Profile: Russell Bynum

Personal background
I am a general geek with a Communication BA, who love cats as much as he loves good beer (especially home-brewed)! I drive a non-CDL truck transporting business computer backups and looking to utilize my degree. I am a Recognized level BJCP beer judge, and the PAO of a CAP squadron in Puyallup with the rank of 2d Lt. I enjoy writing (stories and poetry), collecting art, figures, scale planes and cars, and antiques, and debating. I am a geek for: science, skepticism, astronomy, paleontology, archeology, history, mythology, religion, politics, astrobiology, sci-fi, and fantasy. I enjoy videos and board games, various music genres (from electronic to alternative to jazz to industrial to classical), meat, wit, and humor.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
SETI is a fun idea and I support it and its @home aspect. I fear it is a long shot for many reason, but am hopeful. We may never find a signals, but certainly will not if we do not try. To that end, my computer plugs away at whatever SETI@home gives me.

Besides the usual difficulties of how and where to look, getting the time and resources to look, there are two primary reasons I am not as hopeful of success as I want to be. The first is the while we have been "leaking" various frequencies since our broadcast abilities began, methinks the unfocused natures of the "noise" makes it unlikely that anyone outside a passing spaceship will get it. This is based on what I have read about how signals degrade, especially when not intended for a more interstellar audience as virtually all terrestrial broadcasts are. That is to say that our "noise" pollution might not even get out of our own solar system in a meaningful way for others to detect.

The second is that we have not made many attempts to actively and consciously send out signals of greeting. All the same issues of looking for signals also apply to sending them. Despite the more likely areas where SETI does look, it is a big sky out there. How long would a typical civilization be sending signals? If we are any measure, at present it is virtually certain we will never find a signal. Such signals would have to be nearly permanent transmitters in a spectrum of directions and frequencies over manful timeframes. If the above is also true, the only signals we will ever hope to find will be intentional greetings and not mid-season outdated soap operas.

Presuming that meaningful space travel is possible, it is more likely that a passing craft will find us long before we find anything. To that end, it might be more productive to produce signals of greeting for passersby to discover while listening for their passing "noise". All the above challenges above still apply, of course, but it is certainly worthwhile, I think, to have consistently (if not continually) broadcasting greeting signals pointed at optimal locations where passing craft might want to cruise while examining our humble neighborhood. What if they are hostile? Well, while distant greetings from distant stars may be relatively safe, our "noise" will attract the attention of anyone passing through, regardless of intention. Besides, that is the risk of exploration towards finding other intelligent beings.

However, regard of how unlikely such sic-fi-ish the last paragraph is, we should get going on both if only in increase our odds; as if we are more willing to broadcasts while listening, it becomes more probable that our unknown siblings to there will do the same. When you are the only data point, you can only make the best case for others by improving yourself. To that end, and to bring this all back to the original prompt, SETI and @home are wonderful ideas that need support of anyone and everyone who has an interest in definitively knowing that Spaceship Earth is not alone.
Your feedback on this profile
Recommend this profile for User of the Day: I like this profile
Alert administrators to an offensive profile: I do not like this profile
Account data View
Team None



 
©2024 University of California
 
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.