I'm a student living in London and have signed up to SETI because of my interest in space and life.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I think that extraterrestrial life definately exists but finding it is much harder. Whether any extraterrestrials would actually have the technology to be picked up by SETI is another question entirely but i think it is definately a worthwhile try.
I keep SETI on all the time while working or using the computer but i do not keep my computer on purely to work on the SETI programme. I do not think it is worthwhile wasting electricity just to try and find alien life. Not, i hasten to add because of the cost of electricity but because i know that if 3 million SETI users kept their computers on just for the programme to run it may effect the environment substantially. I think it is more worthwhile keeping something beautiful we already have rather than seeking for something that may take many years to find.
And then what? When we one day find a booming signal from outer space we'll no doubt have a party, or be significantly worried. It's a long shot but i think its worth a try.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
