SETI@home. Worthwhile or waste of CPU time?

[FBM]

ANYWAY...

What's your take on the chances that SETI will eventually discover alien signals?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

ANYWAY...

What's your take on the chances that SETI will eventually discover alien signals?

Low. I personally doubt any advanced civilization will be using anything we can detect, or even imagine.

[FBM]

ANYWAY...

What's your take on the chances that SETI will eventually discover alien signals?

Low. I personally doubt any advanced civilization will be using anything we can detect, or even imagine.

Currently, yes. But given the distances involved, we're searching for signals that could be thousands or hundreds of thousands of years old, eh? Maybe more. Given that physical laws and properties are uniform, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that at least some presently advanced civilizations went through a phase in which they used detectable electromagnetic waves for communication? It may not be true, and there's no evidence for it as yet, but should SETI and all of us who downloaded the software give up?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

ANYWAY...

What's your take on the chances that SETI will eventually discover alien signals?

Low. I personally doubt any advanced civilization will be using anything we can detect, or even imagine.

Currently, yes. But given the distances involved, we're searching for signals that could be thousands or hundreds of thousands of years old, eh? Maybe more. Given that physical laws and properties are uniform, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that at least some presently advanced civilizations went through a phase in which they used detectable electromagnetic waves for communication? It may not be true, and there's no evidence for it as yet, but should SETI and all of us who downloaded the software give up?

You're thinking of a static situation, where those signals would eventually reach us. However, what if they've come and gone already? We're searching a very narrow window of time, those signals that are arriving here NOW. If they arrived when the Neanderthals were around we've missed them.

To illustrate, how long will we be broadcasting? It's a terrible way to send information, too much power needed. Laser beam comms, fiber optics, [watch this spot], all require no signals you can detect off planet. Fifty years from now we might be silent again. OUt of the life of the Earth our "noisy era" is much too tiny.

[FBM]

You're thinking of a static situation, where those signals would eventually reach us. However, what if they've come and gone already? We're searching a very narrow window of time, those signals that are arriving here NOW. If they arrived when the Neanderthals were around we've missed them.

To illustrate, how long will we be broadcasting? It's a terrible way to send information, too much power needed. Laser beam comms, fiber optics, [watch this spot], all require no signals you can detect off planet. Fifty years from now we might be silent again. OUt of the life of the Earth our "noisy era" is much too tiny.

I wasn't thinking of a static situation, but otherwise, you may be right. The dependence on EM radiation for communication may only be a brief slice of any civilization's history. But...a) laser-based wireless communication is limited to line-of-sight, and isn't really workable on a broad scale, and b) wait, my b) doesn't work. Come to think of it, my a) isn't so sharp, either. Never mind. You've got a helluva good point there. Have that seen about, 'k?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You're thinking of a static situation, where those signals would eventually reach us. However, what if they've come and gone already? We're searching a very narrow window of time, those signals that are arriving here NOW. If they arrived when the Neanderthals were around we've missed them.

To illustrate, how long will we be broadcasting? It's a terrible way to send information, too much power needed. Laser beam comms, fiber optics, [watch this spot], all require no signals you can detect off planet. Fifty years from now we might be silent again. OUt of the life of the Earth our "noisy era" is much too tiny.

I wasn't thinking of a static situation, but otherwise, you may be right. The dependence on EM radiation for communication may only be a brief slice of any civilization's history. But...a) laser-based wireless communication is limited to line-of-sight, and isn't really workable on a broad scale, and b) wait, my b) doesn't work. Come to think of it, my a) isn't so sharp, either. Never mind. You've got a helluva good point there. Have that seen about, 'k?

I keep my hat on so nobody notices.

[RPizzle]

I do have a question to you experienced SETI people since I don't know all that much about it. Has anything interesting been found yet? Has there been any 'hits' which would suggest further investigation.

I've been doing Folding@Home which has so far been able to publish quite a bit of new information in regards to protein folding, and some of that info is now being applied to research in degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimers and CJD. I also read that a GIMPs distributed computing found a new prime number in April which is almost 13 million digits long (I think). Mostly I want to know what good stuff you guys have been cooking up!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I do have a question to you experienced SETI people since I don't know all that much about it. Has anything interesting been found yet? Has there been any 'hits' which would suggest further investigation.

I've been doing Folding@Home which has so far been able to publish quite a bit of new information in regards to protein folding, and some of that info is now being applied to research in degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimers and CJD. I also read that a GIMPs distributed computing found a new prime number in April which is almost 13 million digits long (I think). Mostly I want to know what good stuff you guys have been cooking up!

So far Fermi's Paradox is holding strong, but we're still new at this. SETI is setting up a dish farm in California that will greatly improve the search capability, so the force is strong.

[FBM]

I do have a question to you experienced SETI people since I don't know all that much about it. Has anything interesting been found yet? Has there been any 'hits' which would suggest further investigation.

I've been doing Folding@Home which has so far been able to publish quite a bit of new information in regards to protein folding, and some of that info is now being applied to research in degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimers and CJD. I also read that a GIMPs distributed computing found a new prime number in April which is almost 13 million digits long (I think). Mostly I want to know what good stuff you guys have been cooking up!

This is surprisingly related to the intent of the OP. One thing I was wondering was if the CPU time I'm giving to SETI could be better utilized by another group, like one searching for a disease cure. (I don't think the possibility of finding a new prime number would make me switch. ) SETI hasn't found anything definite yet or you'd have heard about it in the news, but they do get 'suspicious' signals from time to time that don't quite cross the threshhold of being undeniably intelligent.

[RPizzle]

I do have a question to you experienced SETI people since I don't know all that much about it. Has anything interesting been found yet? Has there been any 'hits' which would suggest further investigation.

I've been doing Folding@Home which has so far been able to publish quite a bit of new information in regards to protein folding, and some of that info is now being applied to research in degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimers and CJD. I also read that a GIMPs distributed computing found a new prime number in April which is almost 13 million digits long (I think). Mostly I want to know what good stuff you guys have been cooking up!

This is surprisingly related to the intent of the OP. One thing I was wondering was if the CPU time I'm giving to SETI could be better utilized by another group, like one searching for a disease cure. (I don't think the possibility of finding a new prime number would make me switch. ) SETI hasn't found anything definite yet or you'd have heard about it in the news, but they do get 'suspicious' signals from time to time that don't quite cross the threshhold of being undeniably intelligent.

From my own experience, Folding@Home has the most bang for the buck so-to-speak, as it is the largest distributed computing program in the world. Stanford lists its information so you can view all of the journal publications that have come about. You can also get 3D images of the molecules that you have personally studied, along with the details of each project you work on, and what they think it may be linked to in disease and research. There are also massive numbers of teams that compete for points based on their research output (We are trying to beat Nerds for Jesus). If you'd like more info I provided a link to the folding site. Also, I'm on the Richard Dawkins Foundation team (Team: 75655) so we have a large thread in the general science discussion area. Feel free to join us if you decide to donate some CPU power to protein folding. I'll mention that I personally found Folding@Home to be really rewarding (as one of my proteins studied may have a previously unknown link to Alzheimers), but there are many other worthwhile projects available.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

[FBM]

If we wait until all our problems are solved before contacting an alien species, we'll never make contact.

That said, I sure do like the more immediate, practical application of the Folding@home project...

[RPizzle]

If we wait until all our problems are solved before contacting an alien species, we'll never make contact.

That said, I sure do like the more immediate, practical application of the Folding@home project...

I think the rest of the universe would be better off.

Seriously though, throw down a post in the folding thread on Dawkins. Its a good group of people really devoted to science. Also, they really, really, know how to tweak a system to get every last drop of science out of a computer.

[FBM]

If we wait until all our problems are solved before contacting an alien species, we'll never make contact.

That said, I sure do like the more immediate, practical application of the Folding@home project...

I think the rest of the universe would be better off.

Hard to argue with that...

Seriously though, throw down a post in the folding thread on Dawkins. Its a good group of people really devoted to science. Also, they really, really, know how to tweak a system to get every last drop of science out of a computer.

I'll give it a gander now...

Edit: If I did everything right, I should be signed up on the RDF team now.

[FBM]

for newbies to get a look at folding@home...

I've risen to 33rd in the RDF team rankings already...

[RPizzle]

for newbies to get a look at folding@home...

I've risen to 33rd in the RDF team rankings already...

Right now, you are the 10th top producer of science on the team. You can only go up and up and up!

I'm not sure if you've seen this, but if you are as nerdy as I am, here is the team link which tracks all of the data:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... s=&t=75655