The Wisdom of Crowds
In August New Scientist published an article on the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and the first science results. While signs of extraterrestrial intelligence have not yet been found, the power of the first 42 telescopes in the array is producing meaningful information.
…surveys do not distract from the search for aliens, which – if they exist and are attempting to communicate – may send out broadcasts at wavelengths not commonly emitted by astrophysical objects. The ATA can observe a wide range of wavelengths, so it can check stars in the foreground for ETI signals while it watches background galaxies for clouds of atomic hydrogen. The telescope often runs three or four projects in parallel.
“A telescope like the ATA is just a superb instrument. The fact that it can do astronomical and SETI work at the same time is really just icing on the cake,” Tarter told New Scientist. “There’s no other telescope that can do this.”
Eventually SETI plans to have 350 telescopes scanning the sky as part of the ATA. For now, Jill Tarter through her TED Prize wish “is trying to harness the “wisdom of the crowds” to optimise the SETI pipeline and analyse the data.”
We are experiencing the unique insights of the crowd now, even before the wish is complete. The article prompted a water resources engineer in Utah to suggest that IBM’s experimental site “Many Eyes” might allow visualization of SETI data in interesting ways, an important piece of Jill’s wish — so SETI will be talking to IBM.
Anyone else who has some great ideas of how to achieve Jill’s wish please write in here. We are always interested in hearing your offers of support and other suggestions.