Profile: Michelle Schmittler

Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I have no doubt that life in other places exist. I think the current state of economy, government, and society - all over the world - play against being able to fully support, fund, and enable a truly meaningful search for extraterrestrial life. SETI is about finding 'intelligent' life which will inherently make the search more difficult. While I would be incredulously pleased to know of even simple plantlife on any planet, it would be undescribably multiplied to have proof of an intelligent counterpart somewhere - that 'evolution' had laid its hand upon an unseeable distant world.
I would like to think that one of the benefits of that kind of discovery would be a final, though benign, humility brought to the general arrogance of the human race in thinking that we are the 'end all' of creation and intelligence. The possible benefits or dangers are potentially too numerous and broad to be able to specifically speak about only a few....
Shall we advertise our own existence to the universe?? Some would call that inviting disaster. Others might envision us as a safe harbor for wayward 'travelers'. We know too little of what's 'out there'.
I think participating in SETI@Home is like being involved in a combination scavenger hunt, puzzle building, and civic activity. It's also a way for novices to participate with the scientific intelligencia. I think it's a worthy endeavor and I hope in my lifetime that we learn about some ETI thru this mass project.
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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.