HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINO ASTRONOMY - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The nascent field of high energy neutrino astronomy seems to be near to blossoming in the next few years, after decades of speculation and preliminary experimental work. The motivation for the endeavor, anticipated types of sources, consideration of energy regime for first attempts, scale size needed, and techniques are qualitatively reviewed. A summary of relevant current projects is presented with emphasis on the new initiatives with detectors of the 10,000 m2 class. It seems that by the end of the decade there may be a few such new generation instruments in operation, and that with luck the business of high energy neutrino astrophysics will be underway by the turn of the century.