SETI

Those spare cpu cycles come at a real cost in electricity consumption
and thermal stress on your cpu. An idle cpu uses much less power.


Hi:

Very small cost all round. I've been running it for years now with nary a
blown-out CPU.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

I believe that the earth is unique.

Hi:

Well, that's fine. You can _believe_ whatever you want to believe. But that's
all it is _belief_ unless you got data, facts and theories to back up this
"belief."

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Show me some evidence that there is someone else out there.

Hi Davoud:

That's what SETI and SETI at home are all about! I thought your point was
"don't BOTHER to look!"

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Davoud:
Show me some evidence that there is someone else out there.

Rod Mollise:
That's what SETI and SETI at home are all about! I thought your point was
"don't BOTHER to look!"

*****

Yeah, that's my point. We're unlikely to find anyone -- looking is a
waste of effort. As John Steinberg pointed out, there are more useful
things to do with spare CPU cycles than to look for LGM.

It would be pointless to extrapolate my view on SETI and assert that I
am opposed to all research into the unknown, or that I lack
imagination, because that is untrue.

I also wrote, "Nonetheless, I think that it would matter very much if
we found convincing evidence of intelligent life elsewhere. Such a
discovery would fundamentally alter our view of ourselves and the
universe as a whole. Who can imagine what advances a determined effort
to go and meet these newly discovered people might bring?"

But it is not at all certain that if we did find these LGM, which we
won't, that we would want to meet them, or want them to know of our
existence. What if blowing up cities has supplanted baseball as their
national pastime? Or jihad against planets who do not bow to their god
is their prime directive? Or they are merely in the midst of a
real-estate acquisition cycle and their appraiser says "The native
vermin have to be exterminated first?" What if Bush learned that they
had oil and WMD?

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

Zane:
I was wondering how you were going to get that subject into this
discussion -- very clever.

That was a figure of speech on your part. You weren't wondering that at
all.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

Yeah, that's my point. We're unlikely to find anyone -- looking is a
waste of effort.

Hi Davoud:

Let's see...to sum up:

"Don't bother looking, you won't find anything. Of course, you'll _never_ find
anything if you don't look. But my FEELING is, nobody is out there, so don't
dare look."

OK...I get it...

....like HELL I do! :-)

They are my CPU cycles, and I'll continue to use them on SETI@home. Considering
some of the foolish and immoral uses computers are put to, SETI@home is one of
the most hopeful and wonderful things you can do with a computer. Don't think
the same? That's fine with me. Use your umpteen gighertz PC to play Doom! :-)




Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Davoud wrote:
Yeah, that's my point. We're unlikely to find anyone -- looking is a
waste of effort.

Maybe, maybe not--but a lot of science and technology has been based on
looking where no one expected to find anything. Lots of inventions and
discoveries began with someone messing around with something and saying,
"Hmm...that's weird." I'm sure I'm biased, but I'm of the opinion that
we (as a society) should spend some money on scientific curiosity.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

pseudo-scientists, like christopher columbus?

If someone thinks about the state of Texas for example. Each spring
millions of crickets come out from under their rocks and start to
chirp. One cricket somewhere in the state has to be the first one
chirping that spring, right? Well one could be in Austin and the other
could be 40 miles outside of Midland. They aren't going to hear each
other.

Is earth one of the first chirping crickets in its own little half an
acre, or the first on in the country, or the first one in the state,
or the only one cricket in Texas?

Is earth chirping loud enough for other crickets to hear, or just loud
enough for a spider to hear and walk over and suck our skulls?

I just downloaded SETI@home and am running it. At worst, I end up with
a really cool screensaver. At best I'm one of the people on the Nina,
Pinta, or Santa Maria.

Brian Tung wrote:
Lots of inventions and
discoveries began with someone messing around with something and saying,
"Hmm...that's weird."

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' "

-Isaac Asimov

On the other hand, SETI seems to me to be looking for a "eureka!" After all,
there are a few very specific events that are being searched for in a
systematic way. Anything that's unusual but outside those parameters is not
likely to be detected.

Not that I don't support SETI, of course. I've returned over 2100 work
units.

Someone wrote:
I believe that the earth is unique.

Rod Mollise:
Well, that's fine. You can _believe_ whatever you want to believe. But that's
all it is _belief_ unless you got data, facts and theories to back up this
"belief."

You've twisted this around a bit. Actually, in the context of this SETI
thread, _you_ are the one making a claim, and the burden of proof that
SETI is worthwhile rests with you. Of course the OP can't prove that
the Earth -- specifically, the life it contains -- is unique in all the
universe, but so far there is not an iota of evidence to the contrary.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com