The whole story would be far too long. So here is the short version. I was born in 1966 in the south of Germany nearby Stuttgart. Always fascinated by the night skies. However my paht didn´t lead me to the stars. Instead I studied economics - at least until I discovered that for me there is not enough creative potential in it. So I went on and had a solid education in the fine arts of prepress including reprography and typography. Set sails to the rough seas of entrepreneurial youth wich was not successful in the first place. Meanwhile I am a little more settled. I´ve become a publisher and therefore I have a small (actually it´s almost a one-man-show) publishing company in which I am even able to integrate my biggest hobby that is music. I started playing piano with 7 years followed by a classical education in violin and later on piano again. I could be described as an istrumental junkie. Meanwhile I play saxophone and guitar as well. With this I am doing enough for mind and soul. For my body I try to perform martial arts with my brother in a very good scool nearby. And because here all is about stars I sure dont want to hide my sign. Im a sagittarius with the ascendent in gemini. Therefore it is not too easy for me to find a suitable female partner to have a family. I was very close but it didn´t match. But I have a few very good friends, groovy parents and a brother almost as crazy as I am.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
Ad 1:
Yes! The way we do it here is a fine start. Philosophically I would say we will discover it when the time has come. Most of things seem to happen this way. I rather think there are more benefits than dangers. Simply because the risk of aggressive races to be determined by themselves before getting to the stars is relatively high in my opinion.
Ad 2:
I am not quite sure if we should actively transmit a beacon. I think that in a way we already did it. If so, in my opinion we should not try to send a message with an emotional content. Simply because the fact that all we could send is based on our background and therefore only we could interpret it correctly (because only we have our background which specifically is based on the planet we come from - blue skies 70% water and so on). An alien race could see an agressive approach in what we would call a peaceful message. So our message - if we should send one activelly - should contain as far as possible mathematical content how to establish a communication with which we can begin to describe our surroundings to make the "aliens" better understand our behaviour. It is simply like an architectual project. I'm not starting with the 13th floor until I don't have a solid fundament (I know this sounds very german *g*)
Ad 3:
Because It's probably the biggest project in human history. And I'm very proud to be a part of it. To me it also has a symbolical character. To be united as one civilization not as nations. No prejudice. All working like one big collective. My personal view about this project is founded in hope and belief. Suggestions can be read in Ad 2.
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.
