I really hope they don’t just continue to use the same methods by crunching data, they need to create different little startups and come up with something creative to find these things
No cloud! Too expensive! (my opinion comes being a brief stint as a contributor in data taking for the CMS detector at the LHC. Accelerator ran, threw off data, which went into storage for ad hoc analysis by project collaborators; all data released into the public domain and freely available)
https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/cms-completes-...
So-called "close" SETI looking for emitters in our outer solar system.
“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.”
From rational point of view (history of Indians, general history) and philosophical point of view (great filter) it is safer to keep quiet.
A lot of scientists got killed by their own inventions. And active Seti should be banned since very few can bring doom on others - without even asking them if they agree for that. Did anyone from the active seti community ask for consent? Nope. They know most people would be against it. UN and governments should be too. Although if they were some assholes would start doing it just in spite.
That's a very tiny window in time, and after that the bulk of the comms goes optical or to satellites using far lower power levels than your typical radio or TV station. Ironically the first thing ET might be able to hear and what we might be able to hear from ET's is "CQ CQ ... ".
Would be very expensive, take a few decades at least, and the profit comes from...governments? Haha not sure about that yet. Might have to pitch it as a planetary defense company and also build tech to zap asteroids etc.
Basically, NASA is doing the great hard science obviously, but is outdone in pacing and tech by SpaceX and other startups; NASA plans to send 1-5? 550 AU missions eventually. But they're in no rush. I want to rush it.
Would be very expensive but I think cheaper per mission, if you start off with a plan to send a lot of them.
Might take in full some tens or hundreds of billions. YC I am aware will not fund on that level haha, but maybe they would have an eye for wanting to start it off.
Here's a cool video describing solar sails that are supposed to be able to accelerate up to a final velocity of 22 AU/year, which get things to 550AU in 25 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI&t=883s
This video was based on the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.08421
I really find it difficult to believe that 200m into science education funding will make less of an impact on the chances of finding alien life than directing it at Seti.
Point being, education is a very large field, with a very large capability to burn money in operational expenses, spending it all on doing a little bit more of the same thing it's already doing.
SETI, in contrast, is a small, underfunded corner of STEM R&D, at the bleeding edge of astrophysics, signals processing and a bunch of other fields. Pouring $200M there has a much greater chance of pushing some actual research or technology development, with gains flowing back to society and economy (including to science education). SETI has much less space for grifters, and it's much easier to spot money going the wrong way.
Or, in short, a cup filled with water will make more visible impact when poured into a portable bottle, than when poured into a lake.
I agree with your other point that data crunching is not necessarily going to help. Low-power RF emission from lightyears away will be well below the noise floor. Some more innovative, speculative approaches would be a better use of that money, even if they all lead to dead ends.
Whether it's a good angle, I don't know. But it's a perfectly reasonable one, methinks.