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| Personal background |
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I'm a writer and musician living in Pacifica, CA. I spend a large percentage of my free time talking to my cats. My father worked for NASA for the entire length of his career, since before NASA existed independent of the Air Force. He worked on most of the major projects, including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle. Before he worked for NASA, he lived in what he calls a "science fiction writers' commune" in Indiana, right down the street from Richard S. Shaver, whom he recalls fondly as a friend (and a true eccentric). He wrote for Amazing Stories and other similar magazines under a variety of pseudonyms, none of which he has ever revealed to anyone in the family. (Please! If you have any idea what names Robert Tanner wrote under in the 40s and early 50s, email me!)
He's a true believer when it comes to space exploration -- he feels it's our nature as human beings to constantly push outward on the boundaries of our world. He's never even questioned that there could be intelligent life on other worlds -- the question, for him (and for me -- I'm nothing if not my father's daughter) -- is where, and when will we find them? One of my earliest memories dates back to when I was two years old, watching man's first step on the moon on our little black-and-white Philco. I'm sure I didn't understand what was going on, but my father's excitement told me it was really, really, really important, so I guess my brain just filed it away.
My father still gets choked up when he talks about it, frustrated by how much people today take it for granted. As he would say, "We went to the MOON! WE went to the MOON! Just THINK about that for a minute!" (Okay, I admit it, I do this too.) And I think it's unspeakably arrogant to think for even a millisecond that intelligent life could possibly have developed only here. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I think it's utterly ridiculous to think we could possibly be the only intelligent life. The universe is a very, very, very big place. I've never doubted for a moment that it must be absolutely filled with life of all kinds, both more and less intelligent than humanity.
I think we should transmit a beacon, but I'm really not sure what information we should send. The human genome, perhaps? Beethoven's symphonies, definitely.
I run SETI@home because it allows me to contribute in some small way to human exploration of the universe. I think, like my father, that it's something we must do; we owe it to ourselves as a species to learn everything we can about everything we can. |
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