| Personal background |
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Edward Rice
I'm a work-at-home consultant who spent a lot of time working for others. My background is in operating systems, ultra-large relational databases, system software, Multics, other fun things. I now do some consulting and a little programming to keep my brane alive, but I'm not a day-to-day computer scientist any longer.
I first got on the net in about 1975, back when you could not only memorize all the node-numbers fairly easily but could visit all the sites that were connected in just an evening.
In my spare time, I read, travel, do crosswords and sudokus (see "brane alive," above) and participate in several online communities of discussion. I roast coffee beans and drink good coffee. With my wife, I'm raising two kids who are very literate, including computer-literate, and a lot of fun.
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| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Why Do I Do This?
I do not expect SETI (at home or otherwise) to find signs of intelligent life elsewhere. I do think there is life elsewhere, but it may be still-developing or long-ancient; it may not be intelligent (roaches do very nicely without intelligence, why shouldn't the dominant life forces elsewhere?); if intelligent it may not be attempting to be found (were the Athenians, Carthaginians, and Aztecs non-intelligent life-forms? would SETI discover them?); and even if attempting, it may use methods that just aren't obvious to us (I'm not aware of any SETI effort that deals with gravitational waves -- wouldn't a really intelligent civilization use a faster mode of communication than mere radio?).
So, I contribute some effort toward /not/ finding intelligent life elsewhere, although I'd be pleased to be proven wrong. Go ahead, cyberpunk: make my day.
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