TED 2010: SETI Wants You to Help Seek Life Out There

The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California has since its founding in 1984 with the late Carl Sagan among its early participants pursued a mission to "explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe." Tonic has previously written about one of SETI's research scientists and about some of the technology they employ in scanning the cosmos for signs that we are not alone.

Upon receiving a top award at the 2009 TED Conference, SETI director Jill Tarter issued a wish for expanding the opportunity for involvement in SETI's quest to anyone who wants to participate, telling attendees that "I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company."

Just one short year later, at this year's TED 2010 that took place last week, SETI announced the unveiling of a website designed to turn Tarter's wish into reality. As AOL news has reported, SETI announced the setiQuest project. The project website explains:

"SetiQuest is an effort to tap into the global brain trust, harness the power of citizen scientists, and educate the next generation of Earthlings to improve current searches for extraterrestrial intelligence and better understand our place in the cosmos. We are creating a community — or if you prefer, a tribe — to actively involve the world in the ultimate search for cosmic company."

And the invitation is extended to lend a hand and stay informed and engaged. SetiQuest seeks input from computer programmers, digital signal processors, and citizen scientists and avowed 'data geeks,' and encourages everyone to follow project developments through Facebook and Twitter.

It seems to make such perfect sense, this opening up of the project work and the invitation to lend a hand: determining that we are indeed not alone in the universe would seem to be a job very well-suited for all of humanity to support with action or attention.

Photo courtesy of US Navy via Wikimedia Commons.