SETI@home is in hibernation • Hacker News Board

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#31

Post by rtkwe » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:00 AM UTC

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #21

Is it possible to distribute AI training like this so that people could donate their idle processing power to creating a truly open source unencumbered LLM?

The issue with all these types of projects now is that computers are way better at idling now so there's no longer as much effectively free compute to be harvested. SETI@home made a lot more sense when CPUs consumed roughly the same power regardless of the load.

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#32

Post by ikmckenz » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:02 AM UTC

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #21

Is it possible to distribute AI training like this so that people could donate their idle processing power to creating a truly open source unencumbered LLM?

The Hivemind project is just that

https://github.com/learning-at-home/hivemind

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#33

Post by physPop » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:04 AM UTC

Did they ever have any results?

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#34

Post by lofaszvanitt » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:04 AM UTC

Did this org achieve anything? And if so, would government have allowed them to publish their results?

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#35

Post by parton » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:04 AM UTC

MegaDeKay wrote: post #29

Coincidentally I just started reading Carl Sagan's "Contact" the other day. Just getting to the part where they are actually building The Machine. What do people here think of that book?

I read it in high school and quite liked it then, now I am worried that if I revisit I would find it too simplistic how it handles the relationship between science, politics, and religion. The last chapter, which was left out of the movie, really blew my mind back then (very Greg Eganesque).

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#36

Post by ape4 » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:04 AM UTC

There is still https://boinc.berkeley.edu/

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#37

Post by jmclnx » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:06 AM UTC

At the very least, I hope they are remembered for pioneering a whole new form of computing.

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#38

Post by yesenadam » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:09 AM UTC

MegaDeKay wrote: post #29

Coincidentally I just started reading Carl Sagan's "Contact" the other day. Just getting to the part where they are actually building The Machine. What do people here think of that book?

As a kid I liked it, but I loved all his other (i.e. non-fiction) books much more, with a huge passion. I had a nice telescope and was obsessed with astronomy for years. The Sirens of Titan was the first novel I loved to death and read over and over, maybe it's not coincidental that it also involves a lot of interplanetary travel!

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#39

Post by baron816 » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:12 AM UTC

With the rise of generative AI, it's looking much more likely that it'll just be easier to build simulations of whatever we want (including taking a Star Trek-esque adventure around the universe) than it would be to actually go anywhere outside of our solar system. I think the solution to Fermi's Paradox is just that aliens stayed home and played video games, ie. they're all in bunkers deep under their planets' surfaces in simulations having way more fun than they would be if they were dealing with cosmic radiation/exotic matter/time dilation/etc.

Re: SETI@home is in hibernation

#40

Post by roughly » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 2:13 AM UTC

O__________O wrote: post #4

Why? For explanation, see link below; appears this was announced back in 2020, title should be updated: - https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=85267

Honestly, this seems like a pretty good outcome - “we got all the help we need, thank you all.”