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SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)
is a massive distributed computing project which searches for
narrowband radio signals from space as a sign of intelligent life
- Millions of
computers throughout the Internet contribute computing power to process
massive amounts of raw radiotelescope data
-
Key assumptions:
- Alien
technology developed in the same way as human technology
- Aliens
squabbled politically over spectrum and divided it up into narrow
slices just as we did; and
- To do this is a
sign of intelligence (!)
- The fact that the
project has adopted this anthropocentric viewpoint with so few
objections from the scientific and engineering communities shows just
how inculcated the notion of sine waves as a basis set has truly become
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