Mountain View-based SETI will be using Amazon's latest cloud supercomputers to process the data it collects from radio telescopes looking for alien intelligence.
SETI stands for "search for extra terrestrial intelligence." Just think about the movie Contact with Jody Foster.
And while for more than a decade you've been able to offer your computer to help SETI at Home, the organization will soon offer to open its system up to people who think they have better ideas as to how to look.
Put another way, you've always been allowed to help SETI find the answer, now you can help them ask the question.
