1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey theren 2 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 3 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,799 Speaker 1: an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the tech 4 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 1: are you well. I am finishing up my vacation down 5 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: in floridaar and I will be back in Atlanta next week. 6 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: In the meantime, I do have an episode for you. 7 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: This one published on March eleventh, twenty twenty. It is 8 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: titled SETI Not at Home. It's about the SETI at 9 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: Home program, a program that crowdsourced the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, 10 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: and why it shut down in March of twenty twenty. 11 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: At least the crowdsource part. The program itself has not 12 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: shut down, to be clear, but the crowdsource part has. 13 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: Let's find out why. As I record, it is early 14 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: March twenty twenty, just days after I received some devastating news. Technically, 15 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 1: the whole world received this news. I'm just taking it 16 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: particularly hard. I heard that the distributed computing project SETI 17 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: at Home is shutting down, at least for a while. 18 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: It's going on hiatus by the end of March twenty twenty. 19 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: Now for two decades. This project has been relying on 20 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: computer processing cycles provided by people like all of you 21 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: guys out there, just using regular computer processors rather than 22 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: some sort of massive supercomputer. Why was it making use 23 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: of that, Well, it was coming through massive amounts of 24 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,600 Speaker 1: information gathered by radio telescopes in search for signals created 25 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: not through some natural cosmological process, but rather as evidence 26 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: of intelligent communication. SETI, you see, stands for the search 27 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial intelligence. Now, in this episode, I'm going to 28 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: talk about the history of SETI as a science, and 29 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: then as well, I'm going to kind of pivot around 30 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: and talk about the distributed computer programs and the SETI 31 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: at Home program in particular. We'll find out how distributed 32 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: computing works, we'll talk about a couple of other distributed 33 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: computing programs that you could still participate in if you're 34 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: so inclined, And we'll also look into what's next for 35 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,959 Speaker 1: SETI at Home and learn why it's going on hiatus 36 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: in the first place. Now, we human beings have hypothesized 37 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: about the possibility of extraterrestrial or alien intelligence for a 38 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: really long time. It's a frequent topic in pop culture. 39 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: But perhaps I shouldn't even use the word hypothesize, because 40 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: for a really long time in our history, there really 41 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:54,800 Speaker 1: wasn't any way to test that hypothesis other than for 42 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,400 Speaker 1: us to look up at the sky and say, Nope, 43 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 1: that ain't it. That would all change with the invention 44 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:06,359 Speaker 1: of the radio telescope. So it was in the nineteen 45 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,679 Speaker 1: twenties when an engineer named Karl Janski, working for Bell 46 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: Telephone Laboratories, set the stage for radio astronomy. But that 47 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 1: wasn't Jansky's goal at the time. He had been tasked 48 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,640 Speaker 1: with figuring out where the source was of some signal 49 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: interference that was affecting telephone communications at that time. So 50 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: in an effort to kind of figure this out, he 51 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: built a directional antenna. And I guess that itself deserves 52 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: its own quick explanation. So antennas can transmit and pick 53 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,119 Speaker 1: up signals, right, I mean, that's what they do, And 54 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: it actually helps to talk about transmitters first to understand 55 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: how a receiving antenna works. So a transmitter takes an 56 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: electrical signal, typically one that's been boosted with amplification, and 57 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: sends that signal to a transmitting antenna. We know that 58 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: electricity and magnetism are related, right. We've talked about that 59 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: a ton in previous episodes, and we've talked about electromagnetism 60 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: and the electromagnetic spectrum a lot on this show, even recently. So, 61 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: if you run a current through a conductor, it generates 62 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: electromagnetic waves, including if the conductor's big enough, radio waves. 63 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 1: Now on the electromagnetic spectrum, radio waves have the longest 64 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: wavelengths if you look across that spectrum. They are a 65 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: non ionizing form of radiation, meaning they lack the power 66 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: to strip electrons away from atoms, and they aren't harmful 67 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: the way stuff like X rays or gamma rays are. 68 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: So you can wander around and have radio waves hitting you. 69 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,160 Speaker 1: It's not going to affect you in any way. You 70 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: won't even notice. Okay, So, sending a powerful electrical current 71 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: through a big conductor generates radio waves along with other 72 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:04,279 Speaker 1: electromagnetic radiation code information on radio waves by altering that 73 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: signal in some way. Otherwise you're just sending out a long, 74 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: steady tone like a sin wave. The two main ways 75 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: to do this are frequency modulation, in which you change 76 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: the frequency of the radio waves that you're sending out 77 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: within a certain band of frequencies, or amplitude modulation in 78 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: which you change the amplitude, or you can think of 79 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: it as almost like the strength of the radio waves 80 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,679 Speaker 1: that you're sending out. That would end up being FM 81 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: and AM radio respectively. All right, So receivers take that 82 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,039 Speaker 1: same process, but they reverse it. So as long as 83 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: the signals that the antenna pickup are fluctuating in some way, 84 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 1: then it's going to create an electric current in that antenna. 85 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: So a properly tuned receiver that encounters the respective radio 86 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,760 Speaker 1: wave radiation will see that whole process go in reverse. 87 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 1: The radio waves will induce electricity to flow through the 88 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: antenna to whatever device the antenna's hooked up to. It 89 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:05,919 Speaker 1: might be a meter, in which case you'll see the 90 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: little indicator show that there's a current running through that circuit. 91 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: Or it'll be a radio so that you can listen 92 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: to a radio station that way. Could be any number 93 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,799 Speaker 1: of things. It usually will require amplification of that signal. 94 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: Typically the signal is too weak to actually power anything significant, 95 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: so you would run it through an amplifier and thus 96 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: take that same signal and just boost its power before 97 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: sending it on to do whatever it was supposed to do. 98 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: Now I've dramatically simplified this whole process. There's other stuff 99 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: we could talk about that really plays an important part, 100 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: like the concept of resonance, but that is really the 101 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 1: matter for a different episode entirely, and I have covered 102 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 1: it in previous episodes too. So essentially that's how antennas work. 103 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: So Janski designed a directional antenna as opposed to an 104 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:02,359 Speaker 1: omnidirectional antenna. An omni directional antenna, as the name implies, 105 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: can pick up signals transmitted from any direction from around 106 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: that antenna. Like just imagine an antenna poking up straight 107 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: in the air and it can accept radio waves from 108 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: any direction. Now, a directional antenna is designed in such 109 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: a way where it is much more sensitive at picking 110 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: up signals that are coming from specific points. You have 111 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: to point the antenna toward the area where you expect 112 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: there to be a radio wave, and the benefit is 113 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: you can pick up much weaker radio waves typically with 114 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: a directional antenna than with an omni directional antenna. However, 115 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: if you're a couple of degrees off, if your antenna 116 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: is not pointed directly at the source, you may not 117 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,240 Speaker 1: pick up the signal at all. So if you have 118 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: the directional antenna pointed north, for example, but the source 119 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: of radio waves is to the west, then your antenna 120 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: might not pick it up because it's pointed in a 121 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: different direction. However, this is it's an incredibly useful tool 122 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: if you're trying to look for a specific source of 123 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,880 Speaker 1: interference in your telephone communication system. I should also add 124 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: that there's another important thing about directional antennas is that 125 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: even they have a limit to how far they can 126 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: pick up a signal here on Earth. And this has 127 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,560 Speaker 1: to do with the fact that our Earth is and 128 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:32,319 Speaker 1: brace yourselves round, it's not a flat earth, people. The 129 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: way radio waves propagate and it can be transmitted and received, 130 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: that alone would tell us that the Earth has to 131 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: be curved. And here's the reason. When you broadcast radio waves, 132 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: they travel outward in a straight line from the source 133 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 1: of radiation. And if the Earth were flat, then no 134 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:52,640 Speaker 1: matter how far away you were, if you had a 135 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: sensitive enough antenna, you'd be able to pick up radio 136 00:08:55,559 --> 00:09:00,240 Speaker 1: waves from that source. However, because the Earth curves, then 137 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 1: and you look at two different points on the planet 138 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,439 Speaker 1: that are far enough apart that curvature means that if 139 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: you're having radio waves travel out at a straight line 140 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:12,440 Speaker 1: from point A, they won't reach point B because it's 141 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: curved away from the path right, It'll those radio waves 142 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:20,640 Speaker 1: will just go out into space instead. There is an 143 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:23,960 Speaker 1: exception to this, and that certain radio waves are the 144 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: right length where they can bounce off the Earth's ion 145 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: a sphere. So you can use the ionosphere sort of 146 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:33,720 Speaker 1: like a mirror. You can point radio waves toward it. 147 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: It will bounce off the ionosphere and then angle back 148 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,959 Speaker 1: down toward the surface of the Earth. That way, you 149 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,719 Speaker 1: could actually transmit much further than you could just from 150 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: line of sight. You can think of it as a 151 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: line of sight. You don't even actually have to be 152 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:48,960 Speaker 1: able to see the thing. It just has to be, 153 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:52,559 Speaker 1: like I said, a more or less straight path from 154 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:54,959 Speaker 1: point A to point B for you to pick it up. Okay, 155 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: but that's beside the point. Janski's antenna was a directional 156 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: antenna meant to pick up that source of interference. So 157 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 1: he's picking up weird signals as he's using this directional 158 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:17,280 Speaker 1: antenna that don't seem to have any terrestrial source to them, 159 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: Like if he pointed the directional antenna up into the air. 160 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:23,720 Speaker 1: He was picking up signals, but he could not identify 161 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: where those signals were coming from. And in nineteen thirty one, 162 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:30,719 Speaker 1: after he had been scratching his head over where this 163 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: source could have come from, he concluded that at least 164 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:38,720 Speaker 1: some of those signals had to be extraterrestrial in origin. 165 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: They had to be coming from outside the Earth, from 166 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: space itself. He didn't know where they were coming from 167 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: or what was producing them, but he was sure that 168 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:55,440 Speaker 1: it wasn't coming from Earth. It was seemingly coming from 169 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,080 Speaker 1: the center of the Milky Way galaxy that, by the way, 170 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,679 Speaker 1: is the galaxy that that we're in the Milky Way. Well. 171 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,640 Speaker 1: Jansky published his findings in nineteen thirty two, and then 172 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: he moved on to work with other stuff, with a 173 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,880 Speaker 1: telephone system. I mean, he wasn't an astronomer or an 174 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: astrophysicist or anything like that, so he dedicated his attention elsewhere. 175 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: But another American engineer named Grote Reber would build on 176 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,040 Speaker 1: Djanski's work, and by the way, I am certain I 177 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: mispronounced his name entirely, but we're gonna soldier on. He 178 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:32,199 Speaker 1: read Janski's work and then he decided, you know what, 179 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: I want to find out more about these these signals 180 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 1: that seem to be coming from space. So he built 181 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: an actual radio telescope. He set out to build a 182 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 1: device specifically to detect these kind of signals, and so 183 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 1: he built a bowl shaped antenna, you know, a parabolic 184 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: kind of antenna in nineteen thirty seven, and it was 185 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:56,960 Speaker 1: capable of detecting radio signals from space. Now, when I 186 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 1: say radio signals from space, I am not necessar barely 187 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: talking about stuff that was purposefully or intelligently transmitted, because 188 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,720 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff in space generates radio waves. The Sun, 189 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 1: for example, does it, Other stars do it. Pulsars and 190 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 1: quasars produce radio waves. Radio astronomy gave scientists tools to 191 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:22,440 Speaker 1: detect and learn more about stuff in space than we 192 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,080 Speaker 1: could manage with things like optical telescopes, that is, light 193 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: based telescopes. So in the decades following Reaver's work, we 194 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 1: saw a lot of progress in astronomy thanks to radio telescopes. 195 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:38,920 Speaker 1: Now we're going to skip up to nineteen fifty seven, 196 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 1: and that's when a telescope designed by Bernard Lovell and 197 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: Charles's husband went live for the first time at Jodrell 198 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 1: Bank at the University of Manchester and it was called 199 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,719 Speaker 1: the Mark one Telescope, though these days folks tend to 200 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: refer to it as the Level telescope. And this thing's big. 201 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: It has a parabolic dish to help focus radio waves 202 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,560 Speaker 1: on the antenna and that dish measures seventy six meters 203 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:09,400 Speaker 1: or two hundred and fifty feet across. A complicated analog 204 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: computer consisting of electro mechanical components was designed so that 205 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 1: it could position this antenna. It could point it at 206 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,559 Speaker 1: different sections of the sky, and this antenna could actually 207 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,720 Speaker 1: track a radio source as it moved across the sky, 208 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: so you could point it at something and then use 209 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 1: the computer to constantly adjust the radio antenna's position so 210 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 1: that it moved along with this whatever the source was 211 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:39,280 Speaker 1: of the radio waves and you could get a better 212 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,760 Speaker 1: read on it. There's a really impressive piece of technology. 213 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:45,719 Speaker 1: And it also picked up the third stage of the 214 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,000 Speaker 1: rocket that was used to launch Sputnik. That's the first 215 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,320 Speaker 1: man made satellite. That's the one the Soviet Union put 216 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 1: up into space, and it was launched just a few 217 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,400 Speaker 1: months after the Level Telescope came online, so it actually 218 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: detected that that was one of the things that indicated 219 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:06,440 Speaker 1: how useful and important radio telescopes could be beyond just 220 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:11,199 Speaker 1: their astronomical or cosmological uses. Now, the power of the 221 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: level telescope impressed a lot of very smart people, and 222 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,880 Speaker 1: a couple of those people were Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison. 223 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: They proposed that a sufficiently powerful transmitter and a sufficiently 224 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: powerful receiver would be able to send communications across vast 225 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,400 Speaker 1: reaches of space. So if you had parabolic antennas of 226 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: particularly strong power in two different locations, you could transmit 227 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: and receive radio signals even if you were light years 228 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: apart from each other. Now, that communication is still restricted 229 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: by the speed of light, because radio waves travel at 230 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: the speed of light, and nothing goes faster than the 231 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: speed of light. So if the two points of contact 232 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,920 Speaker 1: are let's say, eight light years apart from each other, 233 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: it would take eight years for an out going message 234 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: to reach the recipient and another eight years to wait 235 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:08,960 Speaker 1: for a response, so there will be no instant messaging. 236 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 1: But beyond that, it meant that you could take a 237 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: radio telescope and you could use it to search for 238 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:18,520 Speaker 1: signs that maybe someone out there in space has already 239 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: been using radio technology for communications or for other purposes, 240 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,520 Speaker 1: and that perhaps this could help us determine if there 241 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:29,600 Speaker 1: are other examples of intelligent life out there. I'll explain 242 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:33,000 Speaker 1: more about how this was used in just a moment, 243 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. Kochoni and Morrison 244 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:50,400 Speaker 1: wrote a paper about their proposal titled searching for Interstellar Communications. 245 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: The journal Nature published this paper, and the two scientists 246 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: addressed some pretty big questions. See now, as the late 247 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: great Douglas Adams once observed, space is big, really big. 248 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:11,360 Speaker 1: And these radio telescopes are directional, so you have to 249 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,840 Speaker 1: pick a spot to point the telescope at. But how 250 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: do you determine where you should look? How do you 251 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: decide this is the point in space we're going to 252 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: search right now? You might start off searching the equivalent 253 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,320 Speaker 1: of a ghost town, and it could be that a 254 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: neighboring region of space might be absolutely teeming with life. 255 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:36,200 Speaker 1: But because of that directional telescope, you wouldn't know that 256 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,840 Speaker 1: you're just be getting data from a total uninhabited part 257 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,880 Speaker 1: of space. So the implication you get is, oh, there's 258 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,880 Speaker 1: nobody out there. Meanwhile, like two space doors down there's 259 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: a raging party going on. It's kind of like if 260 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: you were staring into a warehouse from the keyhole of 261 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:57,720 Speaker 1: a door. You would only see stuff within the view 262 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 1: of that keyhole, but there could be a whole lot 263 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: more warehouse just outside your area of view. You would 264 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: have no idea if anything was actually in the warehouse 265 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: or not. You would only be able to see from 266 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:13,600 Speaker 1: that narrow range of the keyhole. That was the same 267 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: issue they were having with radio telescopes. Moreover, you could 268 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:19,800 Speaker 1: point the radio telescope at a place where there is 269 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 1: intelligent life, but maybe it's at a region that's so 270 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: far away from the Earth we can't detect that life. 271 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,600 Speaker 1: So let me put that another way. Human beings started 272 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:36,359 Speaker 1: broadcasting radio in the early nineteen hundreds, so it's really 273 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 1: been less than one hundred and fifty years since we 274 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:43,199 Speaker 1: started using radio for communication. There are stars in the 275 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:47,040 Speaker 1: Milky Way Galaxy again, the same galaxy that our solar 276 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: system is in, that are around nine hundred thousand light 277 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: years away from us. That means it would take light 278 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:59,360 Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand earth years to travel from that distant 279 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:03,880 Speaker 1: star to us, So it takes nearly a million years 280 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,199 Speaker 1: for that information to get to us. A radio communication 281 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,880 Speaker 1: would require the same amount of time to get to us. 282 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: That means that if intelligent alien life exists, or even 283 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: existed on a planet around that distant star, that life 284 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,239 Speaker 1: would have had to have invented and made use of 285 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 1: radio technology a million years ago for us to pick 286 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 1: up those signals today. That's assuming that intelligent life would 287 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:34,040 Speaker 1: have somehow survived that million years. For us to say 288 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:37,560 Speaker 1: that intelligent life exists today, right, we wouldn't know that 289 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,159 Speaker 1: for sure. All we could say is there appears to 290 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,320 Speaker 1: have been an intelligent civilization that existed a million years ago. 291 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 1: We aren't really sure what they're up to now, because 292 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 1: we'd have no way of knowing. We would only know 293 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:55,359 Speaker 1: from the signals that were sent from the past. A 294 00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:58,720 Speaker 1: neat thing about space too, The further you look, the 295 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,199 Speaker 1: more you're looking into the past, you're not seeing present 296 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 1: situations just because of the restriction of the speed of light. 297 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: So you'd only really be able to see any current 298 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 1: alien civilization if they were relatively close to us, because 299 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:21,919 Speaker 1: otherwise you can't be certain that that civilization still exists 300 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:26,760 Speaker 1: if it's thousands of light years away. Moreover, alien civilizations 301 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,760 Speaker 1: would only have been able to hear us if they 302 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:33,480 Speaker 1: were around one hundred and fifty light years or closer 303 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,320 Speaker 1: to Earth. If they're further than one hundred and fifty 304 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:40,920 Speaker 1: light years away, then our broadcasts would not have gone 305 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,520 Speaker 1: far enough out to reach them. This, by the way, 306 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:46,639 Speaker 1: is why a lot of science fiction stories are really 307 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,160 Speaker 1: more like fantasy stories. A lot of them involve aliens 308 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,600 Speaker 1: finding out about Earth because they picked up a radio 309 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:57,439 Speaker 1: or television broadcast. But those broadcasts have only been around 310 00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,959 Speaker 1: for a few decades, so that would require the alien 311 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,680 Speaker 1: to be relatively close to Earth in the first place 312 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,919 Speaker 1: to pick up those transmissions because of those limitations of 313 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,920 Speaker 1: the speed of light. Anyway, my point was, we might 314 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 1: be quote unquote looking at the right spot, but the 315 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,000 Speaker 1: right spot might be far enough away that any radio 316 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: broadcasts would still be in transit to us and wouldn't 317 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: have arrived yet. It may not arrive for thousands of years. 318 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,639 Speaker 1: And that's just one more tiny part of why looking 319 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,879 Speaker 1: for meaningful signals in the sky is a huge challenge. 320 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,280 Speaker 1: You've heard the phrase looking for a needle in a haystack. Well, 321 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:35,160 Speaker 1: it's like that, but you know, roughly a bazillion times 322 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: harder than that. Kachoni and Morrison set out an argument 323 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 1: about which areas of the galaxy would be most likely 324 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:46,679 Speaker 1: to host an intelligent civilization capable of radio transmissions. This 325 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: included targeting stars that are neither too hot nor too 326 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 1: small or cold. Hot stars burn out quickly, and the 327 00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: thought was, if it's a really hot star, it might 328 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,560 Speaker 1: go through its life cycle fast enough that life doesn't 329 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: have a chance to evolve on any planets that might 330 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: be an orbit around that star. So the stars life 331 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,440 Speaker 1: cycle is literally too short for life to have formed 332 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 1: around that system. Smaller, colder stars tend to be the 333 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 1: really old ones, ones that have been around for billions 334 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:25,760 Speaker 1: of years, and with that much time, eventually, orbiting planets 335 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,159 Speaker 1: will lock on a star so that one side of 336 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: the planet always faces the star and the opposite side 337 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,679 Speaker 1: of the planet always faces away from the star. So 338 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,439 Speaker 1: one side is always lit and the other side is 339 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: always dark, and that kind of planet would probably be 340 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: incapable of supporting life. So, said Cochoni and Morrison, we 341 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 1: should look for stars that are not that different from 342 00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: the Sun. These would be the right age and size 343 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,200 Speaker 1: to potentially support life if an orbiting planet were within 344 00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,000 Speaker 1: a certain range, which we tend to refer to as 345 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: the Goldilocks region. It has to be a distance that's 346 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 1: not too close to the Sun but not too far 347 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: away either, and that really narrows things down in fact, 348 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: and it means we can cross off potentially thousands or 349 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: millions of stars from our otherwise unmanageably huge list of 350 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 1: potential targets to look at. And so with this in mind, 351 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: another astronomer and an astrophysicist named Frank Drake decided to 352 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 1: take this hypothesis and to actually put it in action. 353 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,800 Speaker 1: He conducted the first search for extraterrestrial intelligence with the 354 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:36,880 Speaker 1: help of radio astronomy, and it was called Project Ozma, 355 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 1: named after the character Ozma from L. Frank Baum's oz books. 356 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: Drake secured time on a radio telescope that measured twenty 357 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,359 Speaker 1: six meters or eighty five feet across to scan for 358 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:55,919 Speaker 1: radio frequencies that originated out of Tao Seti and Epsilon Eridani. 359 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: Those are two different stars, and both stars are relatively 360 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,800 Speaker 1: close to our own solar system, and both our Sun 361 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:07,440 Speaker 1: like enough that they could serve as potentially good targets. 362 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: Based on Kochoni and Morrison's proposed guidelines. Apart from one outlier, 363 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:17,440 Speaker 1: his team found no evidence of radio signals indicating potential 364 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,680 Speaker 1: intelligent communication. The one outlier they did pick up, while 365 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,439 Speaker 1: initially interesting, proved to be terrestrial in nature, meaning that 366 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:29,880 Speaker 1: it originated from an aircraft made by dull old humans, 367 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,399 Speaker 1: didn't come from outer space. It was something that we 368 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 1: had created and this radio telescope just happened to pick 369 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: it up. And that actually illustrates another challenge with using 370 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: radio telescopes, weeding out the signals that are actually coming 371 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: from us as opposed to coming from space. And it 372 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,639 Speaker 1: sure would be embarrassing to come forward with a claim 373 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,920 Speaker 1: that you've discovered alien communication only for it to turn 374 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,359 Speaker 1: out to be a terrestrial signal, like an old Mork 375 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: and Mindy episode, or something that's only got a character 376 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:02,159 Speaker 1: who's supposed to be an alien in it, it's not 377 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 1: actually alien. Now, Luckily, this early experience taught researchers to 378 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: include a secondary antenna that would only be sensitive enough 379 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: to detect terrestrial signals. So you put this secondary antenna 380 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: near the first antenna. They're both pointed at the same 381 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,240 Speaker 1: section of sky, and then when you get a beep, 382 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,200 Speaker 1: you know you register a signal. You can compare the 383 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,120 Speaker 1: primary telescope, the one that you're using to search for 384 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:35,840 Speaker 1: extraterrestrial intelligence, against this smaller antenna, and if the smaller 385 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,840 Speaker 1: antenna also picked up the signal, you know that signal 386 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:43,200 Speaker 1: was terrestrial, because the smaller antenna isn't powerful enough to 387 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,119 Speaker 1: pick up stuff from outer space. So you say, all right, well, 388 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 1: if it appears on both, we know that that came 389 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,520 Speaker 1: from Earth. We know that that's not actually a signal 390 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: scent from somewhere out in space. So they learned that 391 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,359 Speaker 1: lesson very quickly, and that was very helpful. Drake further 392 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: contributed to the discourse about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence 393 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,840 Speaker 1: by proposing a way to sort of conceptualize the possibility 394 00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:10,199 Speaker 1: of detecting intelligent civilizations in the universe these days. We 395 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,159 Speaker 1: call it the Drake equation and it's a pretty cool concept, 396 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,200 Speaker 1: and it goes something like this. All right, there's a 397 00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: variable that we're going to call N. N represents the 398 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: number of civilizations in our galaxy with which we could 399 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:29,159 Speaker 1: possibly communicate. So N is that number. It's an unknown number. 400 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,879 Speaker 1: What determines the value of that number, Well, it's a 401 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 1: bunch of stuff that you have to take into account, 402 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,760 Speaker 1: and that includes the average rate at which stars form 403 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: in the Milky Way, the number of those stars that 404 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,840 Speaker 1: will actually have planets form around them, because not every 405 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: star has planets, the average number of those planets that 406 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 1: could potentially support life, the number of planets that could 407 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 1: support life that actually go on to support life. So far, 408 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:03,920 Speaker 1: we haven't found any that definitively fit that definition. Then 409 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,560 Speaker 1: the number of those planets in which the life that 410 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:10,439 Speaker 1: forms can develop to the point of gaining intelligence, the 411 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:13,719 Speaker 1: number of planets with intelligent life that then develop and 412 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,639 Speaker 1: use communication tools that would be detectable from Earth. And 413 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,879 Speaker 1: then the length of time such civilizations have been doing that, 414 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,679 Speaker 1: because that length of time will determine whether or not 415 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,639 Speaker 1: they would be detectable. Right, so, even if they exist, again, 416 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,640 Speaker 1: if they're far far away, there's no way we could 417 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,679 Speaker 1: detect them anyway, because again the speed of light is 418 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,520 Speaker 1: a limiting factor. So this equation is not meant to 419 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: give us a hard and fast number like three or something. Instead, 420 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: it helps us frame the likelihood of detecting intelligent life, 421 00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 1: specifically intelligent life that is using radio communication. We don't 422 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:53,480 Speaker 1: really know anything about the number of plants that can 423 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:59,439 Speaker 1: definitively support life or anything else beyond that particular variable. Right, 424 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: we got information about some of the other stuff. We 425 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: have a general idea of how frequently stars form in 426 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:09,800 Speaker 1: the Milky Way. We are refining our understanding of how 427 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:12,960 Speaker 1: many stars have planets. Turns out that way more stars 428 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: have planets than we initially thought. Then we have to think, 429 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,720 Speaker 1: all right, well, how many of those plants could potentially 430 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 1: support life based upon their distance from the star, the 431 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:23,320 Speaker 1: age of the star, the heat of the star, all 432 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 1: of those other variables. So we're slowly learning more about 433 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,720 Speaker 1: the front half of that equation, and the back half 434 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:35,159 Speaker 1: is still largely a mystery to us. Now it's important 435 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:37,879 Speaker 1: so that we can use that kind of information to 436 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: help refine our search. Right, we want to make sure 437 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:45,320 Speaker 1: that we are looking at the places most likely to 438 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:49,240 Speaker 1: produce good results, because again, space is really big. If 439 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,479 Speaker 1: we just randomly point the telescope in any given direction, 440 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: the odds of success are minuscule. We want to improve 441 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:00,800 Speaker 1: those odds as best we can by making some intelligent 442 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:07,560 Speaker 1: decisions based on educated guesses. Really. Now, the Seti Institute, 443 00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:12,760 Speaker 1: a not for profit scientific research organization, wouldn't come into 444 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 1: being until nineteen eighty four. However, between Drake's project Ozma 445 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:22,159 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen sixties and the SETI Institute's formation 446 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four, there were lots of astronomers who 447 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: were looking for signals that might have originated from an 448 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:31,280 Speaker 1: intelligent civilization out in space. I find a lot of 449 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: people confuse SETI the science that's the general science of 450 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, and SETI the institute. Those are 451 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:45,280 Speaker 1: The SETI Institute is dedicated toward a deeper understanding of 452 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,600 Speaker 1: life in general and its place in the universe and 453 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:52,720 Speaker 1: the potential existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But the two are 454 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,840 Speaker 1: not synonymous. It's not SETI and the SETI Institute are 455 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: related but distinct. Now, back in nineteen sixty seven, there 456 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,000 Speaker 1: was an astronomer named Jocelyn Bell who noticed something that 457 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: initially seemed really promising from a SETI perspective. Turned out 458 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,960 Speaker 1: it was incredible information period, but we just didn't understand 459 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,160 Speaker 1: its significance at the time. She noticed what appeared to 460 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,280 Speaker 1: be a pulsing radio signal. She and her supervisor charted 461 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: the pulses that they were detecting and they were detecting 462 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:31,720 Speaker 1: them at regular intervals, like each day, slightly off by 463 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: hours or whatever. But it was it was unusual. They 464 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,440 Speaker 1: weren't expecting it, and at the time they didn't have 465 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: an explanation for the origin of those radio pulses, so 466 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: they had to label it as something, and at the 467 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: time they labeled it LGM ie. LGM stood for Little 468 00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:53,120 Speaker 1: Green Men. It was a somewhat tongue in cheek way 469 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 1: to indicate that, I don't know, maybe this is purposeful 470 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,680 Speaker 1: radio broadcasting. We don't know. They kept looking into it, 471 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,640 Speaker 1: they kept trying to figure out exactly what it was 472 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: and where the signal was originating from, and over time 473 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:10,080 Speaker 1: they concluded that it was actually a naturally occurring pulse. 474 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,000 Speaker 1: It was not like an outgoing phone message from beyond 475 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,880 Speaker 1: the stars or something. Ultimately, this hunch that they had 476 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,920 Speaker 1: that it was a naturally occurring phenomenon proved correct, and 477 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: scientists were able to figure out that the pulse was 478 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 1: coming from rotating neutron stars called pulsars. So while it 479 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 1: didn't turn out to be aliens, astronomers were able to 480 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: expand our understanding of space, so it was still super cool. 481 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,880 Speaker 1: It just you know it wasn't aliens. Ohio State University 482 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: launched the first long term SETI study in nineteen seventy three, 483 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: and unlike other attempts, this one surveyed the entire night 484 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: sky as the Earth rotated. Instead of honing in on 485 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,080 Speaker 1: a specific region of space and then just staying locked 486 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: onto that region, it would do a full scan every night, 487 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: slightly different arc each night, full scan of the night sky. 488 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven, that system registered a signal that 489 00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 1: was many times stronger than the background signals that the 490 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 1: telescope was recording. There was an analyst named Jerry Emmon 491 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,240 Speaker 1: who wrote down the word wow in the margin of 492 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: the computer print out for that detection, and to this 493 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,800 Speaker 1: day we call it the Wow signal. And the signal 494 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,880 Speaker 1: had a profile that suggested it wasn't your typical, naturally 495 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:29,600 Speaker 1: occurring radio wave. It was this weird spike. But despite 496 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: numerous efforts, the telescope did not pick up any subsequent 497 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,520 Speaker 1: signals from that part of space. Emmon himself later guessed 498 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:41,000 Speaker 1: that perhaps the signal originated from Earth. Maybe it was 499 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: something that got beamed up and then reflected off of 500 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 1: something in space, like a piece of space debris and 501 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:52,360 Speaker 1: thus it didn't originate from extraterrestrial sources at all, but 502 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: we don't know for sure. Astronomers oversaw similar efforts with 503 00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: different radio telescopes around the world over the years, and 504 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,600 Speaker 1: it's a bit tricky because it requires securing time on 505 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,880 Speaker 1: radio telescopes for the purposes of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, 506 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 1: and the owners of those telescopes frequently scientific research institutions 507 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,520 Speaker 1: universities that kind of thing. They often have their own 508 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,960 Speaker 1: priorities which may or may not involve seeking out evidence 509 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,840 Speaker 1: of intelligent life in the galaxy. So finding time when 510 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: you can use those radio telescopes is pretty tricky stuff. 511 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty four, Thomas Pearson and Jill Tarter found 512 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:34,160 Speaker 1: the not for profit organization called the SETI Institute, with 513 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: the mission to understand life and a sort of universal context. 514 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,120 Speaker 1: So again, while there is a SETI organization, SETI as 515 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: a whole really refers to the science the effort, the 516 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:49,360 Speaker 1: specific application of techniques and processes, and an effort to 517 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:53,880 Speaker 1: attain a particular outcome, namely to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. 518 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,800 Speaker 1: Astronomers interested in pursuing goals related to SETI often have 519 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,960 Speaker 1: to wait for times when telescopes aren't in active use 520 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,840 Speaker 1: for some other purpose, and that really limits what they 521 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: can accomplish. Other groups have developed a way to piggyback 522 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:15,800 Speaker 1: onto existing radio telescopes. So piggyback systems tend to be 523 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:20,000 Speaker 1: systems that monitor data picked up by a radio telescope, 524 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 1: so it's like an additional computer readout of what's going on. 525 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:28,840 Speaker 1: So the team that's using the radio telescope is doing 526 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,840 Speaker 1: it to do some specific purpose. Meanwhile, SETI researchers are 527 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: using a parallel readout, just looking for anything that might 528 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: stand out as a potential example of evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence. 529 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,960 Speaker 1: This is tricky because again the SETI researchers have no 530 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: say on where a telescope's going to be pointed. They're 531 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,000 Speaker 1: just looking at the same data, but for a different reason. 532 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: So it's not ideal. But again, yeah, telescopes are kind 533 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,040 Speaker 1: of hard to come by. Even with all these limitations, 534 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:08,120 Speaker 1: scientists were generating a lot of information that they needed 535 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,960 Speaker 1: to sift through. Radio telescopes pick up a lot of noise, 536 00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,560 Speaker 1: and there may be signal in that noise. I mean 537 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,560 Speaker 1: that signal might be incredibly weak, but you have to 538 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:21,359 Speaker 1: really examine the data closely in order to figure out 539 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: what is truly a signal versus just random noise in 540 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: the background. And then you have to weed out all 541 00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,560 Speaker 1: the other stuff like did that signal come from a 542 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:36,040 Speaker 1: natural phenomenon? Did it come from a terrestrial source. This 543 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,920 Speaker 1: is not easy to do. Scientists were already having to 544 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: work pretty hard to secure time with radio telescopes. It 545 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: would be even harder to secure time with something like 546 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: a supercomputer because supercomputers also are owned by just a 547 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 1: few different universities and research organizations and labs, and they 548 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,759 Speaker 1: typically are being used for other stuff that takes a 549 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:01,440 Speaker 1: higher priority than searching for extraterrestrial and dilligence. And then 550 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,000 Speaker 1: there was a breakthrough, and that breakthrough came in the 551 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,799 Speaker 1: form of network connectivity. In the early nineteen nineties, the 552 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:12,600 Speaker 1: mainstream public first began learning about this weird thing called 553 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:16,160 Speaker 1: the Internet, and by nineteen ninety nine, the Internet was, 554 00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:19,840 Speaker 1: if not a household term, at least something most folks 555 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:24,000 Speaker 1: had some experience or knowledge of. And that's what opened 556 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: up the opportunity for SETI at home. I'll explain more 557 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,240 Speaker 1: in just a minute, but first let's take another quick break, 558 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: So there are many different models for computing. When I 559 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,840 Speaker 1: was growing up, I was familiar with a more centralized model. 560 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,120 Speaker 1: So in my case, I was growing up in the 561 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,920 Speaker 1: era of personal computers, and the computers I first used 562 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,520 Speaker 1: were completely self contained. They didn't connect to a larger network. 563 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,719 Speaker 1: All the processing capability, all the programs, all the capacity 564 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,560 Speaker 1: for storage were connected to the physical computer itself. They 565 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,600 Speaker 1: might be peripherals, but it was all part of the 566 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,400 Speaker 1: personal computer. A few years ago, the big trend was 567 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 1: cloud computing. So with cloud computing, you've got networked servers 568 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 1: that are doing a lot of the processing power for 569 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,360 Speaker 1: big applications. The devices we're using, whether they're computers or 570 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: mobile devices or sensors or whatever, are mostly acting as 571 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,400 Speaker 1: transmitters and receivers for many tasks. We provide input to 572 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:37,200 Speaker 1: these devices, and the device then transmits commands to some 573 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:41,000 Speaker 1: distant group of servers that takes that information, does some 574 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 1: sort of operation on it, produces some sort of result, 575 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,880 Speaker 1: and sends that back to us. So no longer do 576 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,920 Speaker 1: we have to have really powerful computers directly at our disposal. 577 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:55,000 Speaker 1: We can rely on cloud services to do that computing 578 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,319 Speaker 1: for us, at least for some things. For other things 579 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:02,880 Speaker 1: like if you want to do low latency, high graphics 580 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,120 Speaker 1: fidelity gaming, for example, you want to have a really good, 581 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 1: strong computer processor at your disposal because latency with transmission 582 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,759 Speaker 1: can completely ruin that experience. But for the most part, 583 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:18,279 Speaker 1: you get what I'm saying well. SETTI at Home was 584 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:22,120 Speaker 1: an example of sort of a third model called distributed computing. 585 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:25,239 Speaker 1: The idea was that you could take a group of 586 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,800 Speaker 1: regular old personal computers, the kind that any average person 587 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: could have in their home. You would install some software 588 00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,680 Speaker 1: on those computers, and that software would allow the computers 589 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:40,760 Speaker 1: to process chunks of data in some particular way before 590 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:43,960 Speaker 1: sending the results back to wherever that data was coming 591 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,920 Speaker 1: from in the first place. So if someone needed to 592 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:51,279 Speaker 1: tackle a really big data processing job, one that could 593 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:55,040 Speaker 1: be divided up into smaller chunks, that person could use 594 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: a centralized computer or maybe a network of computers to 595 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:02,560 Speaker 1: send out these smaller unks of data to this distribution 596 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,440 Speaker 1: of personal computers for processing and then wait for the 597 00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,080 Speaker 1: results to come back, and then group them all together 598 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,200 Speaker 1: and see what you got. It speeds things up considerably. 599 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,040 Speaker 1: It increases the processing assets of the project. As more 600 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,719 Speaker 1: computers joined that project and it reduces the need to 601 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,920 Speaker 1: turn to stuff like supercomputers, and it also achieved another 602 00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:27,399 Speaker 1: goal which the founders of the project had in mind, 603 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:32,320 Speaker 1: which was to encourage enthusiasm and excitement around the subject 604 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 1: of science. Computer scientist David Gedge, astronomers Woody Sullivan and 605 00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:44,080 Speaker 1: Dan Wertheimer, and David Anderson, who was David's graduate school advisor, 606 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,399 Speaker 1: collectively came up with this idea all the way back 607 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,920 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine, specifically with SETI at Home. They 608 00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:56,120 Speaker 1: were trying to come up with a scientific application people 609 00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:00,400 Speaker 1: would be excited to participate in, and while they weren't 610 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:08,000 Speaker 1: necessarily super optimistic that SETI at Home would produce incredible 611 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:12,320 Speaker 1: results from a scientific perspective, they thought from a motivating perspective, 612 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,200 Speaker 1: it was just the ticket, and it was pretty genius. 613 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:19,120 Speaker 1: Upon launch, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection 614 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:23,560 Speaker 1: could conceivably help in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The 615 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:27,600 Speaker 1: researchers created a screen saver program, so if you wanted 616 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:31,080 Speaker 1: to participate, you could download the screen saver and install 617 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,400 Speaker 1: it on your personal computer. When your computer would go 618 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:39,280 Speaker 1: idle and activate the screen saver, the processor of your computer, 619 00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,480 Speaker 1: which otherwise would be doing very little would get to 620 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:47,040 Speaker 1: work on some data sent over from the SETI research project. 621 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: So the research project would pull information from a radio 622 00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:54,680 Speaker 1: telescope divided into chunks and then parcel it out to 623 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:59,040 Speaker 1: people participating in this project when complete, when your processor 624 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,600 Speaker 1: was done working on chunk of data, it would send 625 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: the results back to the central point for the project 626 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,440 Speaker 1: and wait for the next chunk of data. And if 627 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,480 Speaker 1: you were to come back to do some work on 628 00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:12,080 Speaker 1: your computer, let's say you come back after taking a 629 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:15,279 Speaker 1: break for half an hour, the screensaver goes inactive and 630 00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,840 Speaker 1: the program would surrender your processing cycles back to you, 631 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:20,959 Speaker 1: so you didn't have to worry about SETI at home 632 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,400 Speaker 1: suddenly taking up all of your computer's processing power. It 633 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,880 Speaker 1: would only jump back onto the job when your computer 634 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:32,600 Speaker 1: went idle again and your CPU had availability. Now, as 635 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:35,719 Speaker 1: I said, this idea was genius, but the original implementation 636 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,160 Speaker 1: of the idea was less. So now that's not a 637 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:43,320 Speaker 1: slight on the researchers, because when they launched the project 638 00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:47,080 Speaker 1: in May nineteen ninety nine, they were expecting that they 639 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,160 Speaker 1: might get as many as a thousand people signing up. 640 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:54,239 Speaker 1: They figured that, well, this is an interesting idea and 641 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:56,719 Speaker 1: we'll probably see some folks really you know, who are 642 00:40:56,760 --> 00:41:00,400 Speaker 1: really into science join, but I'm not sure about anything 643 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:05,680 Speaker 1: beyond that. Now, with that expectation, they only dedicated a 644 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:10,800 Speaker 1: single desktop PC for the purposes of assigning processing tasks 645 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:14,520 Speaker 1: and receiving the results from the distributed computers. They did 646 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,279 Speaker 1: not anticipate how enthusiastic the reception to the project would be. 647 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,160 Speaker 1: They didn't see a thousand people sign up when they 648 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:27,440 Speaker 1: launched SETI at Home. They saw a million people sign up. 649 00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: So let's put that into perspective. Let's say you've set 650 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,240 Speaker 1: up a lemonade stand and you did some brief scouting 651 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: work and you anticipated that the location you're setting up 652 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,200 Speaker 1: in you're gonna see maybe ten customers in thirty minutes, 653 00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,080 Speaker 1: and you think that's manageable. Well, what you didn't realize 654 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 1: is that you've actually set up your stand in sourpuss 655 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:50,719 Speaker 1: scurvy town. It's a town populated entirely by people with 656 00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: an unquenchable thirst for lemonade. So instead of ten people 657 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,120 Speaker 1: showing up in that first half hour, ten thousand people 658 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,279 Speaker 1: mob your lemonade stand. You are overwhelmed. Well, the same 659 00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,320 Speaker 1: thing happened to the SETI at Home PC that was 660 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,560 Speaker 1: in charge of sending out and receiving all that data. 661 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,520 Speaker 1: It was a good problem to have, but it was 662 00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:14,800 Speaker 1: still a problem. Sun Microsystems jumped in and donated a 663 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,120 Speaker 1: bunch of computers to help the SETI at Home administrators 664 00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,480 Speaker 1: make the system work, and from that moment on the 665 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,759 Speaker 1: program went into high gear. People in the program were 666 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:29,680 Speaker 1: contributing to scientific exploration just by allowing their idle computers 667 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:33,600 Speaker 1: to focus on complicated mathematical problems when the computer was 668 00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,200 Speaker 1: otherwise not in use. It was a beautiful thing. The 669 00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:39,719 Speaker 1: response also meant that the project could go through information 670 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 1: orders of magnitude faster than if it had all been 671 00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:48,040 Speaker 1: handled in house. They had the advantage of a million processors. 672 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,279 Speaker 1: That's something that no SETI project could have afforded on 673 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: its own at that time. It also inspired other scientific 674 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:59,920 Speaker 1: projects to launch distributed computing efforts. Folding at Home, for example, 675 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,960 Speaker 1: taps into idle computers to solve protein folding problems that 676 00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,920 Speaker 1: could lead to incredible advances in medicine and biology. On 677 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:12,040 Speaker 1: top of that, online communities formed around SETI at Home. 678 00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: People connected over forums and formed friendships. There were even 679 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:20,560 Speaker 1: stories about people meeting online, falling in love, and getting 680 00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:23,400 Speaker 1: married out in the real world, all while using their 681 00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,040 Speaker 1: computers to seek out evidence of intelligent life. It was 682 00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:32,080 Speaker 1: all really remarkable and beautiful. But hey, if it was 683 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 1: so super cool, why the heck is the project shutting 684 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,960 Speaker 1: down now? Twenty one years after it launched? Is the 685 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 1: book closed on extraterrestrial intelligent life? Are we done? Have 686 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,680 Speaker 1: we given up? Well? Not quite. The problem now is 687 00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:51,360 Speaker 1: that we've got a ton a mountain of processed data 688 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,400 Speaker 1: from this project that has to be further analyzed, and 689 00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:57,680 Speaker 1: that taps into something else that I plan to talk 690 00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:02,160 Speaker 1: about more later on this year, the challenges of big data. 691 00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:07,280 Speaker 1: We're able to collect mind staggeringly huge amounts of information, 692 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,960 Speaker 1: but understanding and using that information is another matter. It 693 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:16,319 Speaker 1: presents a really big challenge. Even with all of these 694 00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:20,200 Speaker 1: analyzed chunks of info, that data still has to be 695 00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:23,520 Speaker 1: processed to see what's actually been found over the two 696 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,839 Speaker 1: decades of SETI at Home. The researchers overseeing SETI at 697 00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:31,600 Speaker 1: Home hope to publish a paper on the subject, and 698 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:33,880 Speaker 1: to do that they need to look at all the 699 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,719 Speaker 1: results of the stuff that the program actually found, and 700 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:41,480 Speaker 1: so they needed to stop gathering data. While that happens, 701 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:43,719 Speaker 1: they have to actually stop so that they can see 702 00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:47,600 Speaker 1: what they have, as opposed to continuously adding to that pile. 703 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:50,560 Speaker 1: This hiatus will allow the team to look at the results, 704 00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:54,600 Speaker 1: form conclusions, and write a paper based on the whole project. 705 00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:58,879 Speaker 1: And while we don't anticipate any reports of intelligent communications 706 00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:01,880 Speaker 1: popping up as a result of this analysis, the endeavor 707 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,880 Speaker 1: as a whole has been really successful, particularly in the 708 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:10,759 Speaker 1: context of getting people excited about participating in science. On 709 00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:13,920 Speaker 1: the back end of SETI at Home is an infrastructure 710 00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:17,800 Speaker 1: that grew over time. It is called the Berkeley Open 711 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:23,920 Speaker 1: Infrastructure for Network Computing. This support system hosts numerous distributed 712 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:27,920 Speaker 1: computing projects that work on the same basic principles as 713 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,920 Speaker 1: SETI at Home. It's just that each of these projects 714 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:34,800 Speaker 1: have a different goal or purpose. Some are dedicated to 715 00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:40,759 Speaker 1: detecting and measuring asteroids. Some provide cern processing capabilities to 716 00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,040 Speaker 1: help analyze data produced by the Large Hadron Collider in 717 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:47,320 Speaker 1: an effort to gain a deeper understanding of particle physics 718 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:52,320 Speaker 1: and quantum mechanics. There are projects that focus on climate science, physics, 719 00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:55,839 Speaker 1: cognitive science, and more, and you can check them all 720 00:45:56,080 --> 00:46:02,160 Speaker 1: out at boink dot Berkeley dot edu, slide projects dot php. 721 00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:09,640 Speaker 1: That's bo I Inc. Dot Berkeley dot edu. Slash projects 722 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:13,040 Speaker 1: dot php. If you want to dedicate some of your 723 00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:19,160 Speaker 1: computer's idle processing power to solving really interesting problems in science, 724 00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:22,200 Speaker 1: it's a great way to contribute. You're not even doing 725 00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:26,560 Speaker 1: anything active, but you are helping, you know, peel back 726 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:31,719 Speaker 1: the border of our understanding. We're pushing that boundary further 727 00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:33,920 Speaker 1: and further out, and you can do it just with 728 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,719 Speaker 1: your computer's idle time. It's pretty incredible. So, while SETI 729 00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:40,359 Speaker 1: at Home is writing off into the sunset, at least 730 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,120 Speaker 1: for a while, anyway, there are still efforts around the 731 00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:47,480 Speaker 1: world dedicated in full or in part to the search 732 00:46:47,719 --> 00:46:51,600 Speaker 1: for extraterrestrial life. The search hasn't ended yet, even if 733 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:55,560 Speaker 1: SETI at Home is, at least for now over And 734 00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,680 Speaker 1: while we don't have anything jumping out to us as 735 00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:02,239 Speaker 1: a positive appslcely yes, we need to check this out. 736 00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,520 Speaker 1: We're pretty sure someone's talking to us. Kind of incident. 737 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:11,960 Speaker 1: It's good to remember that space is really big. Who knows, 738 00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:15,359 Speaker 1: maybe the next star we point a telescope at will 739 00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,400 Speaker 1: be beaming whatever the alien version of the Great British 740 00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:23,120 Speaker 1: bakeoff is one can only hope, and that wraps up 741 00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,800 Speaker 1: this episode of Tech Stuff. My hat is off to 742 00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:29,839 Speaker 1: the SETI at Home crew. I think it was an 743 00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:34,080 Speaker 1: admirable use of technology to inspire people to get into science. 744 00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:38,719 Speaker 1: I think it was a worthy endeavor to search for 745 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,759 Speaker 1: extraterrestrial intelligence. It was great to see other projects take 746 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:47,360 Speaker 1: that same model and apply it to their own scientific endeavors. 747 00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:51,920 Speaker 1: So it's to me one of those great stories in technology. 748 00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:55,799 Speaker 1: Even if we didn't find any direct evidence of little 749 00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:58,560 Speaker 1: green men out there, who knows what the future will bring. 750 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,359 Speaker 1: If you enjoyed that episode from March eleventh, twenty twenty, 751 00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:06,319 Speaker 1: SETI Not at Home, I will be back next week 752 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:09,960 Speaker 1: with all new episodes. I miss you guys so much. 753 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,279 Speaker 1: Trust me. Every time I'm getting my picture taken with 754 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:17,680 Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse or Rapunzel or Aeriel, my two favorite princesses, 755 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:20,480 Speaker 1: I'm thinking of y'all and wishing you could all be 756 00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:22,320 Speaker 1: there to be in a big group photo with me. 757 00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:25,920 Speaker 1: Maybe someday we'll organize a big Tech Stuff trip to 758 00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:29,759 Speaker 1: Disney World and I'll talk all the way through the 759 00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:32,840 Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion ride until they tell me to leave, until 760 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:35,120 Speaker 1: then I hope you're all well, and I'll talk to 761 00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:45,200 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 762 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:50,560 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 763 00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:52,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.