Any info on what exactly is "wrong" @ SETI?

I've been doing some thinking... (I can hear the "uh-ohs" and groans already! :D )...
The reason I don't crunch much SETI anymore is simply a poor credits thing. However, I know a lot has been said in the past regarding "issues" within the scientific portion of the project, and how they will ne er find anything at all because the project's data or what have you is flawed from the beginning.

Now, considering the phenomenal number of computers hooked up to project SETI@Home, the countless hours of computer time and electricity going down the tubes for this. . . Not to mention it is (or rather, it should be) the cornerstone project and shinning example of what Distributed computing power can do for humanity...

Does anyone else see the insanity of it all? If there is error in either the scientific method applied to the data, problems with storing it or algorithm errors or whatever the case may be; is there some way the project can be salvaged from a scientific standpoint?

I will come out and say I think it a bit arrogant of the human race to think we are alone or even "higher on the food chain" than anything else out there in the universe. It's a great idea to continue the search or at least stay open to it, so that's why I'm curious for details on what exactly is wrong with the project, and if it can be salvaged.

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I recall someone mentioning that S@H now has access to "clean" data. So if the project is actually using this newer source then the work done is valid.

The question is: Has anyone started even looking at the results yet? Last time I checked (a few years ago), no one had EVER looked at the results to see if there was anything significant to follow up on.

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Originally Posted by zombie67

The question is: Has anyone started even looking at the results yet? Last time I checked (a few years ago), no one had EVER looked at the results to see if there was anything significant to follow up on.

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Actually, it was a couple years ago they started posting "Hits" that eventually led them to realize their Aricebo data was being corrupted by the nearby Radar installation in the first place. They thought they knew the timing of it, but learned otherwise. And the frequency that the radar bursts are seen in the data stream, that they then have to "blank out" to avoid false positives, leads to a very spotty data set to work through. Have you ever made sense of someone talking on the phone when you were missing every other word? Well, try imaging that when the person talking isn't even speaking your language! :)

With their newer data source, I've got hope they may eventually be able to make something of the data, but I agree, I gave up expecting it to produce any real results and moved on. Let's cure Cancer or produce better medicines and materials instead.

Thanks guys, glad to hear there is hope for this project to one day find something worth while.

@Mumps- is there any word on what their new source is, or how much cleaner it is than Arecibo was? (I think that's what they were using initially, wasn't it?)...

I gave up working SETI when they changed to Boinc and have not bothered to go back to it except for a small burst of work units. I have turned to the scientific areas to try to help out in my humble way some of the projects that we here on earth really should care about. Not saying that we are alone or anything like that, but trying to find someone or something 1,000,000 light years away seems like a lot of wasted computing time to me when we don't even have a cure for the common cold.

This is only my take on SETI and why I don't do any wu's anymore. I, of course, am not telling others not to crunch it. Crunch whatever you want and keep coming up with good discussions on the board.

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Originally Posted by Mumps

Have you ever made sense of someone talking on the phone when you were missing every other word? Well, try imaging that when the person talking isn't even speaking your language! :)

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...or even on the phone because he is just an imaginary friend.;)

Men can't even understand women much less apes, dolphins, or less intelligent species. So, what makes anyone think that they'd be able to understand an alien? Or, if the alien is so advanced that they can transmit a signal across the galaxy, does anyone really think they would do it via radio waves? Really? That makes about as much sense as the gold plated record that went up with Voyager. Of course the aliens would have a record player! OK, it was actually a laser disc with images, video, music, and data on it, but do you know anyone who has one? And someone thinks the aliens would have one?

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Originally Posted by Slicker

...Of course the aliens would have a record player! OK, it was actually a laser disc with images, video, music, and data on it, but do you know anyone who has one?

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ET had one! :D

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Originally Posted by Slicker

Men can't even understand women much less apes, dolphins, or less intelligent species. So, what makes anyone think that they'd be able to understand an alien? Or, if the alien is so advanced that they can transmit a signal across the galaxy, does anyone really think they would do it via radio waves? Really? That makes about as much sense as the gold plated record that went up with Voyager. Of course the aliens would have a record player! OK, it was actually a laser disc with images, video, music, and data on it, but do you know anyone who has one? And someone thinks the aliens would have one?

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Come on!! These were our best and brightest minds working on that project. Spent a Billion dollars to put that product up there.

To Quote Bruce Willis in Armageddon, " I mean, you-you're NASA for cryin' out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You-you're the guys that think this shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You're telling me you don't have a backup plan,..."

X_X

Yeha, the crazy Duke have some ideas about it. :D

I really think we had some help along the way. I don't know if they are watching from the space or from the future. It is a bit crazy I know. There are so many proofs and histories that came from the pass that we can not stop imagining if the gods were astraunauts.

I have started a scientific fiction book about a planet with many races ( of flesh and iron ) that tried to conquer earth and in his inner fights destroyed each other starting the legends of the fallen angels or long life magicians ( like Merlin ) and the date for the next ship to arrive was 21st December 2012. One thing that still puzzles me is why among all races of all earth some legends and dates are very consistence but unless they can travel ( or comunicate ) faster than light ( and in that case SETI would be useless ), they should have a very different way of thinking about time.

I don't really think the comunication between very advanced beings should be restrain to the light speed limit or would be useless. Can you imagine a conversation with gaps of hundreds of years between question and answer? So SETI have to search for any other kind of comunication that we don't have for now that is if can be made. So I think for now SETI is useless even to a conversation with our neighboor star the gap would be of 9 years between saying something and earing the answer and at what cost.

Attachment 932 for your patience with the very Crazy Duke X_X