Profile: Uioped1

Personal background
I am a computer science undergrad at Portland State University in Beautiful Portland Oregon. I am interested in computation in general, particularly Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, (that's why my homework is never completed; too much optimization...) and abstract theories of computation and computability.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
1. Yes I think extraterrestrial life, particularly extrasolar life, exists and it even seems likely that there are other thinking beings out there. As I am not a doomsdayist who thinks it inevitable that humans will destroy ourselves, it seems inevitable that someday somehow people will discover said alien life. Such a discovery would have profound benefits to many branches of science: the opportunity to study something utterly unlike us should provide deep insight into how we work, and that alone is huge. Should we discover intelligent life, the benefits of collaberating with them will be immense, and mitigate any risks.

2. At this time I don't think that we have the resources or technology to effectively transmit a meaningful beacon. In the future, however, we may well have the capability to do so, and probably should. The transmission's primary goal should be to reach as wide an "audience" as possible, and have the best chance of being heard and recognized, so something like prime numbers would be a good candidate. It would also be good to transmit, as a rider signal, some sort of communication protocol in the hopes that someone will write back.

3. I started out with S@H to compare my brand new, smoking hot, frankenstein computer (2:47 average WU time!) with the world, but got hooked, and have been obsessively putting the client on every computer that I maintain.
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