Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum SETI@home

Here's something you guys might be interested in:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

This allows SETI (or one of many other projects) use your Home PC during Down Time. Your machine will slow down while you are sharing it; I have two machines.

I dont think you will notice any slow down of other progs, unless you have a slow 'puter.
But you can put Boinc into 'snooze mode' if you want. Nor do you have to run the pretty Graphics.

Note the newly designed, blue/yellow BOINC Logo, top right of screen.
The URL "BOINC SYNERGY" below -- gives you the list of 50 very different worthwhile projects that should interest the science minded.
http://www.boincsynergy.com/content/view/120/99/

Mike: "...50 very different worthwhile projects..."

Interesting that SETI@Home still has the lions share of users (over 3,000,000). Well, yes, it was the first on the scene - but could there be more to it than than?

What an utter waste of time. Everything used to work fine. Then they had to improve it and things quit working. I spent some time on several occasions trying to figure out how to fix it, but eventually lost patience.

One of the secrets I've learned of time mgmt is this: almost anyone can be a technician, but every second you spend on that is time you could have spent doing something more important. I'm disappointed with myself for installing BOINC/seti on my computer. Still doesn't work. Still a waste of time. Definitely will not make this mistake again.

Its certainly the most popular, probably always will be. Since Seti only searches for intelligent life, it fufills Mankinds basic instinct to believe that he is not alone.
We dont like to be alone as indviduals, so we bond into groups, clubs and societys.
Collectively we inhabit Earth, and have become very aware that we are the only intelligent planet circling in our Solar system.
We have become resigned to this.
But to be alone in the Galaxy, or worse, to be alone in the Universe....could drive Mankind into the depths of despair, trying to answer the question, Why?
Seti, has become the modern Messiah. "We dont know when, we dont know how, but to search and believe....will save our sanity"

Oh, It should work Ok without any intervention by you?
Prehaps it does work but you cant see it working?
To actually see it working you need ensure the BOINC screen-saver is running?
Right click in desktop-left click properties-in Screen Save, click on BOINC. Minimise all settings and waiting time.
But I am sure you know all this, sorry I cannot help further.

I'm one of the 3,000,000 searching. Non of us expect any result-ever. Just makes us feel part of an improbable dream?

Whaddayaknow!
It actually processed 8 units last night!
This is okay.

Mike.

"Since Seti only searches for intelligent life, it fufills Mankinds basic instinct to believe that he is not alone."

- You could be right - but then you could be wrong. I have a hunch that the majority of our 7 billion hardly ever give it moment's thought, and really couldn't give a hoot either way - too busy dealing with the nitty gritty of daily survival. We certainly aren't justified in assuming that the 3 million ETI searchers are a representative sample.

"But to be alone in the Galaxy, or worse, to be alone in the Universe....could drive Mankind into the depths of despair, trying to answer the question, Why?"

- I disagree, very much.

- Firstly, why should there be such a great emotional investment it the matter? Although I think we can be reasonably confident that there is intelligent life elsewhere - and if we don't find it, that doesn't mean it's not there - there is the possibility, however exceedingly unlikely, that we are 'alone', for all practical purposes at least.

- Secondly, from my personal perspective, it has no connection whatever with the question 'why?'. The idea of such a connection seems to suggest a reliance upon a new mythology - something akin to 'second coming'. No, I see no cause for despair, unless it is created by the error of seeking a metaphysical answer in the realm of the physical.

Redewenur wrote:

"there is the possibility, however exceedingly unlikely, that we are 'alone', for all practical purposes at least".

I think for all practical purposes we are alone. Any other intelligent life in the universe is likely to live at least several thousand light years from us. How would we make physical contact, and what would be the purpose of such contact?

(me) "there is the possibility, however exceedingly unlikely, that we are 'alone', for all practical purposes at least."

I'll rephrase that:

"there is the possibility, however exceedingly unlikely, that we are 'alone'. For all practical purposes, at least, we most probably are - unless there's a loophole (or a wormhole) in the physics.

Terry: "How would we make physical contact, and what would be the purpose of such contact?"

The argument, I think, goes like this: we are a fledgeling technological species - born yesterday, one might say - and a detectable ETI would most likely be socially and scientifically more developed than us, possibly by many millions, or even billions, of years. It could hardly be less developed. The hope, therefore, is that (1) such an ETI would have discovered how to bridge the gulf in spacetime (2) that it/they would be able and willing to offer humanity a leg up.

I think it's a beautiful scenario, and may be possible, current human knowledge notwithstanding; but I wouldn't count on it. The grounds for speculation are fertile indeed, but we are stuck with our present day scientific realities.

Terry, mate, the possibilities, the scenarios, for actual CONTACT with an extraterrestrial life form are countless.

Here's just one - We make contact with a species of super evolved Crustaceans. How do they react to our love of Seafood? Lobster bisque, anyone?

Which brings to mind the possibilty that we have a super evolved species right here with us on Earth. Among the cetacea.

As Carl Sagan said thirty-odd years ago:

"[The question] is whether we can develop a sense that beings with quite different evolutionary histories, beings who may look far different from us, even monstrous, may, nevertheless, be worthy of friendship and reverence, brotherhood and trust"

Perhaps dolphins and their cousins will outlive the human race, but : -

"The baiji, the Chinese white dolphin, is gone." http://earthtrust.org/baiji.html