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| Personal background |
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| Well, it's been more than ten years since I first wrote a profile for SETI@home. A few things have changed, but not much. I'm now 42 years old, born in 1967. I still reside in Springboro, Pennsylvania. I'm still employed as a paramedic -- now working for the Central Erie County Paramedic Association in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. After leaving West County Paramedics, I did a short stint as a teacher in the Allied Health field at a local technical school. That didn't last long -- I guess I don't have much of a tolerance for administrative types and the associated BS. I still do some computer programming and consulting on the side. I'm still proud that I helped create the enhanced 911 system for Erie County, but not very pleased with the political shenanigans currently in play. Hobbies include retro-computing, model rocketry, and amateur radio. I gave up on radio piracy when I acquired my actual amateur radio license, KB3NJY. I'm still interested in the history of space exploration, astronomy, and SETI. I enjoy science fiction and remain a devout "treckie." Same three children, just slightly more developed. Michael is about to turn 17. Aurora is a "goth" 15. Matthew is a precocious eleven. I'm single again. Just for fun, I've gone back to school to try and complete a CS degree I started in 1984. So far, so good! |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I think that the existence of extraterrestrial life is a given: We have some evidence that life may have existed on Mars and we have found life everywhere we looked on Earth and in every imaginable extreme of climate. There is life embedded in the rocks of Earth's crust and floating high in the stratosphere. We have life in our sea and life in geothermal vents and life on our icecaps. Life is everywhere you look.
The question of extraterrestrial intelligence is harder to answer. One might argue against the existence of intelligent life on Earth... How would an alien intelligence manifest itself? We imagine that Whales and Dolphins are intelligent -- they live much closer than another planet, but we still haven't much in common to talk about. :-)
Humans will discover extraterrestrial life by accident. We probably already have but don't recognize it (yet.) The potential benefits of extraterrestrial life are unimaginable -- it all depends on how we choose to exploit the opportunity. Likewise, the dangers are many: alien disease, introduction of non-native plants and animals, not to mention "little green men with laser-guns" come to mind.
For better or worse, we've already announced our presence for anybody that cares to listen. The cacophony of electromagnetic radiation from Earth would deafen anyone using a "big dish" within 20 parsecs. Just in case they missed the radio and television broadcasts, we've also sent the occasional "bright: burst of light and hard radiation from our nuclear tests.
SETI@home is a unique opportunity for the layman to make a real contribution to hard science. I run SETI@home in an attempt to "do my part" for the advancement of our collective understanding. |
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