[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
As for SETI's objective, it is my understanding that the organization has attempted to detect evidence of background EM "detritus" of extraterrestrial civilizations
I can't comment on "SETI League" but the serious SETI folks of whom I'm
aware (like, Carl Sagen and [EMAIL PROTECTED]) are not doing that, at all.
Current technology isn't nearly sensitive enough to pick up random
broadcast noise. Instead, they're looking for signals beamed directly
at us, because that's the only thing we have a chance of detecting at
this point.
Nobody knows what the odds are that there _are_ such signals, of course,
and nobody's claiming success is likely any time soon. The hope is
that, as technology improves and more ways of searching for more
different possible signals come on-stream, we'll eventually get lucky.
But for now, you look for what you actually can detect. And right now,
that's beamed radio signals.
