Dying SETI ?

[Zorkham]

http://www.seti.org/

[Moon]

It seems like they lost part of their funding. What they do is basically a shot in the dark anyways, looking for analog signals from light years away that probably dissipate long before they hit the Earth.

[marekmav]

Maybe sad info, maybe we don't have to seek any more...

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17926565?nclick_check=1

http://www.seti.org/

[ilacewords]

Not too sad for me. I am of the opinion and have been for quite some time that SETI since inception was designed to fail for many reasons. One very basic one being that the SETI system once it receives a transmission is required to verify it which it will never be able to do with radio waves. By the time they are received the transmission has long been stopped. And it can't detect digital signals until it knows what to look for. It was an earnest idea I suppose but just not one that would work in my opinion. We can put those dollars spent to better use.

Edit: here's a interesting take as well:
http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/~crose/papers/Has_SETI_been_barking_up_wrong_tree.html

[ilacewords]

Looks like another thread was started in the News section at the same time. Maybe they can merge?
http://www.legendarytimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3282

Edit: I know at one point, I saw a 'delete' your post button. I was going to delete this one so after merger I am not double posting about a merger but for the life of me I don't see it. If a moderator feels so inclined to go ahead and delete this posting out for me that works or it can sit here I suppose as well.

[Moon]

I merged this topic to the older post to continue the discussion in one place. MM

[Saxoneer]

I was just thinking about SETI and I have to agree that it is a waste of money and time, they might as well be looking for smoke signals because they are never going to find them. And even if they did detect a radio signal, it would be so old it would be useless, there is no way of communicating! Any civilization that is capable of traversing the stars would have moved beyond radio and developed a communication system capable of travelling vast distances in real time, until we move beyond radio we are going to remain in the dark ages.