Profile: Paul Mx.

Personal background
A lifelong science fiction and fantasty fan, I became interested in life outside of our own planet after reading "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov in 1960. This book also sparked my habit over the last 43 years of reading two to four books each week. Over the last 10 years, I have been employed as a local area network engineer, a software and hardware quality assurance performance evaluator, and a workstation / server support technician. Before the transition to civilian life, I was a member of the United States Air Force for 24 years. My basic skill set was maintaining aircraft avionic communications and navigation aids as a technician, and later, as a supervisor.

Playing with my small home computer network, reading, and fly fishing are my only hobbies. At various times, fantasy role playing, road racing, bicycling, sking, scuba diving, and motorcycles provided alternative escapes from reality. The 'Farscape', 'Buffy', and all 'Star Trek' television series are my video favorites.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
To me, life in other stellar systems is a logical fact. The sheer numbers of possible life bearing systems that may support either carbon based life, or other forms unknown to us, is a fact. Life may have developed, evolved, and ended on millions of systems. I am certain that intellegent life has evolved on a percentage of those systems. This is not to say that that it is necessarily in a form we can readily recognize. Science fiction writers have been attempting to define that problem for the past century. Such life may have evolved and developed forms of civilizations that have far exceeded us, may be simular in abilities to us, or be in the early stages of initial development.

Only in science fiction can we exceed the speed of light. Untill we develop some form of 'quark' translations, our initial contacts will be in some form of light speed communications. This will necessarily be over a very long time period. We may discover an advanced civilization by our current communication methods. Our reply could be sent. The signal could get to that far point with sufficient strength to be understood a few thousand years from now. Those civilizations may last long enough to maintain a project that long. Most human civilizations will not have the stamina to exist long enough to receive and understand the reply.

Given that, I believe we should make the attempt. To not do so would prove we do not have the capacity to take on a challange.
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