Do NOT Try This @Home

by Bruce Stiles

Recently I started running SETI@Home on my personal computer. "SETI" stands for "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence," and the "@Home" refers to a project to use personal computer time that would otherwise be unused to crunch data in search of intelligent signals that are not of human origin. Data is broken down into chunks at world headquarters and passed out to personal computers over the Internet. After the personal computer processes the information, the results are sent back to world headquarters, a new chunk of data is sent to the personal computer, and the cycle starts again.

Crunching the data takes an awful lot of computer power. Exactly what calculations does the personal computer do? I don't have the slightest idea. I had SETI@Home running in the background, and I was surprised to find that it bogged down my personal computer. After a short while, I learned that I didn't have to actively run it at all. SETI@Home is designed to be a screensaver. It uses my CPU when I am not using it, and gives it back to me when I want to use it. I have a dedicated Internet line, and communications with world headquarters occurs without my doing anything, since that is the option I chose. I just leave my personal computer on and keep it connected to the World Wide Web. The software takes care of the rest.

Chances are slight that a candidate signal will be found, but it's not like I'm putting a lot of effort into the project. It's not glamorous, but it is legitimate science. If you would like to know more about the SETI@Home program, and maybe help out, take a look at the SETI@Home Website at: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/