Miners do not allow scientists to look for aliens.
According to a report by the BBC, radio astronomers of the Institute of search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) complain that they can't buy the graphics processor (GPU) needed for the search for extraterrestrial life, as they are all sold out to crypto currency miners.
"This is a new problem, and it prevents us from fulfilling the task that was set for us already over the last few months," says Dr. Dan Werthimer in an interview with the BBC. "This limits us in finding aliens and answering the question, are we alone in the Universe, or is there anyone else besides us?”
The GPU is a powerful computer processors, designed to handle compute-intensive tasks. They are commonly used to display features such as image rendering and animations, but offer a significant amount of computational power that can perform other complex tasks.
Computers of scientists looking for signs of alien life, perform such complex tasks as processing requests broadcast signals and the inclusion of powerful telescopes. The SETI Institute has about 100 GPUs that it uses in various tasks, but that's not enough.
Scientists have tried to buy graphics cards to increase their search resources, but in all stores they are answered that, due to the increased demand, the card capacity is now not on sale. Scientists are confused and saddened that they can not continue to work.
Sounds like we need more people manufacturing GPUs! Hopefully as companies like Samsung enter the arena we won't see such shortages :)