Valerie

SETI RISING by jdb_educator, Editor in Chief

During the recent Worldcon, Cybertown was honored to have well known author and member of the SETI Institute, Dr. Seth Shostak, share his alien insights with us. On September 3 crowds of Cybertown citizens met in City Hall in 3D to listen to and ask SETIseth (his nickname for the event) about the SETI Program. It was a very well attended meeting (about a hundred citizens) with some excellent questions; the Q & A chat was moderated by Clean.

What did we find out?

1. First of all, please check out The SETI Institute 2. There are few people really involved in SETI 3. SETI aims to recruit all computer users: SETI@home... 4. Prove Aliens have landed and YOU may win the Nobel Prize!

5. Expect CONTACT in 10 to 20 Years 6. Expect that aliens will be more advanced than we are 7. 98% of the received data is analyzed in Berkeley 8. The set up is like the movie Contact, except for the worm holes 9. We are making replies to any possible contacts. (TV, radio, etc.) 10. We could send our DNA information..it is about 1 gig worth SETIseth had to end off answering questions eventually (due to a computer crash) after well over the scheduled hour, but has promised to return. Be sure and take a look at his engaging book, Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life . It addresses where the extraterrestrials are likely to be hanging out, what they'll be like, and much more.

Here's the complete chat log from the 3 September event. For screen shots from the event click here .