Resumen
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a scientific area whose goal is to detect intelligent life outside Earth. One approach, known as radio SETI, uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. Such signals are not known to occur naturally, so a detection would provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology. SETI@home uses millions of computers in homes and offices around the world to analyze radio signals from space. This article describes the design and implementation of SETI@home and discusses its relevance to future distributed systems. It is introduced as a new step in experimenting public-resource computing. To attract and keep users, a project must explain and justify its goals, providing compelling views of local and global progress. Screensaver graphics are an excellent medium for displays that also provide a form of viral marketing. Moreover, the success of public-resource computing projects has the ancillary benefit of increasing public awareness of science and democratizing, to an extent, the allocation of research resources.