| Personal background |
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I'm an old science fiction fan - Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, comic books, Rocketman, Outer Limits, Star Trek, etc. I was 14 years old when I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on my Grandparents color tv.
I didn't get into computers until the mid-80's when a friend sold me a used Commodore 64 PC. I upgraded to a DOS PC and discovered BBSes. They became a passion while they lasted. In the mid-90's I had the opportunity to go back to school and get a 2 year degree from the local tech school and landed a job at a local Internet Service Provider just as the Internet hit town. I put in over 7 years there until being laid off this spring (04/03 - in case I don't get around to updating this soon).
I knew about SETI from some SF magazine or the L5 Society or somewhere, but never got around to looking for their web site until a short time ago, and downloaded their seti@home program.
Kevin
www.kevingoebel.com |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I think it is possible the extraterrestrial life exists. We will probably discover aliens just before they arrive to fry all the antennae that have been sending out our species drivel since Marconi and his pals first started fooling around with radio waves.
If we are lucky, the aliens will have FTL or "warp drive" and will show up in person to surgically remove network television and radio transmitters. Then surviving humanity can rebuild civilization based strictly on fiber optic communications.
If we aren't lucky, the aliens will not have FTL and will likely send a robotic bandwidth filter - something that will react to or with the sun (a better target) to insure all transmissions from Earth stop. Think 'really BIG solar flare', or perhaps the galaxy's largest Faraday cage.
Radio has been around for 100 years. Let's say any aliens within range have been really patient, and gave it about 20 years waiting for something MEANINGFUL to be sent. That means any aliens within a sphere of about 80 light years is really hacked off about the noise by now, or scared about our "progress" since the invention of radio. 2 world wars followed by a nuclear weapons arms race. If a relative handful of humans are disappointed by the inaction of the space programs of the world, entire worlds of intelligent beings may be exhaling sighs of relief.
Yes, we should be transmitting. The optimist in me says send "math and music". The pessimist says send " . . . - - - . . .". Perhaps corporate sponsorship is the key to funding transmitters ("dial 1-800-10-10-3.14 and then you NGC number and save a buck or two, fool!").
The question is how do we transmit? We haven't gotten anything from radio frequencies yet. Should we put a huge laser on the far side of the moon and start sending binary code? Maybe we should we build a gigantic mylar "blanket" in space outside of Earth's orbit about the sun? We could manuever it to blot out views of the sun in coded intervals, using it like a signal lantern. |
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