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| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I believe intelligent, extraterrestrial life does exist, but seriously doubt that we're going to be lucky enough to hit an intelligible signal (Trying is half the fun, though!)
Even if we're extremely lucky, given the average distance to stars even in our local part of the galaxy, I doubt that two-way communication is even useful or feasible. It kinda reminds me of the time me and my brother got new walkie-talkies as kids. Once we got over the initial novelty of the thing (saying "Hello?", "Helloooo?" a few hundred times) there was really nothing left to say. Multiply that by anywhere from a hundred to tens of thousands of years "lag time" and you've got a pretty boring, essentially one-way communication... sorry to put a damper on peoples' enthusiasm...
So why do I run SETI@Home? I like the idea that my computer’s processor is doing something in the idle moments that I’m not doing anything. When you think about it, the human/computer interface is so slow and there’s so much “wasted†processing-time on your desktop PC that could be put to good use. Not to anthropomorphize, but if the poor, damn thing is sitting as an FTP server and is getting no hits, I feel like it’s lonely… :p
I’d love to see other organizations try distributed calculations like this (imagine helping to render the next, big animated flick by Pixar, for example - You get to see a "cell" being rendered of a movie no one has seen yet!) :) Even better, how about paying me pennies per processing-hour and electronically move the funds to my bank account? Or send the proceeds to my favorite charity?
Is anyone reading this, or am I just rambling… :) 5/3/02
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