| Personal background |
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I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, until age 14, when unexpected and unfortunate events caused me to move in with my grandparents in the mountains in Groveland, California (dont try to find it on a map, its got a population of about 500).
This nice little town is about 40 miles from Yosomite National Park, and I remember being most impressed with the stars at night.
I had never seen so many, and from my grandparents deck, with no neighbors for miles, I used to sit outside and try to tune in a Berkeley radiostaion, KPFA, and listen to the punk rock show on Sunday nights, from 10 PM to Midnight.
This was in the mid-80's.
After High School, I went to college in San Francico, and eventually graduated, and got a job in the (then) booming high-tech industry, as a consultant for various internet startups.
My wife and I both love to travel, and to SCUBA dive, so we try to combine both when we go places.
I hope that the recent events in international affairs (my degree was in International Relations) offer the world a chance at hope, and peace, and not at warfare and more killing.
Yes, the United States was attacked, but not by any nation, rather by a terrorist group. I do not believe that we should use this as an excuse to shift our foreign policy from economic to actual warfare, as I fear we are doing.
This is a great concern to me, and I hope we can resolve things peacefully, and soon. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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1. Yes. I have no idea if we will discover extraterrestrial life or if it will discover us (I think the second part of question 1 should be re-phrased, "If so, how will humans come into contact with it?") pretty bold of us to go around claiming *we* are going to discover *it*... I have no idea when ET life will be discovered, but I hope I live to see it. The possibilities of such an encounter are endless, anything from Day of the Triffids to ET (the Movie).
Who knows, maybe it will be a pleasant experience, but if I was a sophisticated alien life form intelligent enough to see what humans are capable of doing to each other, Im not sure that I would feel interested in communicating with them at all. We are a cruel and savage race, if you think this statement is wrong pick up any newspaper anywhere you are and read above the fold. I am willing to bet something ugly makes the front page. We seem terribly able to hurt and maim one another, and very interested in this ability.
2. Of course. We already have sent a probe into space (voyager I, If I recall) so the point is kind of mute, but I think that the potential benefits outweigh the risks, and it would be great to find intelligent life in a form we can communicate with, if only to cross-compare theological notes :)
We should send all we have, as fast as we can, and ask for help. We need it, badly.
3. Because I believe in the potential. I run it all the time. I began with my Mac IIsi, back in 1992, and have been running it more or less constantly since. Of course back then it took *forever* to get anything done (I think I got 10 or 20 units done until I upgraded the computer, but have lost that account since.) Then I ran it on my AMD 120MGHZ (?) computer, and I was *smoking* I think I ran a unit in about 200 hours on that thing. Then I moved to my current computer, a PIII, 733i, and started again.
I now run a unit in about 10 hrs, and I run it non-stop, in the background, even when I sleep or when Im not home.
I think I covered my views abov |
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