1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,120 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And as I record this, 5 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: it is early March twenty twenty, just days after I 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:32,520 Speaker 1: received some devastating news. Technically, the whole world received this news. 7 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: I'm just taking it particularly hard. I heard that the 8 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:40,559 Speaker 1: distributed computing project SETI at Home is shutting down, at 9 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: least for a while. It's going on hiatus by the 10 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:48,639 Speaker 1: end of March. Now, for two decades, this project has 11 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: been relying on computer processing cycles provided by people like 12 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: all of you guys out there, just using regular computer 13 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: processors rather than some sort of massive super computer. Why 14 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: was it making use of that, Well, it was combing 15 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: through massive amounts of information gathered by radio telescopes in 16 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:14,320 Speaker 1: search for signals created not through some natural cosmological process, 17 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: but rather as evidence of intelligent communication. SETTI, you see, 18 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:25,400 Speaker 1: stands for the search for extra terrestrial intelligence. Now, in 19 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: this episode, I'm going to talk about the history of 20 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: SETTI as a science, and then as well, I'm gonna 21 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna kind of pivot around and talk about the 22 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 1: distributed computer programs and the CETI at Home program in particular. 23 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: We'll find out how distributed computing works. We'll talk about 24 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: a couple of other distributed computing programs that you can 25 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 1: still participate in if you're so inclined, and we'll also 26 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: look into what's next for SETI at Home and learn 27 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: why it's going on hiatus in the first place. Now, 28 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: we human beings have hypothesized about the possibility of extra 29 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: terrestrial or alien intelligence for a really long time. It's 30 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:08,240 Speaker 1: a frequent topic in pop culture. But perhaps I shouldn't 31 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: even use the word hypothesize, because for a really long 32 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: time in our history, there really wasn't any way to 33 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 1: test that hypothesis other than for us to, you know, 34 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,240 Speaker 1: look up at the sky and say, Nope, that ain't it. 35 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,800 Speaker 1: But that would all change with the invention of the 36 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: radio telescope. So it was in the nineteen twenties when 37 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: an engineer named Carl Jansky, working for Bell Telephone Laboratories 38 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: set the stage for radio astronomy. But that wasn't Jansky's 39 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,920 Speaker 1: goal at the time. He had been tasked with figuring 40 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: out where the source was of some signal interference that 41 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: was affecting telephone communications at that time. So in an 42 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: effort to kind of figure this out, he built a 43 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: directional antenna, and I guess that itself deserves its own 44 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: quick explanation. So and enna's can transmitted pickup signals, right, 45 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: I mean, that's what they do, and it actually helps 46 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:10,359 Speaker 1: to talk about transmitters first to understand how receiving antenna works. 47 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,239 Speaker 1: So a transmitter takes an electrical signal, typically one that's 48 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: been boosted with amplification, and sends that signal to a 49 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: transmitting antenna. Now we know that electricity and magnetism are related, right, 50 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: We've talked about that a ton in previous episodes, and 51 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: we've talked about electro magnetism and the electro magnetic spectrum 52 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: a lot on this show, even recently. So if you 53 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: run a current through a conductor, it generates electromagnetic waves, 54 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: including if the conductor's big enough, radio waves. Now on 55 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: the electromagnetic spectrum, radio waves have the longest wavelengths if 56 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: you look across that spectrum. They are a non ionizing 57 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: form of radiation, meaning they lack the power to strip 58 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: electrons away from atoms, and they aren't harmful. The waste 59 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: stuff like X rays or gamma rays are. So you 60 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: can wander around and you know, I have radio waves 61 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: hitting you. It's not gonna affect you in any way. 62 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: You won't even notice. Okay, So sending a powerful electrical 63 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: current through a big conductor generates radio waves along with 64 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:24,919 Speaker 1: other electromagnetic radiation. You can encode information on radio waves 65 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: by altering that signal in some way. Otherwise you're just 66 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,679 Speaker 1: sending out a long, steady tone like a sign wave. 67 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:37,159 Speaker 1: The two main ways to do this are frequency modulation, 68 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: in which you change the frequency of the radio waves 69 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: that you're sending out within a certain band of frequencies, 70 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,840 Speaker 1: or amplitude modulation, in which you change the amplitude. Or 71 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: you can think of it as almost like the strength 72 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: of the radio waves that you're sending out. That would 73 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,480 Speaker 1: end up being FM and a M radio respectively. All right, 74 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: So receivers take that same process, but they reverse it. 75 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: So as long as the signals that the antenna pick 76 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:07,800 Speaker 1: up are fluctuating in some way, then it's going to 77 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,840 Speaker 1: create an electric current in that antenna. So a properly 78 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:17,159 Speaker 1: tuned receiver that encounters the respect of radio wave radiation. 79 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: We'll see that whole process go and reverse. The radio 80 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: waves will induce electricity to flow through the antenna to 81 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: whatever device the antenna is hooked up to. It might 82 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:28,360 Speaker 1: be a meter, in which case you'll see the little 83 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: indicator show that there's a current running through that circuit. 84 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: Or it'll my radio so that you can listen to 85 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,799 Speaker 1: a radio station that way, could be any number of things. 86 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: It usually will require amplification of that signal. Typically the 87 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: signal is too weak to actually power anything significant, so 88 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: you would run it through an amplifier and thus take 89 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: that same signal and just boost its power before sending 90 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: it on to do whatever it was supposed to do. 91 00:05:55,760 --> 00:06:00,799 Speaker 1: Now I've dramatically simplified this whole process. There's other stuff 92 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,680 Speaker 1: we could talk about that really plays an important part, 93 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,800 Speaker 1: like the concept of resonance, but that is really the 94 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:10,920 Speaker 1: matter for a different episode entirely, and I have covered 95 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: it in previous episodes too. So essentially that's how antenna's work. 96 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: So jen Ski designed a directional antenna as opposed to 97 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: an omnidirectional antenna. So an omnidirectional antenna, as the name implies, 98 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:28,359 Speaker 1: can pick up signals transmitted from any direction from around 99 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,799 Speaker 1: that antenna. Like, just imagine an antenna poking up straight 100 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: in the air and it can accept radio waves from 101 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: any direction. Uh Now, a directional antenna is designed in 102 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: such a way where it is much more sensitive at 103 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 1: picking up signals that are coming from specific points. You 104 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: have to point the antenna toward the area where you 105 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:54,040 Speaker 1: expect there to be a radio wave, and the benefit 106 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: is you can pick up much weaker radio waves typically 107 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: with a directional antenna than with an omnidirect antenna. However, 108 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: if you're a couple of degrees off, if your antenna 109 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:07,839 Speaker 1: is not pointed directly at the source, you may not 110 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: pick up the signal at all. So if you have 111 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: the directional antenna pointed north, for example, but the source 112 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,000 Speaker 1: of radio waves is to the west, then your antenna 113 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: might not pick it up because it's pointed in a 114 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: different direction. However, this is an incredibly useful tool if 115 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:29,840 Speaker 1: you're trying to look for a specific you know, source 116 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: of of interference in your telephone communication system. I should 117 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: also add that there's another important thing about directional antennas 118 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: is that even they have a limit to how far 119 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: they can pick up a signal here on Earth. And 120 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:47,760 Speaker 1: this has to do with the fact that our Earth 121 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: is and brace yourselves round, it's not a flat earth people. 122 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: The way radio waves propagate and it can be transmitted 123 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: and received, that alone would ls that the Earth has 124 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: to be curved. And here's the reason. When you broadcast 125 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: radio waves, they travel outward in a straight line from 126 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: the source of radiation. And if the Earth were flat, 127 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,560 Speaker 1: then no matter how far away you were, if you 128 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: had a sensitive enough antenna, you'd be able to pick 129 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: up radio waves from that source. However, because the Earth curves, 130 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: then you look at two different points on the planet 131 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: that are far enough apart. That curvature means that if 132 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: you're having radio waves travel out at a straight line 133 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: from point A, they won't reach point B because it's 134 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: curved away from the path right, it'll be those radio 135 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: waves will just go out into space instead. There is 136 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,959 Speaker 1: an exception to this, and that's certain radio waves are 137 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 1: the right length where they can bounce off the Earth's 138 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: ion a sphere. So you can use the ionosphere sort 139 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: of like a mirror. You can point radio waves toward it. 140 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: It will bounce off the ionosphere and then angle back 141 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: down toward the surface of the Earth. That way, you 142 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: could actually transmit much further than you could just from 143 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: line of sight. You can think of his line of sight. 144 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: You don't even actually have to be able to see 145 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: the thing. It just has to be, like I said, 146 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 1: a more or less straight path from point A to 147 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: point B for you to pick it up. Okay, but 148 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:22,120 Speaker 1: that's beside the point. Jansky's antenna was a directional antenna 149 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: meant to pick up that source of uh of of interference. 150 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:34,400 Speaker 1: So he's picking up weird signals as he's using this 151 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:38,720 Speaker 1: directional antenna that don't seem to have any terrestrial source 152 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: to them, Like if he pointed the directional antenna up 153 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: into the air. He was picking up signals, but he 154 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: could not identify where those signals were coming from. And 155 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,400 Speaker 1: in nine after he had been scratching his head over 156 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: where this source could have come from, he concluded that 157 00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: at least some of the signals had to be extra 158 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: to rest real and origin. They had to be coming 159 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:07,559 Speaker 1: from outside the Earth, from space itself. He didn't know 160 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: where they were coming from or what was producing them, 161 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 1: but he was sure that it wasn't coming from Earth. 162 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,960 Speaker 1: It was seemingly coming from the center of the Milky 163 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,080 Speaker 1: Way galaxy that, by the way, is the galaxy that 164 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: that we're in the Milky Way. Well, Jansky published his 165 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: findings in nineteen thirty two, and then he moved on 166 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: to work with other stuff, with a telephone system. I mean, 167 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,679 Speaker 1: he wasn't an astronomer or an astrophysicist or anything like that, 168 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:40,319 Speaker 1: so he dedicated his attention elsewhere. But another American engineer 169 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:44,720 Speaker 1: named Grote Reber would build on Jansky's work, and by 170 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:48,600 Speaker 1: the way, I am certain I mispronounced his name entirely, 171 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: but we're gonna soldier on. He read Jenski's work and 172 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:55,319 Speaker 1: then he decided, you know what, I want to find 173 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,080 Speaker 1: out more about these these signals that seemed to be 174 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: coming from space. So he built and actual radio telescope. 175 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:06,880 Speaker 1: He set out to build a device specifically to detect 176 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,800 Speaker 1: these kind of signals, and so he built a bowl 177 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:13,199 Speaker 1: shaped antenna, you know, a parabolic kind of antenna in 178 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:17,080 Speaker 1: nineteen seven, and it was capable of detecting radio signals 179 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: from space. Now, when I say radio signals from space, 180 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,439 Speaker 1: I am not necessarily talking about stuff that was purposefully 181 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:29,040 Speaker 1: or intelligently transmitted, because a lot of stuff in space 182 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: generates radio waves. The Sun, for example, does it, other 183 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 1: stars do it. Pulsars and quasars produce radio waves. Radio 184 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:42,839 Speaker 1: astronomy gave scientists tools to detect and learn more about 185 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,120 Speaker 1: stuff and space. Then we could manage with things like 186 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:50,280 Speaker 1: optical telescopes, that is, light based telescopes. So in the 187 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: decades following Reaver's work we saw a lot of progress 188 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: in astronomy thanks to radio telescopes. Now we're going to 189 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:02,080 Speaker 1: skip up to nine teen fifty seven, and that's when 190 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:06,360 Speaker 1: a telescope designed by Bernard Level and Charles Husband went 191 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,520 Speaker 1: live for the first time at Jodrell Bank at the 192 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,439 Speaker 1: University of Manchester, and it was called the Mark one telescope, 193 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 1: though these days folks tend to refer to it as 194 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: the Level telescope. And this thing is big. It has 195 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 1: a parabolic dish to help focus radio waves on the 196 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:27,120 Speaker 1: antenna and that dish measures seventy six meters or two 197 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:32,840 Speaker 1: hundred fifty feet across. A complicated analog computer consisting of 198 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,920 Speaker 1: electro mechanical components was designed so that it could position 199 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:41,280 Speaker 1: this antenna, could point it at different sections of the sky, 200 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,560 Speaker 1: and this antenna could actually track a radio source as 201 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 1: it moved across the sky, so you could point it 202 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: at something and then use the computer to constantly adjust 203 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: the radio antenna's position so that it moved along with 204 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 1: this whatever the source was of the R waves, and 205 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:02,760 Speaker 1: you could get a better read on it. And there's 206 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:06,320 Speaker 1: a really impressive piece of technology. Uh. And it also 207 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 1: picked up the third stage of the rocket that was 208 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,559 Speaker 1: used to launch spot Nick. That's the first man made satellite, 209 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 1: that's the one the Soviet Union put up into space. 210 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: And uh, it was launched just a few months after 211 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,240 Speaker 1: the level telescope came online, so it actually detected that. 212 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: That was one of the things that indicated how useful 213 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: and important radio telescopes could be beyond just their astronomical 214 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: or cosmological uses. Now, the power of the level telescope 215 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:38,360 Speaker 1: impressed a lot of very smart people, and a couple 216 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:43,120 Speaker 1: of those people were Giuseppe Coccone and Philip Morrison. They 217 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 1: proposed that a sufficiently powerful transmitter and a sufficiently powerful 218 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: receiver would be able to send communications across vast reaches 219 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,520 Speaker 1: of space. So if you had parabolic antennas of particularly 220 00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:01,679 Speaker 1: strong power in two different locations, you could transmit and 221 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:05,559 Speaker 1: receive radio signals even if you were you know, light 222 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: years apart from each other. Now that communication is still 223 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,640 Speaker 1: restricted by the speed of light, because radio weights travel 224 00:14:11,679 --> 00:14:14,319 Speaker 1: at the speed of light and nothing goes faster than 225 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: the speed of light. So if the two points of 226 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 1: contact are let's say, eight light years apart from each other, 227 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: it would take eight years for an outgoing message to 228 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,600 Speaker 1: reach the recipient and another eight years to wait for 229 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 1: a response. So um, there will be no instant messaging. 230 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: But beyond that, it meant that you could take a 231 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,120 Speaker 1: radio telescope and you could use it to search for 232 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: signs that maybe someone out there in space has already 233 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,640 Speaker 1: been using radio technology for communications or for other purposes, 234 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: and that perhaps this could help us determine if there 235 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 1: are other examples of intelligent life out there. I'll explain 236 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:55,200 Speaker 1: more about how this was used in just a moment, 237 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. Coach Tony and 238 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: Morrison wrote a paper about their proposal titled searching for 239 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,760 Speaker 1: Interstellar Communications. The journal Nature published this paper, and the 240 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 1: two scientists address some pretty big questions. See now, as 241 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: the late great Douglas Adams once observed, space is big, 242 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:32,200 Speaker 1: really big, and these radio telescopes are directional, so you 243 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,640 Speaker 1: have to pick a spot to point the telescope at. 244 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: But how do you determine where you should look? How 245 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: do you decide this is the point in space we're 246 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,360 Speaker 1: going to search right now. You might start off searching 247 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,200 Speaker 1: the equivalent of a ghost town, and it could be 248 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,840 Speaker 1: that a neighboring region of space might be absolutely teeming 249 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: with life. But because of that directional telescope, you wouldn't 250 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:01,760 Speaker 1: know that. You're just be getting data from total uninhabited 251 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: part of space. So the implication you get as oh, 252 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: there's nobody out there. Meanwhile, like two space doors down, 253 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: there's a raging party going on. It's kind of like 254 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: if you were staring into a warehouse from the keyhole 255 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,560 Speaker 1: of a door. You would only see stuff within the 256 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 1: view of that keyhole, but there could be a whole 257 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: lot more warehouse just outside your area of view. You 258 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,640 Speaker 1: would have no idea if anything was actually in the 259 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,320 Speaker 1: warehouse or not. You would only be able to see 260 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: from that narrow range of the keyhole. That was the 261 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: same issue they were having with radio telescopes. Moreover, you 262 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,720 Speaker 1: could point the radio telescope at a place where there 263 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:45,280 Speaker 1: is intelligent life but maybe it's at a region that's 264 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: so far away from the Earth we can't detect that life. 265 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: So let me put that another way. Human beings started 266 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:57,520 Speaker 1: broadcasting radio in the early nineteen hundreds, so it's really 267 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:00,800 Speaker 1: been less than a hundred fifty years since we started 268 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: using radio for communication. There are stars in the Milky 269 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:08,600 Speaker 1: Way Galaxy again, the same galaxy that our solar system 270 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:12,919 Speaker 1: is in, that are around nine hundred thousand light years 271 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,840 Speaker 1: away from us. That means it would take light nine 272 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,840 Speaker 1: hundred thousand earth years to travel from that distant star 273 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: to us, so it takes nearly a million years for 274 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: the information to get to us. A radio communication would 275 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,040 Speaker 1: require the same amount of time to get to us. 276 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,320 Speaker 1: That means that if intelligent alien life exists, or even 277 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:39,680 Speaker 1: existed on a planet around that distant star, that life 278 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,359 Speaker 1: would have had to have invented and made use of 279 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,920 Speaker 1: radio technology a million years ago for us to pick 280 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,880 Speaker 1: up those signals today. That's assuming that intelligent life would 281 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: have somehow survived that million years. Uh for us to 282 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:58,440 Speaker 1: say that intelligent life exists today, right we we wouldn't 283 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,800 Speaker 1: know that for sure. All we could say is there 284 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,399 Speaker 1: appears to have been an intelligent civilization that existed a 285 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:08,000 Speaker 1: million years ago, we aren't really sure what they're up 286 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: to now because we'd have no way of knowing. We 287 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,040 Speaker 1: would only know from the signals that were sent from 288 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 1: the past. That's the neat thing about space too. The 289 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,520 Speaker 1: further you look, the more you're looking into the past, 290 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:26,239 Speaker 1: you're not seeing present situations just because the restriction of 291 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:30,680 Speaker 1: the speed of light. So you'd only really be able 292 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:36,919 Speaker 1: to see any current alien civilization if they were, you know, 293 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:40,879 Speaker 1: relatively close to us, because otherwise you can't be certain 294 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: that that civilization still exists if it's thousands of light 295 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:49,200 Speaker 1: years away. Moreover, alien civilizations would only have been able 296 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:52,639 Speaker 1: to hear us if they were around a hundred fifty 297 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,719 Speaker 1: light years or closer to Earth. If they're further than 298 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:01,119 Speaker 1: a hundred fifty light years away, then our podcasts would 299 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:05,199 Speaker 1: not have gone far enough out to reach them. This, 300 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: by the way, is why a lot of science fiction 301 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: stories are really more like fantasy stories. A lot of 302 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,920 Speaker 1: them involve aliens finding out about Earth because they picked 303 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:17,800 Speaker 1: up a radio or television broadcast, but those broadcasts have 304 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,320 Speaker 1: only been around for a few decades, so that would 305 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,159 Speaker 1: require the aliens to be relatively close to Earth in 306 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,199 Speaker 1: the first place to pick up those transmissions because of 307 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:29,600 Speaker 1: those limitations of the speed of light. Anyway, my point 308 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: was we might be quote unquote looking at the right spot, 309 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,439 Speaker 1: but the right spot might be far enough away that 310 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,240 Speaker 1: any radio broadcasts would still be in transit to us 311 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: and wouldn't have arrived yet. It may not arrive for 312 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: thousands of years. And that's just one more tiny part 313 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,879 Speaker 1: of why looking for meaningful signals in the sky is 314 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,159 Speaker 1: a huge challenge. You've heard the phrase looking for a 315 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 1: needle in a haystack. Well, it's like that, but you know, 316 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:59,280 Speaker 1: roughly a bazillion times harder than that. Conconi and Morrison 317 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,360 Speaker 1: said out an argument about which areas of the galaxy 318 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,960 Speaker 1: would be most likely to host an intelligent civilization capable 319 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,119 Speaker 1: of radio transmissions. This included targeting stars that are neither 320 00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: too hot nor too small or cold. Hot stars burnout quickly, 321 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: and the thought was, if it's a really hot star, 322 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,440 Speaker 1: it might go through its life cycle fast enough that 323 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: life doesn't have a chance to evolve on any planets 324 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:30,159 Speaker 1: that might be an orbit around that star. So the 325 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: star's life cycle is literally too short for life to 326 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:39,159 Speaker 1: have formed around that system, smaller, colder stars tend to 327 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:41,680 Speaker 1: be the really old ones, ones that have been around 328 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: for billions of years, and with that much time, eventually, 329 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: orbiting planets will lock on a star so that one 330 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: side of the planet always faces the star and the 331 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,399 Speaker 1: opposite side of the planet always faces away from the start, 332 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: So one side is always lit and the other side 333 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: is always dark, and that kind of planet would probably 334 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:06,720 Speaker 1: be incapable of supporting life. So said coach Tony and Morrison, 335 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: we should look for stars that are not that different 336 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,879 Speaker 1: from the Sun. These would be the right age and 337 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 1: size to potentially support life if an orbiting planet were 338 00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 1: within a certain range, which we tend to refer to 339 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 1: as the Goldilocks region. It has to be a distance 340 00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:26,200 Speaker 1: that's not too close to the Sun, but not too 341 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: far away either, and that really narrows things down in fact, 342 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:33,960 Speaker 1: and it means we can cross off potentially thousands or 343 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:38,480 Speaker 1: millions of stars from our otherwise unmanageably huge list of 344 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,639 Speaker 1: potential targets to look at. And so with this in mind, 345 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: another astronomer and an astrophysicist named Frank Drake decided to 346 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,920 Speaker 1: take this hypothesis and to actually put it in action. 347 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,000 Speaker 1: He conducted the first search for extraterrestrial intelligence with the 348 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:58,119 Speaker 1: help of radio astronomy, and it was called Project OSMA, 349 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:02,400 Speaker 1: named after the care or Ozma from L. Frank Baum's 350 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:07,480 Speaker 1: oz books. Drake secured time on a radio telescope that 351 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: measured twenty six ms or eighty five ft across to 352 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: scan for radio frequencies that originated out of towels CT 353 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:19,000 Speaker 1: and epsilon Eri. Donnie. Those are two different stars, and 354 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,840 Speaker 1: both stars are relatively close to our own solar system, 355 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,639 Speaker 1: and both our sun like enough that they could serve 356 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:31,880 Speaker 1: as potentially good targets based on Cochoni and Morrison's proposed guidelines. 357 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:36,439 Speaker 1: Apart from one outlier, his team found no evidence of 358 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: radio signals indicating potential intelligent communication. The one outlier they 359 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: did pick up, while initially interesting, proved to be terrestrial 360 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: in nature, meaning that it originated from an aircraft made 361 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,760 Speaker 1: by dull old humans, didn't come from outer space. It 362 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,800 Speaker 1: was something that we had created and this radio telescope 363 00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,240 Speaker 1: just happened to pick it up. And uh. That actually 364 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: illustrates another challenge with using radio telescopes, weeding out the 365 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,639 Speaker 1: signals that are actually coming from us as opposed to 366 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: coming from space, and it sure would be embarrassing to 367 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: come forward with a claim that you've discovered alien communication 368 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: only for it to turn out to be a terrestrial signal, 369 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:20,200 Speaker 1: like an old Mork and Mindy episode or something that's 370 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: only got a character who's supposed to be an alien 371 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 1: and it it's not actually alien. Now, luckily, this early 372 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: experience taught researchers to include a secondary antenna that would 373 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:35,199 Speaker 1: only be sensitive enough to detect terrestrial signals. So you 374 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,920 Speaker 1: put this secondary antenna near the first antenna. They're both 375 00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,000 Speaker 1: pointed at the same section of sky, and then when 376 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:46,120 Speaker 1: you get a a beep, you know you register a signal. 377 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: You can compare the primary telescope, the one that you're 378 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:55,840 Speaker 1: using to search for extra terrestrial intelligence, against this smaller antenna, 379 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: and if the smaller antenna also picked up the signal, 380 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,840 Speaker 1: you know that signal was terrestrial, because the smaller intenna 381 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:06,000 Speaker 1: isn't powerful enough to pick up stuff from outer space. 382 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: So you say, all right, well, if it appears on both, 383 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,080 Speaker 1: we know that that came from Earth. We know that 384 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: that's not actually a signal scent from somewhere out in space. 385 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,720 Speaker 1: So they learned that lesson very quickly, and that was 386 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,520 Speaker 1: very helpful. Drake further contributed to the discourse about the 387 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,960 Speaker 1: search for extraterrestrial intelligence by proposing a way to sort 388 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:30,160 Speaker 1: of conceptualize the possibility of detecting intelligent civilizations in the universe. 389 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,840 Speaker 1: These days. We call it the Drake equation, and it's 390 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: a pretty cool concept, and it goes something like this. 391 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: All right, there's a variable that we're going to call in. 392 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:44,159 Speaker 1: In represents the number of civilizations in our galaxy with 393 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:48,399 Speaker 1: which we could possibly communicate. So in is that number. 394 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: It's an unknown number. What determines the value of that number, Well, 395 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,160 Speaker 1: it's a bunch of stuff that you have to take 396 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: into account, and that includes the average rate at which 397 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: stars form in the Milky Way, the number of those 398 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 1: stars that will actually have planets form around them, because 399 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: not every star has planets, the average number of those 400 00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:14,920 Speaker 1: planets that could potentially support life, the number of planets 401 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: that could support life that actually go on to support life. 402 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,639 Speaker 1: So far, we haven't found any that definitively fit that 403 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:27,160 Speaker 1: that definition. Then the number of those planets in which 404 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,919 Speaker 1: the life that forms can develop to the point of 405 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,960 Speaker 1: gaining intelligence, The number of planets with intelligent life that 406 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: then develop and use communication tools that would be detectable 407 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,680 Speaker 1: from Earth. And then the length of time such civilizations 408 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,840 Speaker 1: have been doing that, because that length of time will 409 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,080 Speaker 1: determine whether or not they would be detectable. Right so, 410 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: even if they exist, again, if they're far far away, 411 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,920 Speaker 1: there's no way we could detect them anyway, because again 412 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,479 Speaker 1: the speed of light is a limiting factor. So this 413 00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: equation is not meant to give us a heart and 414 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: fast now where like three or something. Instead, it helps 415 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 1: us frame the likelihood of detecting intelligent life, uh specifically 416 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,760 Speaker 1: intelligent life that is using radio communication. We don't really 417 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,440 Speaker 1: know anything about the number of plants that can definitively 418 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:20,680 Speaker 1: support life or anything else beyond that particular variable. Right 419 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: we we've got information about some of the other stuff. 420 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,400 Speaker 1: We have a general idea of how frequently stars form 421 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:30,719 Speaker 1: in the milky Way. We are refining our understanding of 422 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: how many stars have planets. Turns out that way more 423 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,480 Speaker 1: stars have planets than we initially thought. Then we have 424 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,159 Speaker 1: to think, all right, well, how many of those plants 425 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,359 Speaker 1: could potentially support life based upon their distance from the star, 426 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: the age of the star, the heat of the star 427 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:47,880 Speaker 1: all of those other variables. So we're slowly learning more 428 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: about the front half of that equation, and the back 429 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 1: half is still largely a mystery to us. Now, Uh, 430 00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,439 Speaker 1: it's important so that we can use that kind of 431 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 1: information to help refine our search. Right. We want to 432 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:05,240 Speaker 1: make sure that we are looking at the places most 433 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: likely to produce good results, because again, space is really big. 434 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: If we just randomly point the telescope in any given direction, 435 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:18,639 Speaker 1: the odds of success are miniscule. We want to improve 436 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,920 Speaker 1: those odds as best we can by making some intelligent 437 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:28,800 Speaker 1: decisions based on educated guesses. Really now, Uh, The SETI Institute, 438 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:33,920 Speaker 1: a not for profit scientific research organization, wouldn't come into 439 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:39,159 Speaker 1: being until ninety four. However, between Drake's project OZMA in 440 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:44,280 Speaker 1: the early nineteen sixties and the set Institute's formation in four, 441 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,160 Speaker 1: there were lots of astronomers who were looking for signals 442 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:51,159 Speaker 1: that might have originated from an intelligent civilization out in space. 443 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,160 Speaker 1: I find a lot of people confuse SET the science 444 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,159 Speaker 1: that's the general science of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, and 445 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,720 Speaker 1: SET the Institute. Uh. Those are the SETI Institute is 446 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:07,320 Speaker 1: dedicated toward a deeper understanding of life in general and 447 00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: its place in the universe, and the potential existence of 448 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: extraterrestrial intelligence. But the two are not synonymous. It's not 449 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:20,400 Speaker 1: Set and the SETI Institute are related but distinct. Now, 450 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,720 Speaker 1: back in nineteen seven, there was an astronomer named Jocelyn 451 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:28,640 Speaker 1: Bell who noticed something that initially seemed really promising from 452 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:33,680 Speaker 1: a set perspective. Turned out it was incredible information, period, 453 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,480 Speaker 1: but we just didn't understand its significance at the time. 454 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: She noticed what appeared to be a pulsing radio signal. 455 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,480 Speaker 1: She and her supervisor charted the pulses that they were detecting, 456 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: and they were detecting them at regular intervals, like each day, 457 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:55,360 Speaker 1: slightly off by hours or whatever. But it was it 458 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: was unusual. They weren't expecting it, and at the time 459 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,360 Speaker 1: they didn't have an explanation for the origin of those 460 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,479 Speaker 1: radio pulses, so they had to label it as something, 461 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: and at the time they labeled it l g M. 462 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: One l g M stood for Little Green Men. It 463 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: was a somewhat tongue in cheap way to indicate that, 464 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,640 Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe this is purposeful radio broadcasting. We 465 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 1: don't know. They kept looking into it. They kept trying 466 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,360 Speaker 1: to figure out exactly what it was and where the 467 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: signal was originating from, and over time they concluded that 468 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: it was actually a naturally occurring pulse. It was not 469 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:37,320 Speaker 1: like an outgoing phone message from beyond the stars or something. Ultimately, 470 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,959 Speaker 1: this hunch that they had that it was a naturally 471 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,640 Speaker 1: occurring phenomenon proved correct, and scientists were able to figure 472 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:48,040 Speaker 1: out that the pulse was coming from rotating neutron stars 473 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: called pulsars. So while it didn't turn out to be aliens, 474 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,600 Speaker 1: astronomers were able to expand our understanding of space. So 475 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 1: it's still super cool. It just you know, it wasn't aliens. 476 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: Ohio State University launched the first long term set study 477 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,720 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy three, and unlike other attempts, this one 478 00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 1: surveyed the entire night sky as the Earth rotated. Instead 479 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,200 Speaker 1: of honing in on a specific region of space and 480 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 1: then just staying locked onto that region, it would do 481 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,840 Speaker 1: a full scan every night, slightly different arc each night, 482 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:24,240 Speaker 1: but a full scan of the night sky. In ninety seven, 483 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,240 Speaker 1: that system registered a signal that was many times stronger 484 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: than the background signals that the telescope was recording. There 485 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,120 Speaker 1: was an analyst named Jerry Emmon who wrote down the 486 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,360 Speaker 1: word wow in the margin of the computer print out 487 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,400 Speaker 1: for that detection, and to this day we call it 488 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: the Wow signal. And the signal had a profile that 489 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 1: suggested it wasn't your typical, naturally occurring radio wave, it 490 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 1: was this weird spike. But despite numerous efforts, the telescope 491 00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: did not pick up any subsequent signals from that part 492 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,640 Speaker 1: of space. Em and himself later guessed that perhaps the 493 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,000 Speaker 1: signal originated from Earth. Maybe it was something that got 494 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: beamed up and then reflected off of something in space, 495 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 1: like a piece of space debris, and thus it didn't 496 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 1: originate from, you know, extraterrestrial sources at all, but we 497 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: don't know for sure. Astronomers oversaw similar efforts with different 498 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: radio telescopes around the world over the years, and it's 499 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,240 Speaker 1: a bit tricky because it requires securing time on radio 500 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: telescopes for the purposes of searching for extra terrestrial intelligence, 501 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: and the owners of those telescopes, frequently scientific research institutions 502 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,440 Speaker 1: universities that kind of thing. They often have their own priorities, 503 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,240 Speaker 1: which may or may not involve seeking out evidence of 504 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 1: intelligent life in the galaxy, so finding time when you 505 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 1: can use those radio telescopes is pretty tricky stuff. In 506 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:52,880 Speaker 1: Thomas Pearson and Jill Tarter found the not for profit 507 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: organization called the City Institute with the mission to understand 508 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: life and a sort of universal context. So again, while 509 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: there is a set organization, SET as a whole really 510 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:07,720 Speaker 1: refers to the science the effort, the specific application of 511 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: techniques and processes, and an effort to attain a particular outcome, 512 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:17,200 Speaker 1: namely to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Astronomers interested in 513 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 1: pursuing goals related to SET often have to wait for 514 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: times when radio telescopes aren't in active use for some 515 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,800 Speaker 1: other purpose, and that really limits what they can accomplish. 516 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,800 Speaker 1: Other groups have to developed a way to piggyback onto 517 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:37,440 Speaker 1: existing radio telescopes. So piggyback systems tend to be systems 518 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: that monitor data picked up by a radio telescope, so 519 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:46,280 Speaker 1: it's like it's like an additional computer readout of what's 520 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,760 Speaker 1: going on. So the team that's using the radio telescope 521 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,040 Speaker 1: is doing it to do some specific purpose. Meanwhile, SET 522 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: researchers are using a a parallel readoubt just looking for 523 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: anything that might stand out as a potential example of 524 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence. Uh, this is tricky because again 525 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: the set researchers have no say on where a telescope 526 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: is going to be pointed. They're just looking at the 527 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,480 Speaker 1: same data but for a different reason, So it's not ideal. 528 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,120 Speaker 1: But again, radio telescopes are kind of hard to come by. 529 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: Even with all these limitations, scientists were generating a lot 530 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,400 Speaker 1: of information that they needed to sift through. Radio telescopes 531 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,360 Speaker 1: pick up a lot of noise, and there may be 532 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 1: signal in that noise. I mean, that signal might be 533 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,760 Speaker 1: incredibly weak. But you have to really examine the data 534 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: closely in order to figure out what is truly a 535 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,480 Speaker 1: signal versus just random noise in the background. And then 536 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 1: you have to weed out all the other stuff like 537 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:53,560 Speaker 1: did that signal come from a natural phenomenon? Did it 538 00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:58,239 Speaker 1: come from a terrestrial source? This is not easy to do. 539 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:01,520 Speaker 1: Scientists were already have to work pretty hard to secure 540 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,160 Speaker 1: time with radio telescopes. It would be even harder to 541 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: secure time with something like a supercomputer because supercomputers also 542 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 1: are owned by just a few different universities and research 543 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:16,560 Speaker 1: organizations and labs, and they typically are being used for 544 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: other stuff that takes a higher priority than searching for 545 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:24,200 Speaker 1: extraterrestrial intelligence. And then there was a breakthrough, and that 546 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: breakthrough came in the form of network connectivity. In the 547 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:31,440 Speaker 1: early nineteen nineties, the mainstream public first began learning about 548 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:37,319 Speaker 1: this weird thing called the Internet, and by the Internet was, 549 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,000 Speaker 1: if not a household term, at least something most folks 550 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:45,160 Speaker 1: had some experience or knowledge of, and that's what opened 551 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:48,759 Speaker 1: up the opportunity for study at home. I'll explain more 552 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,360 Speaker 1: in just a minute, but first let's take another quick break. 553 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: So they there are many different models for computing. When 554 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,680 Speaker 1: I was growing up, I was familiar with a more 555 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,080 Speaker 1: centralized model. So in my case, I was growing up 556 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,400 Speaker 1: in the era of personal computers, and the computers I 557 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: first used were completely self contained. They didn't connect to 558 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 1: a larger network. All the processing capability, all the programs, 559 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,560 Speaker 1: all the capacity for storage. We're connected to the physical 560 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: computer itself. They might be peripherals, but it was all 561 00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,880 Speaker 1: part of the personal computer. A few years ago, the 562 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 1: big trend was cloud computing. So with cloud computing, you've 563 00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,799 Speaker 1: got networked servers that are doing a lot of the 564 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,400 Speaker 1: processing power for big applications. The devices we're using, whether 565 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 1: they're computers or mobile devices or sensors or whatever, are 566 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: mostly acting as transmitters and receivers. For many tasks. We 567 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:56,120 Speaker 1: provide input to these devices, and the device than transmits 568 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:59,480 Speaker 1: commands to some distant group of servers that takes that 569 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: information and does some sort of operation on it, produces 570 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,560 Speaker 1: some sort of result, and sends that back to us. 571 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 1: So no longer do we have to have really powerful 572 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:13,840 Speaker 1: computers directly at our disposal. We can rely on cloud 573 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: services to do that computing for us, at least for 574 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:19,000 Speaker 1: some things. For other things, like if you want to 575 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:26,200 Speaker 1: do low latency, high graphics fidelity gaming, for example, you 576 00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 1: want to have a really good, strong computer processor at 577 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:34,200 Speaker 1: your disposal because latency with transmission can completely ruin that experience. 578 00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 1: But for the most part, you get what I'm saying well. 579 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: Setting at Home was an example of sort of a 580 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:44,319 Speaker 1: third model called distributed computing. The idea was that you 581 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:47,360 Speaker 1: could take a group of regular, old personal computers, the 582 00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:51,359 Speaker 1: kind that any average person could have in their home. 583 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,160 Speaker 1: You would install some software on those computers, and that 584 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 1: software would allow the computers to process chunks of data 585 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:02,719 Speaker 1: in some particular a before sending the results back to 586 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,160 Speaker 1: wherever that data was coming from in the first place. 587 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,320 Speaker 1: So if someone needed to tackle a really big data 588 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,880 Speaker 1: processing job, one that could be divided up into smaller chunks, 589 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,239 Speaker 1: that person could use a centralized computer or maybe a 590 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,520 Speaker 1: network of computers to send out these smaller chunks of 591 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:25,960 Speaker 1: data to this distribution of personal computers for processing and 592 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 1: then wait for the results to come back and then 593 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: group them all together and see what you got. It 594 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: speeds things up considerably. It increases the processing assets of 595 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 1: the project as more computers joined that project, and it 596 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,839 Speaker 1: reduces the need to turn to stuff like supercomputers. And 597 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:46,600 Speaker 1: it also achieved another goal which the founders of the 598 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: project had in mind, which was to encourage enthusiasm and 599 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: excitement around the subject of science. Computer scientist David Gedgay, 600 00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:01,879 Speaker 1: astronomers Woody Sullivan and Dan Wertheimer, and David Anderson, who 601 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:06,000 Speaker 1: was David's graduate school advisor collectively came up with this 602 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:11,919 Speaker 1: idea all the way back in specifically with set at Home. 603 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: They were trying to come up with a scientific application 604 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:20,239 Speaker 1: people would be excited to participate in, and while they 605 00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:26,840 Speaker 1: weren't necessarily super optimistic, that set at home would produce, 606 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:31,160 Speaker 1: you know, incredible results from a scientific perspective. They thought 607 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: from a motivating perspective, it was just the ticket, and 608 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: it was pretty genius. Upon launch, anyone with a computer 609 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,400 Speaker 1: and an Internet connection could conceivably help in the search 610 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:46,880 Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial intelligence. The researchers created a screen saver program, 611 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,880 Speaker 1: so if you wanted to participate, you could download the 612 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,759 Speaker 1: screen saver and install it on your personal computer. When 613 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 1: your computer would go idle and activate the screen saver, 614 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,879 Speaker 1: the processor of your computer, which wise would be doing 615 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: very little, would get to work on some data sent 616 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:08,480 Speaker 1: over from the set research project. So the research project 617 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:13,200 Speaker 1: would pull information from a radio telescope divided into chunks 618 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 1: and then parcel it out to people participating in this 619 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 1: project when complete. When your processor was done working on 620 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,720 Speaker 1: a chunk of data, it would send the results back 621 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 1: to the central point for the project and wait for 622 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,040 Speaker 1: the next chunk of data. And if you were to 623 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,520 Speaker 1: come back to do some work on your computer, Let's 624 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:32,960 Speaker 1: say you come back after taking a break for half 625 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,359 Speaker 1: an hour, the screensaver goes inactive and the program would 626 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,799 Speaker 1: surrender your processing cycles back to you, so you didn't 627 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: have to worry about cet at Home suddenly taking up 628 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,319 Speaker 1: all of your computers processing power. It would only jump 629 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,040 Speaker 1: back onto the job when your computer went idle again 630 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:53,200 Speaker 1: and your your CPU had availability. Now, as I said, 631 00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:56,239 Speaker 1: this idea was genius, but the original implementation of the 632 00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:00,080 Speaker 1: idea was less. So now that's not a slight on 633 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:05,600 Speaker 1: the researchers, because when they launched the project in May, 634 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,759 Speaker 1: they were expecting that they might get as many as 635 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:13,000 Speaker 1: a thousand people signing up. They figured that, well, this 636 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,800 Speaker 1: is an interesting idea, and we'll probably see some folks 637 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,440 Speaker 1: really you know, who are really into science joined, but 638 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:23,920 Speaker 1: I'm not sure about anything beyond that. Now, with that expectation, 639 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:29,040 Speaker 1: they only dedicated a single desktop PC for the purposes 640 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:32,799 Speaker 1: of assigning processing tasks and receiving the results from the 641 00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:37,440 Speaker 1: distributed computers. They did not anticipate how enthusiastic the reception 642 00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:41,880 Speaker 1: to the project would be. They didn't see a thousand 643 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:45,440 Speaker 1: people sign up when they launched Setting at Home. They 644 00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,600 Speaker 1: saw a million people sign up. So let's put that 645 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: into perspective. Let's say you've set up a lemonade stand 646 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,360 Speaker 1: and you did some brief scouting work, and you anticipated 647 00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,319 Speaker 1: that the location you're setting up in. You're gonna see 648 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:02,160 Speaker 1: maybe ten customers and third minutes, and you think that's manageable. Well, 649 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: what you didn't realize is that you've actually set up 650 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,879 Speaker 1: your stand in sour puss scurvy town. It's a town 651 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: populated entirely by people with an unquenchable thirst for lemonade. 652 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:15,919 Speaker 1: So instead of ten people showing up in that first 653 00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,359 Speaker 1: half hour, ten thousand people mob your lemonade stand. You 654 00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,560 Speaker 1: are overwhelmed. Well, the same thing happened to the ct 655 00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,640 Speaker 1: at Home PC that was in charge of sending out 656 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,240 Speaker 1: and receiving all that data. It was a good problem 657 00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:33,520 Speaker 1: to have, but it was still a problem. Sun Microsystems 658 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,359 Speaker 1: jumped in and donated a bunch of computers to help 659 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:40,440 Speaker 1: the City at Home administrators make the system work, and 660 00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,360 Speaker 1: from that moment on the program went into high gear. 661 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,799 Speaker 1: People in the program were contributing to scientific exploration just 662 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:52,319 Speaker 1: by allowing their IDOL computers to focus on complicated mathematical 663 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,239 Speaker 1: problems when the computer was otherwise not in use. It 664 00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:57,960 Speaker 1: was a beautiful thing. The response also meant that the 665 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:02,799 Speaker 1: project could go through information orders of magnitude faster than 666 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,839 Speaker 1: if it had all been handled in house. The they 667 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,239 Speaker 1: had the advantage of a million processors. That's something that 668 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,120 Speaker 1: no SETI project could have afforded on its own at 669 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:16,400 Speaker 1: that time. It also inspired other scientific projects to launch 670 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:21,080 Speaker 1: distributed computing efforts. Folding at Home, for example, taps into 671 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:24,680 Speaker 1: idle computers to solve protein folding problems that could lead 672 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,799 Speaker 1: to incredible advances in medicine and biology. On top of that, 673 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: online communities formed around Seat at Home. People connected over 674 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,440 Speaker 1: forums and formed friendships. There were even stories about people 675 00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:41,560 Speaker 1: meeting online, falling in love, and getting married out in 676 00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:44,640 Speaker 1: the real world, all while using their computers to seek 677 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:49,440 Speaker 1: out evidence of intelligent life. It was all really remarkable 678 00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 1: and beautiful. But hey, if it was so super cool, 679 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,200 Speaker 1: why the heck is the project shutting down now? Twenty 680 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,440 Speaker 1: one years after it launched? Is the book closed on 681 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:04,279 Speaker 1: extra terrestrial intelligent life? Are we done? Have we given up? Well? 682 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:08,239 Speaker 1: Not quite. The problem now is that we've got a 683 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:13,200 Speaker 1: ton a mountain of processed data from this project that 684 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,800 Speaker 1: has to be further analyzed, and that taps into something 685 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,400 Speaker 1: else that I plan to talk about more later on 686 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:23,400 Speaker 1: this year, the challenges of big data. We're able to 687 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:29,359 Speaker 1: collect mind staggeringly huge amounts of information, but understanding and 688 00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:33,240 Speaker 1: using that information is another matter. It presents a really 689 00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:38,680 Speaker 1: big challenge. Even with all of these analyzed chunks of info, 690 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:41,880 Speaker 1: that data still has to be processed to see what's 691 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,399 Speaker 1: actually been found over the two decades of Seating at Home. 692 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: The researchers overseeing Ceting at Home hope to publish a 693 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,239 Speaker 1: paper on the subject, and to do that, they need 694 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,719 Speaker 1: to look at all the results of the stuff that 695 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,360 Speaker 1: the program actually found, and so they need to stop 696 00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:03,120 Speaker 1: gathering data while that happens. They have to actually stop 697 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:05,280 Speaker 1: so that they can see what they have, as opposed 698 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:09,399 Speaker 1: to continuously adding to that pile. This hiatus will allow 699 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,600 Speaker 1: the team to look at the results, form conclusions, and 700 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:15,560 Speaker 1: write a paper based on the whole project. And while 701 00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,640 Speaker 1: we don't anticipate any reports of intelligent communications popping up 702 00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,360 Speaker 1: as a result of this analysis, the endeavor as a 703 00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:27,080 Speaker 1: whole has been really successful, particularly in the context of 704 00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:31,359 Speaker 1: getting people excited about participating in science. On the back 705 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:35,120 Speaker 1: end of Seating at Home is an infrastructure that grew 706 00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,359 Speaker 1: over time. It is called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for 707 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:45,440 Speaker 1: Network Computing. This support system hosts numerous distributed computing projects 708 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,919 Speaker 1: that work on the same basic principles as setting at home. 709 00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:52,240 Speaker 1: It's just that each of these projects have a different 710 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:56,280 Speaker 1: goal or purpose. Some are dedicated to detecting and measuring 711 00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:01,000 Speaker 1: asteroids uh. Some provide cern process us in capabilities to 712 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:04,239 Speaker 1: help analyze data produced by the Large Hadron Collider in 713 00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,600 Speaker 1: an effort to gain, you know, a deeper understanding of 714 00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:10,360 Speaker 1: particle physics and quantum mechanics. There are projects that focus 715 00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:15,080 Speaker 1: on climate science, physics, cognitive science, and more, and you 716 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:19,280 Speaker 1: can check them all out at blink dot Berkeley, dot 717 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,800 Speaker 1: e d U, slash projects dot PHP. That's b O 718 00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:28,920 Speaker 1: I n C dot Berkeley, dot E d U, slash 719 00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,880 Speaker 1: projects dot p HP. If you want to dedicate some 720 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:38,160 Speaker 1: of your computer's idle processing power to solving really interesting 721 00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,799 Speaker 1: problems and science, it's a great way to contribute. You're 722 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:45,160 Speaker 1: not even doing anything active, but you are helping, you know, 723 00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:51,000 Speaker 1: peel back the border of our understanding. We're pushing that 724 00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,840 Speaker 1: boundary further and further out, and you can do it 725 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,319 Speaker 1: just with your computer's idle time. It's pretty incredible. So 726 00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,840 Speaker 1: while study at home is writing off into the sunset, 727 00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:03,840 Speaker 1: at least for a while. Anyway, there are still efforts 728 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:07,080 Speaker 1: around the world dedicated in full or in part to 729 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,359 Speaker 1: the search for extraterrestrial life. The search hasn't ended yet, 730 00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,200 Speaker 1: even if Set at Home is at least for now over, 731 00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:18,680 Speaker 1: And while we don't have anything jumping out to us 732 00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,439 Speaker 1: as a positive, absolutely yes, we need to check this out. 733 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,719 Speaker 1: We're pretty sure someone's talking to us kind of uh incident. 734 00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:32,160 Speaker 1: It's good to remember that space is really big. Who knows, 735 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,560 Speaker 1: maybe the next star we point a telescope at will 736 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,600 Speaker 1: be beaming. Whatever the alien version of the Great British 737 00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:43,080 Speaker 1: Bake Off is, one can only hope. And that wraps 738 00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,680 Speaker 1: up this episode of tech stuff. My hat is off 739 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:49,840 Speaker 1: to the CET at Home crew. I think it was 740 00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:53,480 Speaker 1: an admirable use of technology to inspire people to get 741 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:58,440 Speaker 1: into science. I think it was a worthy endeavor to 742 00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:01,520 Speaker 1: search for extraterrestrial and telligence. It was great to see 743 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,120 Speaker 1: other projects take that same model and apply it to 744 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:10,200 Speaker 1: their own uh scientific endeavors. So it's to me one 745 00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,760 Speaker 1: of those great stories in technology. Even if we didn't 746 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,879 Speaker 1: find any direct evidence of little green men out there, 747 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 1: who knows what the future will bring. If you guys 748 00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:23,120 Speaker 1: have any suggestions for future topics, for tech Stuff reach 749 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,320 Speaker 1: out to me. You can find me on Facebook or Twitter. 750 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:30,120 Speaker 1: The handle for both is tech Stuff HSW and I'll 751 00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:38,000 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an 752 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,720 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, 753 00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:45,200 Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 754 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:46,840 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.