I live in Rockport, which is a small town north of Boston, MA. I was born in Rome, Italy as Guglielmo in 1953, but my parents changed it to William when we emigrated to the US in 1961. I have lived all over the US... my parents kept going further and further west until we wound up in Hawaii... yay!!!

I spent six more or less happy years on active duty in the US Navy serving with ASW squadron VS-22. The Navy kept sending me and my squadron further and further east on the USS Saratoga until I wound up back in Italy... go figure!!!

For some 20 years, by education and profession, I was an Electrical Engineer... then in 1995 I finally Grew Up, changed careers, and started working in the computer game industry. I'm now an Executive Producer with Infogrames, a French media and interactive entertainment company.

This career is the realization of two childhood dreams, as in 1968 I became addicted to Avalon Hill games and in 1976 I hand wirewrapped my first computer. After spending two weeks getting the computer to work, the first program I wrote for my, as we called it then, microcomputer was, of course, a game. In 1995 the dreams combined to became reality as I started working for the Avalon Hill Game Company as Director of Computer Development... a department of one!

I've been a Mac user since 1984 and I now use a 667MHz PowerBook G4

Hobbies... that would be computers and games! Oh, OK, some more... I love cooking, reading Science Fiction (naturally,) and am an avid movie watcher.

Let's see, what else... I am divorced and I have a wonderful 15 year old son, James Tibor John, who lives with his mother in Maryland.

Does extraterrestrial life exists? No doubt! This may be already proven through discovery of Martian meteorites containing microbes, and because it appears that the galaxy is full of organic chemicals which are the building blocks of life.

In my opinion the real question should be, do I think intelligent extraterrestrial life is existing concurrently within the confines of the speed of light versus distance. I have to say that the chance of that is next to nil. Please don't misunderstand me, I believe in what we are doing with SETI@home.

To frame my point, the Earth has been around for billions of years. Intelligent life for a few 10,000 years. Technology for a few 1000 years. Advanced technology for about 100 years.

This means that the ratio between the time our species stopped scratching its backside and did something more worthwhile and the time the Earth has been around is incredibly small. And with our thoughtless attitudes, I am not very sanguine about our species being around much longer.

Our foothold on this planet is precarious. We exist in a very narrow ecological niche, and we are 100% dependent on other lifeforms for air, food, and water.

The reason I bring it up is that if I'm right, extraterrestrial civilizations are also delicate and the likelyhood of two civilizations existing at the exact right moments in time so that they are capable of meeting through radio communications is next to nil. This may be why we search and get nothing.

I apologize for the downer... but this is where it gets better. Some civilizations will survive... and that is why we should all do this. If somehow a survivor exists, and we hear it... we may be able to get a clue and better our odds.

The danger I see is on Earth. The discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life will shake the very foundation of our religions, political systems, and possibly even our economies. Will we have the mental resilience to deal with that? A lot of sacred cows will be butchered.