I'm an embedded software engineer. The picture is of our cat Nemo who spends much of the day watching the computer process SETI packets. My wife and I think that he is waiting for a signal from the great space cat.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
The level of noise and the limits of today's technology make it extremely difficult to pick up signals over vast distances. FPGA chips have allow for us humans to design very tight and narrow digital transmitter designs and I'm sure that E.T. would be on the same tech curve. The good news is that the SETI array under construction should give the search a much needed boost in the ability to hear somthing so remote.
Why do I run SETI? I believe that Berkeley University has been and will be a trend setter for new technologies and discoveries in science and space. I'm willing to take a long shot on the remote chance a signal is discovered. It would be the greatest discovery in human history.
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.
