If we are the only intelligent life in the universe, then it seems like a "terrible waste of space." This well-known quotation comes from the film version of Carl Sagan's novel Contact. Whether you're interested in proving the existence of ETs, disproving their existence, or merely participating in an immense world-wide distributed computing project, SETI@home may be of interest to you.

I received my certificate for 1,000 units, but did not transfer to the BOINC project. However they're still in need data crunchers for SETI@home. Visit their website and see how you can contribute to one of the greatest distributed computing efforts of our time.