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| Personal background |
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| I am a long-time Astronomy and ETI enthusiast. Read Carl Sagan's earliest books back in the 1980s. I have a DSL connection with several LINUX and Win32 computers on my home LAN, and figured they might as well contribute some spare cycles to my long-time interest. In less than a week, i've already contributed 11 work units, which SETI informs me is more than what 61% of users have contributed; so i'm off to a good start. Who knows, maybe my computers will be lucky and find a bona fide ET signal. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Life Elsewhere: We know that life is hugely abundant on this planet (millions of species), and thrives in some of the harshest of conditions (even hidden from solar energy). And evidence suggests that Mars also has/had life. So the universe clearly has a life-yielding property (life = entropy-resisting / replicating / interactive units). If we then extrapolate the frequency of life in our solar system to the billions of solar systems expected elsewhere in the universe, the odds of life elsewhere are certain.
Intelligence Elsewhere: i also believe that intelligence is an emergent property of simple interactive (life) units (brain = millions of inter-connected & interacting neurons, civilization = millions of inter-connected & interacting humans, planetary intelligence = billions of inter-connected & interacting humans/computers). Whenever large numbers of simple 'life' units can interact, and such interaction yields benefits, then they will form an intelligence (organization of interacting units). I believe this is an intrinsic property of the universe. Also, by defining intelligence as a self-organizing collection of interactive units, this leaves open the clear possibility of non-biomass based intelligence. E.g. artificial intelligence with an electro-mechanical basis. Indeed, the most likely form of enduring sustainable intelligence might be electro-mechanical, since it would then be free to roam the universe without aging or starvation.
Humans will most likely first discover ETIs via non-physical or signal-based means. The long distances separating star systems means that signals will precede physical visits. On the other hand, if intelligence evolved to a non-biomass / electro-mechanical form (or even more advanced), and space is being explored by ETIs that can replicate as they fan out thru the universe, then perhaps we will experience a physical visit. |
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