Why SETI @ home??

There is nor real reason to use SETI@home in my oppinion.. Probably because I beleive that aliens have allready visited us... And there are much more important thigs that you can dedicate your CPU power on.. Folding@home for example..

is anyone aware of any other projects/programs like seti@home and folding@home to which we can dedicate our CPU usage?

There is one that does cancer research I beleive I cannot recall the name at this time though.

There are also some projects that try cracking RC5, DES3 and other kinds of crypto.

Originally posted by Helix
There is nor real reason to use SETI@home in my oppinion.. Probably because I beleive that aliens have allready visited us... And there are much more important thigs that you can dedicate your CPU power on.. Folding@home for example..

Hi Helix!!

*What* an interesting question!!

I had a debate recently, that you *might* want to look at? This was around this very question and can be found here. When you've read this, you *might* want to "come back" and review your stance?? Not that I'm saying you will, but then again...

As for other programs that use distributed computing at home: yes, there are several - for a start, please have a look at this link.

For myself, I run SETI@home as it matches my hobbies of astronomy and amateur radio....

As to *your* belief that aliens have already visited us - have you proff positive please?

I also run another program by www.distributed.net... They offer prize money to the person that gets the code to the project at hand. They have more than one you can run. Check it out. They also have teams.....havn't checked on an ATS team yet.

To address Helix's point, I have a number of reasons for running SETI@Home. I can't sum them up quite as eloquently as Genya in his debate, but I will give it a shot.
I can say that I have contributed to the Guinness World Record for the Largest Computation ever as well as the largest public distributed computing project in terms of computing power at a whopping 71 TeraFLOPs/second. Talk about bragging rights...!

No project has more potential "bang for the buck" value than searching for ETs, because if we find proof it will be the biggest event ever. I am doing my fair share of searching for evidence of ET life, much more so that carrying a camera around looking for UFOs. OK, OK-- I admit, I do that too, but mainly for airplanes!

I don't feel that I am neglecting my fellow man by not participating in cancer or drug research. I am currently employed in that field and do quite enough of that type of thing in my job.

Originally posted by Helix
There is nor real reason to use SETI@home in my oppinion.. Probably because I beleive that aliens have allready visited us... And there are much more important thigs that you can dedicate your CPU power on.. Folding@home for example..

I must agree. I ran SETI@home for about 2 months and one day realized that it didn't really do anything. If it was doing anything it wasn't looking for ETs. Maybe users are doing the biddings of evil capitalists for all we know. We may be running code for a company that steals information from our computer.

I also read somewhere that SETI@home was created for the public to give them a 'pacifier' and keep our intrigue about ETs to a minimum.

Sell SETI@home to the tourists. Because I'm just not buying it.


Nutzo

Originally posted by nutzobalzo...Maybe users are doing the biddings of evil capitalists for all we know. We may be running code for a company that steals information from our computer.

I also read somewhere that SETI@home was created for the public to give them a 'pacifier' and keep our intrigue about ETs to a minimum.... Nutzo

AH!! Well, we are ach entitled to our POV Nutzo. I had a debate recently here on this very topic. You might be interested in reading this (which was unfinished, unfortunately, due to my opponent having to "bow out" )

Nevertheless, as I say, there is *no* compulsion to run SETI@home or, indeed, BOINC - there are many other distributed computer programs available - just so long as the computers "earn their keep" - and do something - is fine by me!! Don't give them an easy Life, I say, but keep the cpu running 24/7, whilst they contribute to our collective fund of knowledge!!

Thank you Nutzo for your input to our pages!!

Don't take it personally if a reply is a long time coming, Genya.

nutzobalzo
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Originally posted by Spectre
Don't take it personally if a reply is a long time coming, Genya.

Thanx Spectre!! Sometimes "bumping" these threads is enlightening to others as well as those who post the original content... Whilst Nutzo made a valid point, I felt it needed "countering", so thought I'd put in my �0.02...

Thanx again for the "heads up" Spectre!!

Not everyone runs s@h to hunt aliens; i do it partly to be part of a team,like spectre has said; team ATS.

Other distributed projects: www.aspenleaf.com...

Maybe there should be ATS teams for some of the encryption breaking projects. They seem conspiracy related.

Well I was asked to come here and back up my claim that the government would use this as a way to get into our computers now I don't have any proof because then it would not be a very secret program by the pentagon now would it. Also im just a little paranoid can you blame me this government doesn't have a perfect track record about protecting peoples right.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Well I was asked to come here and back up my claim ...

By whom were you asked WP23? It all sounds very sinister to me...

Rest assured that there are 5 050 585 SETI@home users across the world either running the program now or who have it in the past. I have run it myself since July 2001. I run malware and spyware programs and these do not report anything untoward with SETI@home. I haven't had visits from the police, my phone isn't tapped, I haven't been abducted... SETI@home is a program less than 1Mb in length as the screensaver version and I suspect that "it does what it says on the tin", rather than be a clever way for the Government to spy on me... Then again, I wouldn't know would I if they were?

Thank you for your interest and input. Have a nice day!

Sinister, Genya? It was I who invited Westpoint to expound on the subject. What could possibly be sinister about *my* motives? (You haven't blown my cover have you? )

I appreciate you stopping by and expressing your concerns, WP. I hope that the information provided by the "G-man" was helpful in setting your mind at ease. I can't add much to his argument except that I have carefully examined the files that SETI downloads and uploads as well as monitoring the traffic it sends and receives via the Internet. So far, nothing unsavory has appeared, but if it does, rest assured that I will throw the lid off the conspiracy. Never have I been one to sit back and let the government do things the easy way. I go so far as to put any and all "Echelon keywords" that turn up on the 'net to my webpage just to gum up the works.

If you do find any evidence concerning secret government involvement in legitimate research such as SETI, please post it.

Until then, be well and happy.

-Spectre

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Well I was asked to come here and back up my claim that the government would use this as a way to get into our computers now I don't have any proof because then it would not be a very secret program by the pentagon now would it. Also im just a little paranoid can you blame me this government doesn't have a perfect track record about protecting peoples right.

The sourcecode for both Seti@Home and BOINC are available to the public, either when asked or just public on the site.

This alows people like me that are IT Pro's, know linux and know how to program to check the program. Up to this point, no privacy problems have been found in the clean sourcecode or the decompiles of the windows and other versions.

Cheers Spectre and thematrix for your responses!

Spectre, your cover was blown many moons ago.... Seriously, I'm just an "end user" here so can only speak from this position but I've never heard of any "SETI@home spyware", other than from people who hint at it... no offence meant to anybody, of course.

I'm sure that the NSA (or MI5/6 whatever) can discover *exactly* what they want to find out about *me* without having to rely on the possibilty of me (or anybody else!) downloading SETI@home randomly and "on a whim" - I'm not sure that would be an efficient use of their time??

Thanx again for your input both (and to those further up the thread, who started and contributed to it beforehand!)

Hi folks,
Nothing yet has convinced me that I should re run seti@home, I had it for almost a year, and what did it do all year?? i've seen nuthing of what my pc is calculating...
I 'know' that ufo's and aliens are reality, I think i dont need seti to prove that, has anyone EVER recieved something from aliens?(working with SETI)
I would like to know what seti exactly does..., but then again, the ones that know they are among us dont need seti, because I personally think that no one ever will discover aliens true seti, aliens are not gonna show themselfs true seti to us, so i dont see why I should use it? anyone could convince me? please...any tips are welcome, why seti should be usefull.

Peace my friends

[edit on 8-7-2004 by Italiano]

[edit on 8-7-2004 by Italiano]

A *very* belated reply Italiano, as I do not like to "self-publicise" - honestly.

My answer can be found, I think, in my debate, here, although I'm more than happy to accomodate you in any specifics you care to highlight!

Peace to you and yours also!

Seti needs our processing power for its 'number-crunching' as one of us mentioned earlier. The reason they do this is that idle machines are one of the greatest untapped resources on this planet besides our minds themselves.Also they dont have the funding to buy a ton of DSP processors which would suit the job because from what I see on the program all it does is calculate FFTs of received signals. Anything else they use our processing power for?

[edit on 17-10-2004 by Daedalus3]