:: Sunday, May 30, 2004 ::

ORIGINAL POST: Saturday, May 29, 2004
BY: Garrett Lynch

SETI@home, the "scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)" turned five years old on May 17th 2004. The application that collates data on users computers while they are not in use, essentially repurposing the redundant concept of a screensaver, rapidly became known as the best and most widely used example of a term classified as "Distributed Computing". With ever diminishing monetary support in the states for research such as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and ever rising amounts of information to process, researchers and scientists were faced with the problem of finding a solution of enough computing power to assist them in their continued search....

"Most of the SETI programs in existence today, including those at UC Berkeley build large computers that analyze that data from the telescope in real time. None of these computers look very deeply at the data for weak signals nor do they look for a large class of signal types (which we'll discuss further on). The reason for this is because they are limited by the amount of computer power available for data analysis. To tease out the weakest signals, a great amount of computer power is necessary. It would take a monstrous supercomputer to get the job done. SETI programs could never afford to build or buy that computing power. There is a trade-off that they can make. Rather than a huge computer to do the job, they could use a smaller computer but just take longer to do it. But then there would be lots of data piling up. What if they used LOTS of small computers, all working simultaneously on different parts of the analysis? Where can the SETI team possibly find thousands of computers they'd need to analyze the data continuously streaming from Arecibo? The UC Berkeley SETI team has discovered that there are already thousands of computers that might be available for use. Most of these computers sit around most of the time with toasters flying across their screens accomplishing absolutely nothing and wasting electricity to boot. This is where SETI@home, (and you!), comes into the picture. The SETI@home project hopes to convince you to allow us to borrow your computer when you aren't using it and to help us "…search out new life and new civilizations." We'll do this with a screen saver that can go get a chunk of data from us over the internet, analyze that data, and then report the results back to us. When you need your computer back, our screen saver instantly gets out of the way and only continues its analysis when you are finished with your work."

Now while the use of this idea, its purpose might prove to be a bit too much on the side of Geek Chic for many, like something out of the X-Files, don't be fooled, the idea itself and its implications are astonishing. An application that that can be downloaded and installed on an infinite number of computers, that can communicate with a server and break data down into segments, packets, which can be processed sent back and reassembled in order with no loss of information or oversight. Essentially using the idle time of a resource (computers connected to the internet) that continues to expand at enormous rate, its no surprise that SETI@home has many admirers across the computing community with many being net / new media artists -- This writer being one.

SETI@home can be downloaded from the Berkeley University website here.

"Many people who master a computer end up doing print work, with no artistic or aesthetic notions. Here [Kabum!] we will be empowering young people not only artistically but also technologically".

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