| Personal background |
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I am a network administrator for the Missouri Department of Health. When I'm not serving the citizens of the state of Missouri, I enjoy my astronomy hobby and programming in Visual Basic.
I have been an amateur astronomer for 12 years and have now begun construction on my own observatory. My goals are to search for supernovae as well as minor bodies within our own solar system.
I am a strong believer in NASA and would love more than anything, to see them have the freedom and funding necessary to colonize the solar system. The space program has created thousands of advances for our society already. The human population is growing larger and larger and will eventually need some place to populate beyond the confines of the Earth. The Moon and Mars are the closest and best places for that. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Do I think extraterrestrial life exists? I most certainly do. The question is: what will that lifeform be like? Will it be micro-organisms or plants, or will it be complex, sentient beings like ourselves? As far as dangers, I believe we will be our own source of danger in such a discovery rather than the Hollywood-depicted scenes of aliens coming with some sort of death ray to destroy all of mankind. The benefits would be astronomical and uncomprehendable. We live in a liquid society that changes on a daily basis as changes are made in science, medicine, economy, etc. Finding life as intelligent or more intelligent as we are, would open up avenues in all aspects of our lives. Some good, some bad. However, I'm sure we would adapt to those changes as all life on the Earth has done since it was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Should humans transmit a beacon? If we believe that space travel and establishing a dialog with another culture will not create any benefits for our society, then no we should not. If we truly want to know if we are alone and we want to try to improve our own society, then yes we should. Because we are still striving to make 'first contact', the type of data would have to be something that opens up and establishes a means of communication between the two civilizations and yet is simple enough to decipher by an alien culture.
I run Seti@Home because I believe that some sort of life does exist outside of the Earth. If there is any chance that there might be other human-like lifeforms out there, then I would like to be a part of finding them. Such a discovery would most certainly improve our society a thousandfold. The technology needed to get us to their planet (or for them to get to ours) alone would create jobs and advances in science, economy, agriculture, medicine, etc. Beings, as intelligent as we are, would not be as unemotional or barbaric as Hollywood depicts them. I only hope and pray that I will know within my lifetime that we are not alone. |
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