Has Seti@Home ever found anything?

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Zephirus

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Message 485619 - Posted: 19 Dec 2006, 21:16:35 UTC

Ive been running this on multiple computers for a few months now. While I dont mind running it, it does raise the concern if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise. Does seti@home program alert you when it finds something or what?

Just curious.
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Message 485624 - Posted: 19 Dec 2006, 21:23:50 UTC - in response to Message 485619.  

Ive been running this on multiple computers for a few months now. While I dont mind running it, it does raise the concern if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise. Does seti@home program alert you when it finds something or what?

Just curious.

They haven't found anything terribly interesting (anything clearly of intelligent origin).

That said, the sky is mind-bogglingly big, and we'd have to be "listening" at the same time "ET" is sending.

Once they have found something, I'm sure the word will go out in a big way.
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Message 486007 - Posted: 20 Dec 2006, 8:50:06 UTC - in response to Message 485619.  

...if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise...

Oooooooooo... They've found LOTs of things, but not ET yet.

If anything is found, it will be carefully verified. Berkeley will then notify those with the WUs that have made the detection.


The biggest problem is to avoid hyping up a false positive. There would be a media frenzy to be followed by an awful embarrasingly hard crash.

For myself, s@h is as interesting for all the "spinoffs" as it is for SETI itself.

Happy crunchin',
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Message 486154 - Posted: 20 Dec 2006, 14:24:55 UTC
Last modified: 20 Dec 2006, 14:28:57 UTC

One has to remember that the search for Seti, although a very sexy project for getting the populace involved in volunteering their spare CPU cycles for science, is at very best a long shot when it comes to detecting any signal from ET. It was and still is at it's most basic level an experiment in distributed computing. This project has been very successful at proving that it is possible to create and maintain a supercomputer with desktop computers. Seti has proven itself capable of sustaining the interest of hundreds of thousands of people.

The bigger challenge is getting these same people involved in other less sexy (dare I say dull) and also financially challenged branches of basic research that have a much better chance of more directly impacting and improving our lives in the long and near term. This is, to me, the main purpose of developing the Boinc software itself.

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Message 486202 - Posted: 20 Dec 2006, 15:26:25 UTC

Coincidentally, the Science channel is re-broadcasting Cosmos, and last night was the episode about searching for ET, _Encyclopedia_Galactica_. Great shots of Arecibo, and he goes into actually putting down numbers to the chances of intelligent life in this galaxy.

They showed the program to my class back in grade school, on these great big honkin' cassette tapes. I was completely captivated. Aside from the new-age music, it holds up pretty good!
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Message 486204 - Posted: 20 Dec 2006, 15:30:15 UTC - in response to Message 485624.  
Last modified: 20 Dec 2006, 15:34:36 UTC

Ive been running this on multiple computers for a few months now. While I dont mind running it, it does raise the concern if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise. Does seti@home program alert you when it finds something or what?

Just curious.

They haven't found anything terribly interesting (anything clearly of intelligent origin).

That said, the sky is mind-bogglingly big, and we'd have to be "listening" at the same time "ET" is sending.

Once they have found something, I'm sure the word will go out in a big way.


Well, listening "at the right time", not at the same time. Ok. I'm nitpicking and am sure you already knew that. :-)

The way I see something unfolding would be along the lines of:

- Something interesting is found and doesn't appear to be caused by any /known/ natural phenomena.

...and, if the "find", is able to be repeated:

- SETI@home tries to follow same protocol as the SETI Institute (not the same organization) as best as possible:

http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=179287

- No "information" is ever extracted from the "signal", despite attempts to consider every possible /known/ way to modulate, encode, etc.

- Theories are brought forth on how natural phenomena could have created the signal.

- It becomes continuously debated whether the signal was by an intelligence or natural phenomena. (Similar to that Mars meteorite containing "biological fossils".)

This is the way science is supposed to work...

...of course, there is always that chance that an ET signal carrying intelligence that is easily extracted by dummies (intended to be found) is possible. After all, we did this ourselves. I'm not holding my breath though.

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Message 497329 - Posted: 4 Jan 2007, 16:44:30 UTC


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5793453751420599744&hl=en

Maybe....
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Message 497373 - Posted: 4 Jan 2007, 17:29:15 UTC
Last modified: 4 Jan 2007, 17:29:52 UTC

SETI is a gamble. But it is an intelligent gamble. Chances for success are low however the possibility is always there.
There are set rules to follow if a signal is found. I can't find the link now but I do know that the signal has to be confirmed by at least 2 radio observatories.
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Message 497450 - Posted: 4 Jan 2007, 19:58:21 UTC - in response to Message 497329.  
Last modified: 4 Jan 2007, 20:00:48 UTC


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5793453751420599744&hl=en

Maybe....


"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
- Carl Sagan

"Where's the beef?"
- The old woman in the old Wendy's commercial

I knew nothing about Steven Greer until I saw him mentioned in a post on here recently. Trying to be objective, I went to read a little more about him.

From what I have gathered, this isn't the first time he has made claims about something to be unveiled Any-Minute-Now, nor has he ever provided any hard evidence for any of his claims.

Like all other modern snake-oil charlatans, all he has to offer are anecdotes and blurry pictures.

His forte' seems to be distort casual conversations into ways to meet his agenda. He also embarrassed himself quite a bit years ago when he came up with a story about how US troops had attacked an alien base in Colorado with nerve gas. Even the tabloids found that one too far fetched.

The guy is a scam.

Below is a letter from James Woolsey to Steven Greer.
--

Dear Dr. Greer:

It has just come to the attention of the four of us that you
have, without giving any of us the opportunity to comment,
published a distorted account of a dinner party of some six years
ago at which the four of us, you, and your wife were seated
together.

In the Introduction to your book, Extraterrestrial Contact,
published earlier this year you portray this dinner party
conversation during which the four of us listened to your views
and politely asked questions as a "briefing" with a "cover
story." You further assert that Mr. and Mrs. Woolsey reported a
UFO sighting to you and agreed with your views. You include
specific alleged quotations from them.

None of this is accurate. You have portrayed politeness as
acquiescence and questions as affirmations. Your conduct in this
matter contravenes both accuracy and simple manners.

Sincerely,

John L. Petersen
Diane C. Petersen
R. James Woolsey
Suzanne H. Woolsey
---------



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Message 497477 - Posted: 4 Jan 2007, 20:38:31 UTC

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Message 497537 - Posted: 4 Jan 2007, 22:39:31 UTC - in response to Message 485619.  
Last modified: 4 Jan 2007, 22:42:21 UTC

Ive been running this on multiple computers for a few months now. While I dont mind running it, it does raise the concern if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise. Does seti@home program alert you when it finds something or what?

Just curious.



This is interesting
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Message 497752 - Posted: 5 Jan 2007, 7:02:57 UTC
Last modified: 5 Jan 2007, 7:07:10 UTC

Forget the disclosure project, or even the diffictultity in finding a repeated sequenced signal of some kind (singifying an ETI transmission) the data that is being collected and crunched is not being analysed for 'interesting candidate signals'.

i.e. no data analysis for candidate signals has been done since 2002!

Candidate Signals

There are currently no plans to do any! Why? i hear you ask... well don't ask you may not like the answer.

Just Keep Crunching! <Blindermode ON>

Enigma.

Belief gets in the way of learning

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Message 497845 - Posted: 5 Jan 2007, 12:17:16 UTC

thats what I think as well. I mean no matter what you do, cancer research, or seti or whatever. you kannot be 100% sure that the results are used for humanity-stuff
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Message 498032 - Posted: 5 Jan 2007, 20:33:33 UTC - in response to Message 497537.  

Ive been running this on multiple computers for a few months now. While I dont mind running it, it does raise the concern if anyone has actually found ANYTHING at all other than just static or noise. Does seti@home program alert you when it finds something or what?

Just curious.



This is interesting


"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"

This book should be a required high school reading as it encourages critical thinking while unmasking pseudoscience.

...and thats all that this Steven Greer has to offer: pseudoscience, (distorted) anecdotes, and blurry pictures.

To date, there is no hard, peer-reviewed, and widely confirmed evidence of life off the Earth. (Some of the test results from the Viking landers, along with that Mars meteorite, are very intriguing though.) As much as I believe, as most do I'm sure, that life most certainty should exist elsewhere -- I know this just a belief. As a belief, it is without warrant -- regardless of any warm fuzzy feelings.

Semi-related, but illustrating critical thinking:

Recently, I went looking at some of the "UFO" pictures out there on the internet and was extremely disappointed. There wasn't a single photograph taken that made me even remotely consider it being from extraterrestrial intelligence. Almost all of them are blurry. Even current pictures, when we have digital cameras, are as blurry as a 1970's Welcome Back Kotter episode.

The photographer will say that the photo is blurry because it was taken in the heat of the moment. If I see an airliner flying above my house (at cruise altitude), I can quickly run inside to grab my camera and take a photo of it. I can them download that picture to my computer and zoom into the airliner. Zooming in with software, the airliner, while flying at 30,000 feet, is clearly visible as an aircraft. You can make out the wings, engines, tail that weren't visible to the naked eye.

...but, ET in his flying saucer, hovering directly above a corn field 200 yards away, always comes out blurry? Give me a break.



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Message 498455 - Posted: 6 Jan 2007, 14:17:12 UTC




< Time has come again . . .

"Understanding the ETI Messages and Replying Appropriately"


Draft Declaration of Principles Concerning Sending Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

1.International consultations should be initiated to consider the question of sending
communications to extraterrestrial civilizations.

2.Consultations on whether a message should be sent, and its content, should take
place within the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of the United
Nations and within other governmental and non-governmental organizations, and
should accommodate participation by qualified, interested groups that can
contribute constructively to these consultations.

3.These consultations should be open to participation by all interested States and
should be intended to lead to recommendations reflecting a consensus.

4.The United Nations General Assembly should consider making the decision on
whether or not to send a message to extraterrestrial intelligence, and on what the
content of that message should be, based on recommendations from the
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and from governmental and
non-governmental organizations.

5.If a decision is made to send a message to extraterrestrial intelligence, it should
be sent on behalf of all Humankind, rather than from individual States.

6.The content of such a message should reflect a careful concern for the broad
interests and wellbeing of Humanity, and should be made available to the public
in advance of transmission.

7.As the sending of a communication to extraterrestrial intelligence could lead to
an exchange of communications separated by many years, consideration should
be given to a long-term institutional framework for such communications.

8.No communication to extraterrestrial intelligence should be sent by any State
until appropriate international consultations have taken place. States should not
cooperate with attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence that
do not conform to the principles of this Declaration.

9.In their deliberations on these questions, States participating in this Declaration
and United Nations bodies should draw on the expertise of scientists, scholars,
and other persons with relevant knowledge.


Proposed by the SETI Commitee of the International Academy of Astronautics, 1995

. . . persons with relevant knowledge

© The SETI League, Inc. 2003

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Message 498844 - Posted: 7 Jan 2007, 0:57:30 UTC

Unfortunately, unless you watch your screen saver throughout the entire time you are running the programe you will not be certain that you have found anything.
if anything was found, it is hardly likely that the discoverer, you, will be informed despite the rules and regulations that state that legally you must be informed.
if you kick up and say that you did indeed find something, it will simply be put down that it was a relected signal, or a non-repeatable event.

incidently, i use a canon 350D with a EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens with which i have 4 clear, precise photos of a hovering object which looks unlike anything of this Earth. clear photos are simply not published due to officials classifying the images.
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Message 498871 - Posted: 7 Jan 2007, 2:14:18 UTC - in response to Message 498831.  
Last modified: 7 Jan 2007, 2:16:27 UTC

In October 2004, I had a workunit under Seti@Home 3.08 that produced a strong line a little to the left of the middle of the scale. The workunit may have run for 5 seconds and then exited. Later I have played a downloaded .avi file (for Windows Media Player) on my PC which shows the famous "WOW" signal. There are a lot of similarities, I think, although I do not have this file as well as other files anymore because of a disc failure.

A Notepad file from October 12, 2004 reminds me about this. Maybe I posted it as well. Unfortunately, I do not have a log of the result, neither the name of the work unit.

Here is another thing as well. Have a look at this. Don't bother too much with the text.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-163352743368759494&q=2+UFO's+on+patrol

It shows nothing the first 5 seconds out of 9, so do a replay of it.
If you look carefully, there are two moving objects (from the left to the right).

What is it ? Anyone able to do a video analysis perhaps ?

fjernhode

fjernhode, Yep, thats them Aliens alright!

Here, This is the link as a URL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-163352743368759494&q=2+UFO's+on+patrol

Click reply to this thread and you will see how to bring up your links as click URL's

John in Ireland.
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Message 499050 - Posted: 7 Jan 2007, 14:08:06 UTC - in response to Message 497752.  


i.e. no data analysis for candidate signals has been done since 2002!

Candidate Signals

There are currently no plans to do any! Why? i hear you ask... well don't ask you may not like the answer.

Just Keep Crunching! <Blindermode ON>

Enigma.


What? I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not doing this for "credits" or to see how many data units my machine can crunch. I've been wondering where the "science" was since I started back in doing this a few weeks ago. Unless I've missed something, the only info regarding results (good, bad or indifferent) isn't even on the new web site, and is years old. That's pretty pathetic.

If SETI isn't going to analyze the data, and start posting some current info on what's been found (or not), then I really don't have much interest in continuing to participate. I mean - for what? To improve my RAC numbers? What a joke...

Does anyone have any info on SETI's plans to start publicly sharing some information here regarding the status of the "science" of what we're all supposed to be working on?
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