> Why is this better than SETI? What's the purpose of finding mersenne primes I hope you're kidding ... We will probably never find or communicate with ET, so

> Why is this better than SETI? What's the purpose of finding mersenne primes I hope you're kidding ... We will probably never find or communicate with ET, so the effort is a waste of time and resources. Space is just too big. But interesting numbers are already known to be valuable in group theory, encryption, and other areas. Golomb numbers are used today, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golomb_ruler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golomb_ruler And my standard disclaimer for technological illiterates: "It's not all about you."