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| Personal background |
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| Though I hail from Memphis, Tn., I've moved about quite a bit and have lived over most of the southern United States and as far East as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I'm a devoted computer-geek wannabe. That is, I love playing with them but just recently got my A certification, so until I actually land a job working with computers I can't claim official geek stature, but that will change soon I hope! I'm thirty years old, and my hobies include amateur astronomy, building terrariums/viquariums, computers, and just recently I've been trying my hand at growing carnivorous plants. I'm also something of an animal enthusiast, and my current home here in Richmond, Va. is also home to my dog, a japanese fire-bellied newt, a fire-bellied toad, and a yellow-bellied frog; the latter three of which co-exist in a fragile truce within a ten-gallon viquarium. Another of my passions is movies, and I spend way too much of my paltry income on DVD's, especially in the horror genre...which I guess explains my interest in plants that eat bugs. I'm noted for being a font of useless information, keen on learning new things, and for avidly watching the night sky. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I've been an off and on user of Seti@home for a number of years, but recently dedicated 6 old Pentium 2 dinosaur-esque computers to run it on my first home-built network. I've always been interested in the scientific exploration for otherworldly life in the universe, and since my network can barely handle the simplest games, I though Seti@home would be the perfect use for it.
I strongly believe that by sheer probability there is other intelligent life in the universe.I think that given enough time, there is decent chance Seti@home might well locate a signal complex enough for us to interpret as coming from another civilization. Of course then the question arises, what next? Considering the average distance to the stars being surveyed, establishing contact would be an extremely slow course of action. Many of the stars are so far away that if there was indeed a planet whose people were broadcasting signals that we could receive, it would mean those signals were in transit for a length of time going back before we were even able to send signals ourselves. That does suggest such people might well now be more technically advanced than we are.
Many believe that an advanced civilization would be benign by our Earth standards, but this is not decidedly true. As European contact with the less advanced Native Americans showed, a technically more advanced civilization isn't necessarily benign at all. In short, I'm not sure sending a signal to a located alien system would be the best course of action without more information regarding it.
Nevertheless, I believe the social impact of finding a signal that was believed to be from an alien culture would be profound and overall in this planet's best interest. Knowing we're not alone might well lead to an increased sense of belonging to humanity as a whole, perhaps even leading to increased cooperation and decreased hostility amongst our own people. It's for this reason I run Seti@home and dearly hope I'm still alive to hear the news that E.T. has been found! |
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