The greatest danger would come from within.
Humans ought to send out beacons for ET to find. Since it may take hundreds of years for our signals to reach our neighbors we should begin this project now. Our first signals should contain basic information about us such as our appearance and our position in the galaxy. We should avoid telling them too much about the way we run the Earth since that may cause them to simply "hang up".
I've been running SETI@home since its inception. I've always been fascinated by the thought of extraterrestrial life and wouldn't miss a chance to help with this project. You have made participating in this search possible for anyone with a computer and internet access. It has brought the science lab into the home and therefor makes and discoveries more meaningful and exciting. Just as Carl Sagan did with "Cosmos" you have helped popularize science. If the project ever comes to an end there will still be millions of us willing to help in the pursuit of scientific discovery. Give us more! |
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