| Personal background |
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I'm the prototypical middle class, middle-aged geek: white, male, 55, college educated, and getting more conservative with each passing year.
Trained as a Civil engineer, I'm currently employed as an Oracle DBA at a local hospital. I've enjoyed a few different lives since graduating from high school. I've been a hippie (and still am, I guess), a meat packer, military policeman, construction worker, university student, construction engineer, environmental scientist, engineering programmer/analyst, CAD/CAM software development manager, and finally an Oracle DBA.
I was born in Maine, grew up in Alaska, traveled around the Pacific and the rest of the States and settled back in Maine.
My greatest accomplishment is surviving my beautiful daughter's upbringing. She's married a wonderful guy, who's going to be a heckuva son. She's also turned out to be the terrific Mom of a terrific grandson.
The best thing that's happened to me is my girl friend and partner, Deb. She's my most important hobby. Next to her I like to experiment with graphics software development, fish, garden and travel. I'm currently in engaged in designing and building a home for us. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I certainly hope extraterrestrial life exists. Hate to think we are the alpha and omega of this great experiment. I'm not sure when we'll make the discovery, but we haven't a chance of making any discoveries without looking.
Some of the benefits are obvious..... we grow as a species when we explore. Our culture, history, knowledge is enhanced by exploration. Who knows perhaps the evolution of our species may depend on meeting and mating with extraterrestrials. I'm sure we can't even fathom all of the benefits of exploring the cosmos. Did Columbus have any idea that many of the foods we eat today would be developed as a result of discoveries made in the new world?
After several millenia of exploring and seeking new frontiers, we pretty much know the dangers of exploration. I don't think there'd have been any exploration if we'd spent a lot of time worrying about the dangers.
Why not transmit a beacon? A few years ago, we sent out a plaque bearing information about our planet and our species. Sure, we have to take a few precautions, but don't we want to increase the chances we'll encounter other intelligent beings? I do.
I run SETI@home because I'll never get to be an astronaut or perform the kind of hands-on science key to discovering extraterrestrials. I'm just doing my part.
I think the project is great. It's definitely good science and the team has been very innovative. Heck, the team practically invented distributed processing on the scale that Seti@home is operating on. A whole bunch of other projects are underway because of Seti@home's success.
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