Stephen Hawking has joined forces with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to launch a $100 million dollar initiative to find extraterrestrial life. “There is no bigger question,” says Hawking. “It is time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth.”
In addition to using some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, the project, called Breakthrough Listen will harness the power of some 9 million volunteer computers from around the world via the SETI(at)home initiative which allows individuals to donate spare computing power to a worldwide network, thereby creating a global super computer.
Yes, we have a wheelchair bound super genius teaming up with a billionaire to use the most powerful super computer in the world to comb the galaxy for extraterrestrial life. If that doesn’t sound like the premise for a summer blockbuster I don’t know what does.
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Image: “Stephen hawking and lucy hawking nasa 2008” by NASA/Paul Alers
