SETI at 50

SETI researchers argue that SETI has not been a failure, emphasizing that they have searched just a tiny fraction of the available space in the galaxy, and that the project is just getting started. To be sure, the computer revolution has enormously enhanced our ability to 1) search simultaneously over many different wavelengths, and 2) to filter out man-made signals, which theoretically increases the odds of a successful detection event.

But in the forthcoming book “The Eerie Silence” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), British-born physicist/cosmologist Paul Davies—director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, co-director of the Cosmology Initiative (both at Arizona State University), and chairman of the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup—argues that SETI scientists ought to broaden their search beyond “traditional SETI” (i.e., radio messages) to include a “search for general signatures of intelligence, wherever they may be imprinted in the physical universe. And that requires the resources of all the sciences, not just radio astronomy,” he writes.

I ventured to the Beyond Center in Tempe, Arizona, to meet with Davies and discuss the themes he explores in “The Eerie Silence.” In the following exchange—the first installment of a two-part Failure Interview—we covered issues like: What has SETI accomplished in 50 years? And what are some of the ways Davies suggests expanding the search?