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| Personal background |
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Who am I? What do I want? Good questions ... and ones I still haven't found a satisfactory answer for! Though for afficionados of that superb sci-fi series Babylon 5, I've probably given away a fair amount about my personality in that opening sentence
Primarily I'm a software developer at IBM, living, playing (and allegedly working) on planet Earth. Oh ... you wanted a bit more detail? Okay ... in Europe. You want a country? Why? Because this bit of dirt I'm sitting on will better define me as a person? Perhaps because this bit of dirt is so different from that bit of dirt because it's separated by that bit of water? Or better still, that imaginary line patrolled by heavily armed natives of this bit of dirt determined to stop natives of that bit of dirt crossing their imaginary line without very good reason (or large, bulging suitcases of cash).
P.S. Did I mention I was cynical? :)
P.P.S. If you're wondering about the picture(s), one of my spare time hobbies is graphic artwork (read as "screwing up perfectly good images") |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Q. Do I think extraterrestrial life exists?
A. I certainly hope so ... I don't understand these "humans"! On a more serious note an interesting and well made point is raised by Fermi's Paradox. Put briefly: Given the relative ease with which a civilisation could colonize the galaxy ... where the hell are they?! Hmmm...
Q. Should we transmit a beacon?
A. We already are! Unfortunately, after viewing a few decades worth of vastly hyped news, cheesy no-brained sitcoms, zero-plot blood-fest Hollywood movies, 10 million mind-numbing advertisements and myriad gardening programs, any reasonably intelligent alien life will conclude Douglas Adam's classification of "Mostly Harmless" should probably be re-evaluated to "Mostly Brain Dead". My personal feeling is that we should immediately start high powered transmissions of the repertoire of the late Bill Hicks. That's sure to bring them running. OTOH... Maybe not.
Q. Why do I run SETI@home?
A. I suppose because I've always hoped there's something better out there. One day it just occurred to me that rather than sitting around on my laurels waiting for he/she/it/they to pop up and say "Anyone for a pan-galactic gargle blaster?", it would be much more productive to watch pretty graphs being drawn on my monitor ... err ... contribute in some small way to the search ... ahem.
"...And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!"
  -- The Meaning Of Life, Monty Python |
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