| Personal background |
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I live in Belgium and work for the government in mobile IT support and development. I first became interested in computers at the age of twelve when my teacher told me how horrendous she found my handwriting and I seriously tought about having to type everything for the rest of my life. shortly after that event my great-grandfather gave me the money to buy a commodore 64. Since then life has never been the same again. Informatics became my life and in a lesser way now, still is. Besides IT I have but 2 other hobbies; reading and LARP (Life Action Role play).
I hope to be able to convince my superiors to let me run SETI on our network and mainframes in the near future. (1500+ machines should add up nicely) |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I do not believe in religion. Religion had a usefull threefold function in the past; explain the natural events which defied the knowledge of comtemporary scientists, create and maintain centres of learning and most important, create a common binding trait between different tribes and nations.
I personally feel, mankind as a whole, has surpassed these limiting shackles and is ready at last to look and reach further than his instinctive fears. In my humble opinion SETI is one of those reaching hands. Even IF, and I do mean IF, we find a signal out there that, according to our own contemporary knowledge, can only have been made artificially, we know that we will probably never be able to meet it's creators face to face. What strengthens my hope is this is not a project executed by a few "loonies" (let's forget the administrators for a moment, shall we?) but by everyday normal ppl spread out all over earth who have never met one another. Among the members who voluntarily donate time, money (power isn't free) and resources you will find Serbs and Croats and Bosnians, Iraqi's and Iranians, Chinese and Taiwanese and just about every other nationality. During the last 100 years mankind has not only acquired the technology to annihilate itself but has also proven that it is willing to do so. Projects like these give me hope that we FINALY are growing mature as a cognitve species. That and my firm belief in the panspermia theory are the main reasons why I particape in this project. We cannot be alone in this universe, there MUST be someone else out there!
I am practicaly 100% sure I won't live anymore when we will finally discover "them", but I'll at least leave to the next generations of my family proof that we tried to find in "our" way proof of that which they will have the honor of achieving.
In a certain way Seti reminds me of a captain who, mocked and ridiculed by colleagues, found nevertheless a few wealthy supporters and sailed out to find a new shipping route to india on august 3, 1492. It took the "Western" world nearly a decade to realise the significance of his discovery.
As for SETI itself I have only one suggestion: Don't stop, never. Keep looking for funds, keep pushing for support from governments and private industry alike.
At a given moment somewhere in the future not only "man"kind but "other"kinds aswell will remember when it all started and will no longer mock and ridicule. |
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