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| Personal background |
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I've lived in Southern California most of my 48 years, and my most recent occupation has been storyboard artist for TV animation. But I have been a sucker for all things celestial since I first learned to read those big Exploring the Planets picture books.
One of my earliest cosmic letdowns, though, was in 1969 discovering the mountains of the moon resembling more of ashen mounds than the colorful and lofty crags depicted by Chesley Bonestell. Earlier, there was the Mariner 6 flyby revealing barren lunar-like craters serving to dash any dream I had of a temperate Mars. I witnessed the speculation of a tropical Venus, of hot rain that would steam off the hyper-tropical terrain creating the thick blanket of clouds we see from Earth. The Soviet Venera spacecraft instead revealed Venus to be an acidic hell so hot, the rocks glow red in the dark.
I mention these few seemingly disappointing instances only because the awesome discoveries I have had the good fortune to be a witness; the times I have been inspired, amazed, thrilled--you name it--are too numerous to tell.
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| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I am obsessed with this project and all it entails. I've been a member of the Planetary Society since 1983, when I went to the "Future World" convention in downtown Los Angeles and signed up on the spot. I've never done anything like that before.
The first thing I really used my computer for was Seti@home. I got on the mailing list to be notified as soon as the distributed computing project commenced. I then endured at least 30 painfully slow WU's (I didn't yet know about turning off the screensaver) before I felt qualified to join the Planetary Society team in July of '99. I didn't know I could have joined with zero WU's, but what the hell.
I think extraterrestrial life is likely to exist. Each year, each new discovery brings us closer to finding out for sure. If and when we find out, it will be the biggest thing since fire. We may at least discover fossils on Mars. If we encounter INTELLIGENT life, well, that would be breathtaking to the point of asphyxiation. We should, I think, let any intelligent extraterrestrial life know we exist; but we should be truthful about who we are. This project, Seti@home, is momentous and I am honored to be a part of it.
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