|
| Personal background |
|---|
Living in the Highlands of Scotland; in a village called Evanton, I am an MBA graduate and BSc Hons 'Environmental Science' student with the Open University.
Ever since, as a ten year old (I am 47), I read AC Clarke's '2001 A Space Odyssey', I have always been intrigued and fascinated when wondering about all that waits to be discovered - or may already have been discovered(!) - amongst the stars.
The notion there is no intelligent life out there at all, seems absurd to me. But I cannot put it any better than Carl Sagan: for it to be otherwise would be 'an awful waste of space'!
It will be a tremendous shock to the human psyche to learn we are not alone - Many politicians and business men, not to mention voters and workers are in dire need of a 'wake-up' call. We have been messing up the nursery without counting the cost; a "footstep on the landing" will perhaps focus folk on 'what's important'. That's not to say I advocate apocalypse - rather deriving the everyday based upon a perspective somewhat larger than naked individualism and greed. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
|---|
Reading thus far you may rightly infer I liked Carl Sagan's book 'Contact'. Indeed!
I think Clarke may have been right: to reach inter-stellar travel capability, any species must outgrow the capacity to realise it's self-destruction. On the other hand it might be naive to shed all caution - that too is the product of a mature intelligence.
I think whatever 'intelligent life' might be 'like', is not necessarily like anything we are aware of, to liken it to...
To extrapolate - we seem to be moving, if we survive, from an organic to a synthesized species - in the beginning genetic alteration but then increasingly bio mechanical as well as gentic enhancement (just for some?).
Beyond that - well can consciousness and intelligence become matter independent? I do wonder too about the notion of 'singularity'; the point at which we have built self-replicating self-enhancing intelligent machines that can then accelerate their own 'evolution' at a pace we cannot imagine... One can ponder such matters and their implications endlessly. In the end though, I believe that growth necessitates a willingness to face the unknown - broaden perspectives and deepen knowledge - responsibly. I feel in a small way I can be part of that through SETI@home, and am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. First contact will be a needed 'wake-up' call, and fundamentally I have to believe that as a species we can rise to all the challenges and opportunities it will offer.
|
| 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 |
|
