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| Personal background |
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It was sometime during the first-grade that I began responding to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow-up?" with the answer, "I'm going to be an astrophysicist." The standard adult response to my answer would usually be something along the lines of, "?!"
To be honest, I didn't really know what an astrophysicist did. All I knew was that it had something to do with outer space, the possibility of going there (if I became a really good at it) and it sounded a whole lot more sophisticated than just saying "I wanna be an astronaut" like all the other kids.
Through the years, as I learned more about what being an astrophysicist meant, my answer became less a display of pretentiousness and more a sincere statement about what I intended to do with myself.
So pretty much all the way from elementary school on up through high school, I knew that I was going to be an astrophysicist (and hopefully, on top of that, a really famous one who would get to travel into space).
This is probably why nowadays I find myself wondering idly from time to time, ÂgWhat happened?Âh I'm several years out of college, sitting deep in the countryside of Japan, doing work that has absolutely nothing to do with astrophysics. And I graduated from college with a degree in E. Asian Studies. Whoops. Not to say that I do not like where I am or what I am doing, but this was certainly not what I had expected.
In any case, this had left me to feed my abandoned dreams by watching science programs on NHK, reading science magazines and books, and staring longingly into the night skies above my country abode.
Someday soon, I plan to head back to grad school to earn an advanced degree in socio-linguistics or some other topic (likely having to do with inter-cultural conflict resolution). In the long-term, I hope to do work in diplomacy or for the UN. But deep down, I think I will always hold onto the hope that someday, I will be one of lucky initial few chosen to carry the hopes and dreams of humanity deep into space |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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When I first found SETI@home, I was elated and eagerly signed up to join the cause. Here was a chance for an arm-chair-wanna-be-scientist type like myself to contribute something to what is possibly one of the most important endeavors humankind has ever embarked upon. Granted, the only brain-power that I'm contributing is that of my computer when it is idle, but at least it's something. And I'm willing to bet I'm probably not the only SETI@home member who harbors the fantasy that her or his computer will be the one that processes THE data packet identifying a beacon from an alien civilization...which in turn somehow translates into a ticket to be one of those chosen to be one of the first human emissaries to that civilization, a la Jodie Foster in "Contact." If you ask me, it beats the heck out of Lotto.
Do I think extraterrestrial life exists? There is so much that we do not know about the universe and what it contains...it does not seem so far-fetched an idea that somewhere out there, amongst those "billions and billions of stars," there is life.
When will humans become aware of extraterrestrial life? I would like to think that we will do so within my lifetime...naturally, through the processing power of my computer.
Should humans transmit a beacon for others to find? Sounds great. A beacon with messages of peace and some type of protocol for arranging a meeting of representatives from our respective civilizations would be fanastic... Just as long as it's transmitted from a location far, far away from our solar system and does not give away the location of its origin (i.e., us). I think it would put a real damper on the "first contact" thing if our beacon happened to end up leading some ruthless, blood-thirsty, busting-out-of-chests alien species' armada storming into our solar-system to conquer and lay-waste to the earth and her inhabitants.
Thank you to the designers of SETI@home. I eagerly look forward to the day when my computer identifies the signal that tells us we are not alone. |
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