| Personal background |
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| I'm an English fella, age 52, living in Thailand since '96. Fortunately, the stars still look pretty much the same. Life, the universe and everything (with thanks to, and in memory of, the late Douglas Adams) abounds with interest, and seems to be just sitting there waiting for inquisitive life forms to come along and play with it, analyse it, and general try to make sense of it. When on a management course, I was called upon to give an impromptu lecture on any subject of my choice; I chose the extinction of the dinosaurs. Upon being asked later, by an impressed but rather wry facilitator, if 'dinosaurs' was my 'pet' subject, I replied that they were of interest inasmuch as their demise was related to events which greatly affected the past, present and future of life on Earth. Certainly, there is nothing in existence which has no bearing on all other things, but in attempting to gain some understanding of it all, one can hardly afford to ignore the more macroscopic events. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I would say that the universe is definitely teeming with life of every conceivable description, at every level of spirituality, and at every level of intellectual capacity. I would, except that it would, as yet, be jumping the gun. Yet I am no less certain that it will eventually prove to be the case, and the ever increasing probability is reassuring to those of us who find it a desirable scenario. Electromagnetic emissions will no doubt be the means of discovery, whether in the form of intentional transmissions or signals akin to our own popular radio and TV broadcasts. The benefits could be prodigious technologically, and the door may open onto entirely new fields of knowledge. It seems extremely unlikely that humankind would meet these extraterrestrials for at least a few million years, if ever - but a meeting of minds would nonetheless be possible, as if via a galactic internet. The most likely danger would be the old and ever present one - our use of new knowledge. Perhaps our contacts may help us surmount such dangers, or perhaps the reverse may prove to be true. We should do our utmost to ensure that our identity and address continue to be broadcast, so that contact occurs sooner rather than later. Perhaps it will happen tomorrow, perhaps when my son is my age...but it will happen. All SETI projects contribute to this end, and SETI@home is an excellent way of increasing the likelihood of early success.
Question: As CPUs become ever faster, would it be possible to increase the Work Unit size, or include a Work Unit Size option?
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