
SETI Needs Your Help to Resume Search for Extraterrestrial Life  - blhack
https://setistars.org/donations
======
blhack
If you haven't yet seen the _wonderful_ "Sagan Series" on youtube, start with
this one:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHuve33yOVY>

or this one:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxsJeND_D-k&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxsJeND_D-k&feature=related)

Honestly, watching this chokes me up a little bit. Watching the last shuttle
flight, then seeing SETI have to realistically think about parking all of
their listening equipment is just...sad.

Too many people get caught up in the "why" of this stuff. You're looking at it
wrong. Look at space travel as an expression of humanity, and a really
important one. Ancient people built Pyramids, or Stonehenge, or the Colosseum.
I wonder how many Romans thought building the Colosseum was a waste of money.

The shuttle, or SETI are our Pyramids. It's disgusting that we can spend as
many billions of dollars a year as we do on blowing each other up, but things
like "Let's see what's on the other side of that proverbial mountain" get
defunded because they're "pointless".

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dave_sullivan
I think we've built/done plenty of cool things as a society and I don't think
ending the space program negates that (or what was achieved with the space
program in the first place).

I would really be more comfortable with a space program being funded directly
by people like yourself in the form of donations to a gov-independent
organization, because I for one don't really care all that much about
continued space exploration and don't think the government should pay for it.
Not that they don't spend tons of money on other stupid stuff, but hey, one
step at a time...

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jackpirate
Has SETI actually found anything scientifically useful?

(This is an honest question.)

~~~
ceejayoz
> Has SETI actually found anything scientifically useful?

Would you also reject a research grant for a potential cancer cure based on
the fact that the researcher hasn't cured cancer?

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hugh3
No, but if the hypothesis were "lemons cured cancer", and decades of evidence
had failed to show any evidence of lemons curing cancer, and the researchers
are still saying "Hmmm, maybe we need to cut the lemons up in a different way"
then I'd be disinclined to continue funding it.

~~~
cryptoz
What if your researches had been looking at only 100 cells of the
billions/trillions of cells in the lungs (for example), and they said they'd
like to expand to 200 of the maybe 100,000,000,000 cells available.

Do you still want to discontinue the search? It seems a bit premature at this
point.

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hugh3
No, but I'd want to see a better methodology than the one that can only check
1e-9 of the available search space every few decades.

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saturn7
Okay now only $1,933 after my donation. :) The Sooner we can get of this
planet the better.

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jerf
This does virtually nothing to get us off the planet. Yes, I can construct a
lengthy chain of events whereby a discovery that wouldn't have happened
without this donation encourages us to further our space program, but just
mailing money to Burt Rutan is more likely to have a direct result.

~~~
saturn7
I am in awe of you ability to construct a lengthy chain of events whereby this
is possible. You must know computers and stuff,

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heyrhett
Behold! The power of hacker news!

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whackedspinach
Funding successful!

~~~
drusenko
That didn't take too long :)

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nikcub
how much longer will they operate after this fundraising drive? for eg. are
they just going to have to ask for donations every year from now?

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heyrhett
Do they accept bitcoin?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Can you buy anything with bitcoins other than drugs right now?

edit: I know someone will roll their eyes at this comment and proceed to
defend bitcoin, but seriously - what can SETI buy with bitcoins that's useful
to them? And "anything people are willing to sell, man, it's just a currency!"
is a trivial answer.

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saturn7
Yes you can buy really bad porn

~~~
hugh3
Shit, man, I'll give you that for free.

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diolpah
I suggest that SETI attempt to pitch the research grant divison of Hadden
Industries. It is my understanding that S. R. Hadden is interested in this
type of thing.

