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Cryptocurrency Miners Are 'Limiting' the Search For Alien Life Now (vice.com)
Since the latest graphics processing units (GPUs) are so popular with cryptocurrency miners, the SETI project -- short for "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" -- can't find the graphics cards it needs to expand its operations. The SETI@home project helps provide some computing power, as it involves thousands of volunteers who turn the power of their computers over to the project, but it's only a portion of the SETI project's total computing power. Motherboard reports: Searching the stars is intense work that "uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space." Analyzing all of the data from these telescopes uses a lot of computing power. "We'd like to use the latest GPUs and we can't get 'em," Dan Werthimer, chief scientist of SETI, told the BBC. "That's limiting our search for extraterrestrials." Manufacturers such as Nvidia are struggling to keep up with demand for graphics cards. It recently told investors it would rise to meet its manufacturing challenge while focusing on its core market -- gamers. It even suggested vendors limit purchases of graphics cards from individual buyers in an effort to stop miners from buying up all the cards. "This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months," Werthimer told the BBC. "We've got the money, we've contacted the vendors, and they say, 'we just don't have them.'"
"We've got the money, we've contacted the vendors, and they say, 'we just don't have them.'"
Offer more money and more hardware will get manufactured.
Ezekiel 23:20
- answered. They're all too busy mining cryptocurrency. Good lord! Charles Stross was right!
This is a duplicate of this story
I agree about cryptocurrency, but I fail to understand why you think that discovering signs of aliens would be no use to humanity. Sure, its not going to affect you on a day to day basic, but it means life has arisen elsewhere and this in turn will influence scientific thoughts about biology and its origins. A lot of science is blue sky research that may lead nowhere, that doesn't make it pointless.
There are a ton of cheap FPGA boards left out there that were used for Bitcoin mining. Why not repurpose them? I can pick a decent one on Ebay for $60-100.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
The other post is still on the front page. I know it's too much to ask 'editors' to check in the archives that a story hasn't been posted, but not even reading the front page of the site that you're working for? Why is BeauHD still employed?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
They could be used to process the incredibly large number of stories on Slashdot to detect dupes instead.
Oh, there almost certain are aliens somewhere in the universe. However, the chances to them being anywhere even vaguely close to Earth is practically nil, and even if they were,
That's right. If they were already here for 10's maybe of hundreds of thousands of years we would know. I mean it would be just like if we were hiding in the bush observing wild animals. We would know that a species 10,'s of thousands of years ahead of us would not be able to hide from us, there would be strange signs everywhere. We would know.
Besides, our governments would tell us immediately that aliens were here and give up the power they have over us. Plus the elite would want to give up their positions of power over us so that we could all live together in peace, hold hands and sing kom-by-yah. Personally, I'd spent more time on the beach. I'd probably keep coding if I could. I wonder what sort of computers aliens would have?
if they are smart enough to overcome the incredible vastness of interstellar space...they are smart enough to not come here.
For sure. Earth would be the top selling reality TV show amongst the races in the galaxy. Imagine the cheesy announcer voice saying ToNight On EAAAARRRRRTTTTTHHHHHHH..... Watch these crazy primates choose between two equally crazy candidates to control the.largest.super.power.ever (they think). The insanity of these barley evolved chimps with powers over the atom to destroy .E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. is palpitation inducing. WILL THEY EVER LEARN???
So yes, SETI in it's current form is mostly a waste.
It is unknowable. Even if Aliens wanted us to know, our governments have a pretty large dragnet of technology to control us with. None of us plebs walking around our cities and towns know anything more than we've been told and most of us are too apathetic and insular to even look up from our phones to whatever truth is supposedly out there. Maybe this is all we're evolved enough to handle and we'd be dangerous with anything more powerful than what we have.
But hey, may as well laugh at the absurdity of it all :)
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Searching for "alien life" is probably one of the most useless human activities ever invented.
Yeah, right, because computing hashes of transactions of essentially worthless virtual money (or money-wannabe) is so much better.