It is a very interesting concept to be able to harness the individual power of "nodes" to form a virtual supercomputer that works toward a common goal. The goal, as far as I'm concerned, is to answer a question that entertains the minds of all humankind. Is there intelligent life out there somewhere? Perhaps utilizing these methods will lead us closer to an answer.
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.
