Searching For Intelligent Life

Do you remember the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where the scientists lured and communicated with a space ship using musical notes? Well, there are scientists at Berkeley who believe there are radio signals out there in space originating from extraterristrials. Through the use of a telescope in Puerto Rico and reports from computers all over the world, they want to record the signals and ultimately communicate with other intelligent life in the universe.

Without going into scientific explanations (because I'm not a scientist), Berkeley wants to gather radio signal reports from people's computers and compare it to their computer and to the records from the telescope. The telescope will scan outer space and send the tapes to Berkeley. In turn, Berkeley will send out small packets of information called work units to the client computers all over the world for analysis. By sheer numbers, the scientists will be able to collate the results from all the computers who are communicating with them.

This is where you or me come into play. A project called SET@home is looking for people to download their program so the work units can be sent out to their computers. The program runs as a screen saver on your computer and receives data from Berkeley on a regular basis. You must leave your computer turned on and use their screen saver. You can also have the program running in the background if you don't choose to use the screen saver.

SETI@home has not yet found evidence of extraterristrial radio signals but have received signals that are unidentifiable. These signals are still under analysis at Berkeley with the hope of making a discovery.

They have plotted the parts of the sky where the signals are the strongest and created several graphs for measuring the strength, modulations and duration. It's very interesting how they are able to analyze the data that is sent back and forth from our computers. I don't know how our computers are able to interpret the data. We just sit there with their screen saver playing during our off-hours and don't lift a finger! If your computer happens to pick up a valid signal, your name will be published in their scientific journal.

I haven't downloaded the software yet so I can't give you any first-hand experience. I'm thinking about it. I do have a cable modem so I can leave my computer turned on. I'm not sure if this program really works or provides valid data. I am fascinated with the unexplained and may do it out of curiosity. It gives me a weird feeling that my computer may be buzzing away with radio signals. All I need is to have a UFO hovering over my house!

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