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| Personal background |
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I represent the human face of a SETI@home server. By that I mean that it is my computer that is doing the work (as over 4 million others are) but it is my choice to participate. What I look like is irrelevant, only that, like you, I am doing one tiny thing to further the human striving to find meaning in life. After all, though life's true goal is to beget more life, it is the consciousness of humanity that searches for the meaning to it all. In that search is an acknowledgement that we cannot possibly be the only self-aware creatures in the universe; to think we are puts a finite limit upon the imagination - and that is anathema.
Before we can search for answers we first need to search for the questions.
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When we have comleted our study of 'one'
we often think we know all about 'two'
as 'two' is 'one and one'.
However, we have yet to complete our study of 'and'.
(A S Eddington)
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| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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If you are reading this you must necessarily have taken the same choice to participate as I have done. You, therefore, already believe that we are not alone in this universe. The next logical qestion is whether we will find another species at our level and should we communicate with them. The answers are many and have been explored by many writers in speculation and fiction.
Firstly, this project is only the beginning and I feel it must be completed and then further extended as time and technology provide greater search capabilities. As to whether we will succeed in my lifetime is not important - only that the search continues is important.
Secondly, the decision to comunicate after finding evidence of others leads to 2 courses of action. The summary for each side is:
To Communicate: 1) gain advanced technology; 2) learn about the human condition through comparison with the non-human; 3) expand the human outlook to beyond our own solar system.
To Hide: 1) avoid the possibility of annihilation by a belligerant species through the use of vonNeumann probes or other means.
There are many other thoughts for both sides of this debate and I have not yet decided which way my emotions lean (frankly, like most humans when faced with the big unknown).
Long may you live that you may reap the rewards of your endeavours.
Flying-Q
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