Retired Electronics Engineer, like to hike, bicycle and travel. Volunteer for several organizations. My major hobby is computers and gadgets.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I think it would be naive of us to assume we are the only conscious beings in the universe. If the speed of light is a true limitation to travel then I think it is unlikely that we would physically contact any other beings in the next 100 years. I think it is necessary that we continue to try to reach out and make contact even if it takes 100 to 1000 years to do so. I would hope that we would mature before we meet any other beings, otherwise I think we could easily end up destroying them or ourselves before we learn how they think.
If we send out a beacon it should be limited to the plane of our galaxy to maximize our chances of contact.
I've always believed that we should colonize other worlds. If we were able to communicate with other beings we might learn about their struggles to exist and colonize their local planets. It would take the minds of people away from their struggles with each other and replace it with the desire to exchange ideas with other beings.
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.
