Profile: softweir

Personal background
I worked in IT as an IT tutor, database developer, network engineer and guy-with-screwdrivers until forced to retire due to ill health, as the result of Cystic Fibrosis and congestive heart failure. Nevertheless, I'm doing pretty good, not many people with CF have reached 42 years of age!

My hobbies are maintaining my health, ROV combat (Robot Wars / Battle Bots etc), reading about science, technology and medicine and being excessively knowledgeable on various forums. I also spend too much time playing PC games.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
CURIOSITY! Any analysis of the probability of there being extraterrestial life out there makes it look very unlikely that there CAN'T be any - given the enormous size of our galaxy. While less likely, the possibility of ET civilisations also exists. And if they exist, I want to know!

WILL we find anybody? That is much less likely. If we are to find somebody then they have to send a signal powerful enough to reach us. They have to use a medium we can pick up, they have to send it in our direction (or broadcast in all directions which is a far greater challenge), they have to use a communications protocol we can pick out from background noise AND they have to be doing so at a time such that their signal reaches us at a time when we happen to be listening. On our part we have to listen to the right medium, at the right wavelength (where appropriate), and pointing our equipment at the right part of the galaxy. Given all these requirements, it looks very unlikely that we will pick anything up.

BUT IF WE DON'T LISTEN, WE WON'T HEAR!

It's also nice to be part of something huge. Millions of people signed up to SETI@home classic, and BOINC/SETI will be another enormous, cooperative project. In a very quiet way it reminds me of the solar eclipse a couple of years ago when millions of people in the Americas, Europe and parts of the Middle East all stopped to watch that unusual diversion nature had organised for us, and to have something of a party. *Millions*

SETI is like that. And if something real comes out of it, a clear and powerful indication that we are not alone - that will be even more wonderful.

Suggestions? Expand the frequency range. Try to expand the area of sky covered. Keep at it!
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