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| Personal background |
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I was born in Oxford but have lived in Buckinghamshire my entire life. I was educated at one of England's finest state-run schools, Aylesbury Grammar School. (AGS, as it is known locally). From there, I went on to Milton Keynes College where I studied Physics, Mathematics, Biology and Environmental Science at A-level. I am finishing my education at The University of Kent at Canterbury where I am taking a Bachelor's in Physics with Space Science and Systems.
I currently reside in the new-town of Milton Keynes where I run a small Internet business, Earth.net Internet Services. Milton Keynes is an expanding, modern town that was planned and built within the last thirty years. It is one of, if not, the 'greenest' towns in the country with a huge landscaping budget and road system based upon the American grid-system. (Although, instead of a million traffic lights, we take advantage of the good old British round-a-bout which keeps traffic moving.) It is such an appealing place that many of the country's large corporations are now moving their headquarters to it.
I am only 22 years old and am therefore still relatively new to the world of business however, as mentioned earlier, I am the owner and manager of Earth.net Internet Services, a relatively new venture that has already bought-out a smaller competitor.
My interests are predominantly associated with space and science, including computers, science-fiction and science-fact. While I am not a Trekkie/Trekker, I do enjoy Star Trek (in its many permutations) and other science-fiction series' as well as the popular films like Alien and Star Wars. I also exercise regularly, enjoying running, cycling and karate. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Yes, of course extra-terrestrial life exists! Although in what form, is the real question.
The Universe is so massive and so vast that just according to the laws of probability, there must be at least one other planet that supports life. As to when and how we will discover this life is a matter of opinion. It could be tomorrow, when a huge cylinder crash-lands on Horsell Common or when a "flying saucer" lands on the lawn of the White House. Alternatively, it could be one hundred years from now when we finally master faster-than-light travel and journey beyond our solar system.
The possible benefits of discovering alien life are many. It could be that (hopefully) they will be a peaceful species and would share their technologies and medicines with us, propelling us into the real space-age and overnight, curing the multitude of fatal diseases that plague our planet. On the other hand, they could be an advanced but war-like society; hell-bent on conquering anyone they deem to be a threat to their superiority. (What would have happened if Hitler had won the Second World War and then the race to the moon?) Even if it is not an advanced civilization that we find but instead a primitive one, there would still be a myriad of benefits that could be gained. Indeed, even finding a single cell organism on another planet would open the floor for worldwide debate and peaceful co-operation. At the very least, it would ensure a substantial increase in governments' space sciences' budgets.
On the subject of whether or not we should transmit a beacon for "others" to find, the answer is a resounding "NO!" We stand to loose far too much. If the signal is received by a friendly civilisation then there stands the possibility for positive benefits, unless of course they deem us too primitive and have a "Prime Directive" of non-interference.
However, if the signal is intercepted by a hostile, technically advanced species, then we stand to loose everything. The only time that we should possibly consider sending out a beacon therefore, is in the event of a worldwide catastrophe when we should send out a continuous planetary distress signal (an interstellar SOS if you will).
I run SETI@home on my company's computers to facilitate humanity's search of the heavens for intelligent extra-terrestrial life. For the above reasons, it is imperative that we discover such life before it discovers us. I feel that the project is therefore a necessary and a worthy one. However, it is on too small a scale. There should be such radio telescopes and other technologies that are capable of detecting artificial extra-terrestrial signals installed all over the world, searching the entire sky continuously. Even if there is not a life-supporting planet within reasonable scanning distance, there exists the possibility that a ship may pass within our scope and send out a signal that could be detected by us.
One possible suggestion in the meantime, is that if the world's governments were serious about finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe then SETI@home should also become a compulsory SETI@school and SETI@work project. If virtually every computer in all the schools and offices of the world (where policy is easier to implement than the home) were running SETI software, then the odds of finding such intelligence would be significantly increased and the time taken, much reduced. This would also be a good idea for other space science research such as aiding in the discovery of asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to all life on Earth. An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and many other of Earth's species but we are the first who are able to do something about it. We should not waste this advantage
AAW |
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