Those at the Seti Institute argue that the $2m (£1.3m) a year or so that the wider Seti effort requires is a drop in the ocean compared to, for example, military spending.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16265519

A funding drive raised money from Seti enthusiasts including former astronaut Bill Anders, sci-fi author Larry Niven, and even Hollywood actress Jodie Foster. But it's only enough to keep going for a few months.

"Since 1993, Seti has had to run on private donations from people who think this is an interesting thing to do," Seth tells me.

 

-----signature-----

it's a pretty cheap "just in case" option

 

-----signature-----

IMO they should switch the funding... Space (note : not just aliens) is MUCH more important in the long run.

 

-----signature-----

2 million bucks pays for like 8 seconds of the Iraq war...it's nothing.

Think of it this way, most stars in the universe are older than our sun, so the life on any planets around them is most likely older than life on earth. So when we find them and start listening to their stuff, we get to listen in on stuff from civilizations that could be billions of years older than our own.

Now that might mean we hear a lot about false teeth not fitting right and how much their arthritis medication costs, but they might also toss in stuff about all kinds of things that we could use in science and math.

Pretty damn cheap to unlock the secrets of the fricken universe eh?

I've read if Aliens ever do arrive it maybe like Christopher Columbus landing on the island of Hispaniola in 1492 and we will be the Indians this time.

 

-----signature-----

So you're one of those arrogant jerks who believes in this VAST universe, we're the only ones?

 

-----signature-----

Who cares if we're the only ones? No one can get from one solar system to another.

I doubt they will ever arrive. FTL travel is likely simply not possible, at least not in any kind of time frame that most civilizations ever discover it. If it wasn't damn hard or impossible to do...we would be overrun with tourists and idiots and a few looking for lunch.

The universe is a huge place, and we can listen to just about all of it. We probably will never be able to travel to much of it at all. Information will be exchanged, not cargo or passengers.

military and space budgets should be swapped.


lol @ two million a year.. acf could pay for that with all the millionaires here.

2 million is nothing. We can cut 10000 other places before we should cut this.

 

-----signature-----