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why must people talk smack about SETI?

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<< The SETI people are to be congratulated for developing the @Home project and exposing the potential of our vast untapped national supercomputer.

But there are better things to do with it than look for little green men. >>



i wonder if he knows how much NASA spends on a monthly basis, compared to how much is spent on cancer research
 
What would have a bigger impact on life as we know it? The discovery for the cure of Alzheimer?s or finding proof that intelligent life exists outside our planet. While both would be important, I believe the latter would be more significant as it would directly affect everyone.

Also, he's wrong comparing SETI@Home to Napster, Morpheus, etc. S@H is distributed computing, not P2P. John Yaukey will be getting an Email from me...

Thanks for the heads up on this article, jntdesign.
 
If I find out that little green men exist, then I can die of Alzheimer's tommorow and die happy.

Besides, if we find them,they better have a cure, or we will feel cheated 😛
 

Everybody thinks they're an expert...

I think that they recruit these so called 'journalists' in the garbage dumpster...

Does anyone remember the 'Code Red' coverage by CNN??

What a bunch of crap!
 
I'm probably going to focus on a little more worthwhile project when I finally get to the 10K plateau. I love seti as much as the next guy, but he does make a valid point when he suggests distributed computer may be used to find cures for diseases. I don't know too many people whos lives haven't in some way been touched by cancer or Alzheimer's disease. A cure for cancer would be a modern day miracle. I'd love to be part of that miracle if I could. Just my $.02.
 
I think they should send us WU's that actually help find a cure for cancer, so we can just keep running the same cool program, and everything will remain inteact.. except the data would be for a different cause or project.. 😀

SETIcureforcancer@Home baby
 
Also, he's wrong comparing SETI@Home to Napster, Morpheus, etc. S@H is distributed computing, not P2P. John Yaukey will be getting an Email from me...

Thanks for the heads up on this article, jntdesign.

What Robor said - this journalist-wanna-be will be getting an email from me too along the lines of "get your facts straight" or else go work for some tabloids. :disgust:
 
I just sent John the following:
________________________

John,

We are not looking for "little green men" and we are not ' X-Filers and Roswell pilgrims". You have chosen to slight over 3 million users (actually well over 4+ million, when you consider people who group together as mini-teams) with your plug for other DC Projects. I am the Membership Administrator for the 11th largest Seti Team, Team AnandTech, and we share our Distributing Computing Forum with all of the Distributing Computing Projects. Team Anandtech has SETI, RC5, Folding, UD, Cancer, ECCp teams and all are world ranked. We support each other with computer advice and for fun switch programs during "races" with other DC Teams.

It is a common sense rule we observe that in order to promote Distributing Computing we do not trash other projects for the sake of promoting the project that we individually think is more deserving of our computer's spare CPUs.

Unlike the characterization you made of SETI, the search for a radio signal created by some other intelligence outside of our own planet will be the first hard proof that we are not alone. I would like to invite you to join us in a very exciting science project, that is not only innovative, but will undoubtably be the true vehicle of our "First Contact".

Sincerely,

Greg Lawrence
aka Smokeball
Team AnandTech
 
Good letter, Smoke.

I was willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt because there are certainly valid reasons (in my mind, at least) for choosing to run DC projects like UD's cancer program instead of SETI. It can definitely be viewed as a field of study with a much greater possibility for tangible results.

I choose to run SETI, but I run others from time to time, and I can certainly see the arguments for not running SETI in favor of another DC project. But, categorizing DC projects with P2P file-sharing and calling it "the same thing you use to illegally download copyrighted music off the Web" is just flat out wrong.

😕:disgust:
 
Here's my Email to John...

John,

Your article makes some good points but I'm at a loss why you put down SETI@Home as if it's totally worthless. Yes, there are other worthwhile DC programs available but that does not mean they are better or more valuable than Berkeley's SETI project. In fact, I recently read an article that clearly states the current Folding@Home project is incapable of performing the necessary complex calculations needed for the research in curing these diseases you mention. Does that mean Folding@Home is worthless? Using your logic the answer would be yes but I would beg to differ. In my opinion it just means Folding@Home (and many other DC programs) are in an infant stage. The current F@H program may not lead to a cure for a disease but that doesn't mean a future release will not and how would there be any advances in the program without the current participants?

Also, I found one part of your article inaccurate. You compared the current Distributed Computing programs to P2P programs such as Napster, Morpheus, etc. As far as I know they are far apart in design and use. Users of Distributed Computing donate their spare CPU cycles to a project. Users of P2P programs share files with each other. I wouldn't say there's a lot of similarity there.

Thanks,

Rob
 


<< If I find out that little green men exist, then I can die of Alzheimer's tommorow and die happy. Besides, if we find them,they better have a cure, or we will feel cheated 😛 >>



lol @ evadman

 
Pfffffft.... "little green men" indeed
rolleye.gif
- everyone knows they are grey, not green.
 
I just read the article, and all mention of SETI seems to have disappeared. 😕
 


<< Pfffffft.... "little green men" indeed - everyone knows they are grey, not green. >>



They aren't all grey. The Reptons are greenish, scaly, carnivorous overlords.

Does anybody know what color Xenu is? Any Scientologists in the group??????

 
I think the article has now been replaced. The link goes to a different one for me too.
 
i can probably pull it from our archives if anyone wants to read the story from the original...
let me know
 
Any Scientologists in the group??????

I don't care for his philosophy, but his science-fiction books weren't too bad. 🙂

Does anyone know if he's still writing SciFi stuff, or did he decide he could make more money with Scientology?
rolleye.gif


 
I wouldn't bet on a reply or a follow-up, it's extremely rare for people like that to actually admit they weren't 110% correct.
 


<< Does anyone know if he's still writing SciFi stuff, or did he decide he could make more money with Scientology?
rolleye.gif
>>



I doubt it, since he's been dead for 16 years. 😉
 
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