Failure™ Magazine

SETI at 50

We haven’t heard from ET. Is it time to rethink the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence?

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Science & Technology

Who pays for SETI research?
It’s almost all paid for by private donations. And the total cost is very modest by the standards of almost any sort of scientific venture. It’s a drop in the ocean compared to what is being spent on other things.

In the book you write about your belief that traditional SETI is stuck in a conceptual rut.
Everyone is still enthralled with Carl Sagan’s vision, his idea being that there is a civilization out there that guesses we’re here, beams a message at us using what in technical jargon is called a narrow-band signal, and all we have to do is tune in and get the message and all sorts of wonderful consequences will ensue. I don’t think that is credible. We need to look for signatures of intelligence wherever we might see them. And when it comes to radio, I think we should refocus to look for beacons, not narrow-band signals. The SETI community is slowly buying into this, but the majority of SETI has been with a narrow-band signal.

How is it that something as bold and visionary as SETI became stuck in a rut?
It is remarkable, isn’t it? But I suppose the difficulty of the task means you have to focus on a particular strategy and then refine it and refine it. There’s always that tendency in science. What you’re good at, what you understand, you do more of the same.

How extensively have SETI researchers searched thus far?
They have looked in a little bubble around our neighborhood, which is why the title of my book irritates the SETI people, who say, “What do you expect? We’ve only been doing it for 50 years.”

But if you’re an optimist and you apply Moore’s Law to this, then within a few decades researchers can probably search the whole galaxy, and then the science will become much more significant. It’s too soon to say it’s a waste of time to carry on with traditional SETI. I think it’s a great thing, but maybe after 50 years the public might be thinking, “Can we try something else?” And I think we should. We should think much more expansively about what a signature of intelligence might be. Forget messages, all we really want to know is: Is anyone out there? Their presence could be betrayed in a large number of ways.

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