Why is it paranoid to think that “someone out there” is going to be as competitive, if not more so, than we are, and isn’t going to like us competing with them? Why would an alien civilization be friendly? I’m just wondering. I’m not trying to spoil anyone’s party, but there’s a lot we don’t know about the universe, isn’t it better to hold our cards close to the chest until we have more information?
Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they are not after you. I think it is safe to think that a race in an expansionist push is going to be the invading type. It is also safe to think that they will find us primitive enough that they won’t see us as “people” and treat us like animals to be studied and poked around to see what we do. We just have to hope that they have the same tendency to depend on not-fail-safe as they do in Hollywood (and that they don’t have an antivirus installed in their mothership’s computer)
Still, SETI is for half-full types, I just find it incongruent that we seek to listen but not transmit. Especially if we are listening in a way where we wouldn’t listen to ourselves a stone’s throw away.
Considering our only comparative example is, well, ourselves, I tend to agree with you.
Some of us mean well. Unfortunately, those people tend not to be the ones who wind up in power.
Math Geeks Unite-over there. My major was anthropology for a reason.
SETI is a sentimental old gal. I haven’t fired up my screen saver for it in ages, had problems with the Boinc client. It’s still running on my daughters computer (Searching for Aliens since Dec. 2005, born Sep. 2005) However, there are some things that we do that may have practical purposes that we approach with vim, vigor and bus loads of cash. She isn’t curing cancer. Most of what she does is beyond most folks comprehensions and any currently applicable data she generates probably doesn’t affect most of us in any appreciable way, except for a cool TV show or movie on occasion.
There is another thing the old gal does. When I think of SETI, I think of something bigger than me. I think of hope. Of tomorrow. Of Optimism. Of science pushing on to tomorrow. Of maybe we aren’t the brightest bulb in the lamp.
I find it funny that the title of the thread asks if SETI is a waste of time, when so much data is pouring in from computers around the world being generated AS function of wasted time.
As a dyed in the wool atheist. She’s my patron saint.
I’ve thought this too and this alone is a good enough reason for me to keep it around.
Amen Sister. 
No seriously, I think of the same things. I like that it knocks me off my high-horse and puts me in my place. I’m just a structured pile of goo that can enjoy cartoons, alcohol and imagination who just got lucky enough to be mushed together in the right way to become me.
I often wonder about some alien on some distant planet sitting at their computer typing on a message board wondering about some alien on some distant planet sitting at their computer typing on a message board wondering about some alien on some distant planet sitting at their computer typing on a message board wondering if there is some alien on some distant planet sitting at their computer typing on the message board wondering if aliens exist…and my brain explodes.
Scuse me while i clean up the mess…
Ok seriously I would like to befriend this alien because I wonder the same thing and it sounds like a cool guy to hang with.
We get to be slaves/snacks for the lizard people of Ceti Alpha V. Seriously, what happens to a civilization when discovered by a more advanced one? Not usually good for the home team. For my part, I hope SETI keeps drawing a blank.
Quite the contrary. You should hope we find them quickly so we can shield our transmissions to that part of the sky!
Actually, now that I think about it more, we’re probably already boned. With the way we’ve been recklessly blasting transmissions all over the cosmos, we’re the galactic equivalent to a tourist lost in the wrong part of town asking the local thugs for directions.
-begin transmission-
GREETINGS INHABITANTS OF EARTH…
WE ARE THE LIZARD PEOPLE OF CETI ALPHA V…
WE REGRET TO ANNOUNCE THAT THIS PLANET IS TO BE DEMOLISHED TO MAKE WAY FOR AN INTERSTELLAR BYPASS…
WELL… WE DID REGRET IT UNTIL YOU BROADCAST ALL THAT REALITY TV AT US…
AND WHY DID YOU CANCEL STAR TREK:ENTERPRISE?
EAT GREEN SPACE LAZORS MUFFUGGAZ!
-end transmission-
In the interest of fairness, we are not asking for directions. Just walking around with the camera around our neck and a big map open while we gawk at tall buildings.
Or they are paranoid about Von Neumann probes getting out of control. Or Von Neumann probes are illegal or heavily regulated by interstellar law, and our First Contact will be when the Space Cops show up with our first Von Neumann probe in tow and fine us Australia for breaking the Interstellar Replicator Laws. 
Personally, I think any aliens are likely uninterested in talking to us, or unable to. It seems probable to me that any aliens will either lack the technology, or be far beyond us; or present level level of development is only an eyeblink in history. And if they’ve gone beyond us, they’ve almost certainly enhanced themselves to the point that they are far more intelligent than us ( or been replaced by their own creations which are ). We probably aren’t considered worth talking to, any more than we try talking to mice.
Still, I don’t think it’s a waste of time. We might get lucky, my theory might be wrong, and it’s not some huge drain of resources. As for the people who are worried about an attack; anything that wants to hurt us has already or will hear our TV and radio signals, and if they have the power to reach us and want to hurt us we’re all dead, that’s all. Listening won’t attract a thing.
At this very moment, there is a bill under discussion in the Supreme galactic Council:-“The Earth people-Should they be Extirminated”?
I for one will welcome our new overlords-the Starfish men from tau Ceti!
Perpendicular?
Parallel to the galactic plane would be more likely to bear fruit, surely. 
There are two different reasons for a YES.
No. Radio signals would become too attenuated to make communication between even neighboring star systems a practical proposition, even disregarding the time gap.
Or maybe communication between stars involves something better than radio.
Bearing in mind that the first sentient races did not develop until after the first high metallicty systems deveoped and exploded, say halfway through the life of this universe (7 Bn years approx).
SETI is a waste of time because:
Option 1
The light speed limit is absolute and there is no alternative to rocket science. That means we and every other sentient race in this galaxy/universe is permanently trapped in one solar system.
In these circumstances, it is pointless to try to communicate with others similarly trapped and once this can be accepted SETI would be readily seen to be a totally fruitless enterprise.
Option 2
Some kind of advanced tech can bypass the light speed limit with a kind of interdimensional star hopping.
Should this be true, then it is certain we are already surrounded by a large number of alien races and they have decided as a matter of policy to not communicate with any Earth government on a meaningful basis. In this situation SETI as a policy is totally pointless.
Option 3
There is no third option.
With respect, you’re wrong. Even if it took millions upon millions of years, with all travel occuring at some small fraction of c, it should be possible to colonize a large percent of the galaxy. Of course, we can’t do it now for a variety of reasons but there’s no physical law that says it’s impossible. It just takes the will and a lot of resources.
Not really knowing what I am talking about, I actually meant perpendicular.
I figure that this way, it breaks free from the background noise of the galaxy, placing itself in quieter regions of space. And if we are also using the probes as telescopes, they would give us a new perspective that we cannot get any other way.
No way! All people who believe in Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam (which is what? like 3/4 of the world? Ok I’m making that up, but it’s a substantial proportion) would turn upside down over a belief in other life. Their religions dictate that the world was created for humans to enjoy… not for humans to live with other intelligent beings. I think if aliens were ever discovered (not bacteria type aliens, but ones who are deemed intelligent) it would completely change the course of human history.
I don’t see how this would change the beliefs of the religious at all. They would merly incorperate the new life into their religion. God created us AND them. Problem solved.
But since they’re a species of heathens they should be converted immediately. Right?
-Joe
meh, not that urgently. There are already plenty of “heathens” to any one religion and they are in no rush to convert them. Collaboration is just fine, most of the time.
Now, if they happened to be red with cloven feet and horns in their heads, practicers of cannibalism, berserker rage and used condoms, that might change things a little bit.