I am a 27 year old navy officer stationed aboard the USS CARR (FFG-52).
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
1. Yes, If not what a waste of space! We are to immature as a society to handle the implications of life in outer space. We have trouble with life here on Earth. Unless we can overcome those things that are destroying us such as treatment if each other and the environment then I do not think we could fathom the knowledge. Not to mention the religious implications which is a thesis in itself! I would hope that as a benefit we might not feel so jaded if we knew we were not alone.
2. Why not! I think the idea of sharing what we know of math and music are the two best ways to say hello since without a doubt one feeds the other. Music is math bases so both are a universal language I hope! Maybe we should say here we are come and see us? Without a common language I do not know how you would communicate you would have to explane what 1 is to someone who does not know numbers! Somehow we would have to be able to teach someone who has never been to school and may be years ahead of us!
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.