There are not aliens. Wasted money.

Wow to think someone is so little minded remember when the earth was flat!

Folks, there are more important things to do than searching for extraterrestrials. It is EXTREMELY unlikely that there are any living beings capable transport themselves across the distances in our galaxy. If you think it is likely that there are any extraterrestrials capable to come visit Earth you know little of our galaxy and the physics involved. The probabilities are pretty small. It is a popular waste of money to search for aliens, just like it will be popular to send humans to Mars.
We have HUGE problems on this planet that need to be solved if you want the human race to make it through the next, say, 200 years. Hoping for an alien race to save us (or to unite humans in the face of extreme danger) will not get us anywhere. Each of us has to begin now to do what is needed.

Stop hoping for superior beings to get us out of the mess. Or for them to get here. It is a colossal waste of brain power and energy.

Nothing is impossible and not everything has been (or ever will be) discovered - but it does not speak for your ability to reason if you believe and spend millions without evidence or repeatable observations. Especially if the observable facts are making it very improbable that confirming what you are searching for has lasting and relevant impact on our current global situation.

Karsten
http://www.polluteless.com

That's good that Christopher Columbus and all the past discoverers/inventors didn't waste their time listening to people like you, Kris.

And you can use the internet because people bothered to search where others didn't want to go.

It might not be too difficult to find , in our society, bigger wastes of money that clearly serve no purpose (look toward dictators, military efforts, and such).
At least, this one serves a purpose.

Lastly, there is enough money on this world to take care of any other task. Searching for extra-terrestrial civilizations doesn't mean that you can't make your best efforts to protect our planet at the same time.

And like in every research, you never know what unexpected discovery can come out. Actually, there is a probability that searches for other worlds can save our planet in the end.

So please, don't be so close minded.

I often wonder if perhaps we should be searching interdimensionally rather that across the radio spectrum. For conversations sake, let's assume that events such as Roswell did occur. The Roswell crash happened shortly after nuclear explosions occurred on our planet. I wonder if a nuclear explosion can act as a sort of beacon, interdimensionally, allowing advances species to coordinate the location of potential advanced civilizations that they can travel to via interdimensional transport. I just think this may be more realistic when considering the incredible amount of space time that needs to be overcome in order to transport to another star system.

I wont say aliens dont exist, the universe is far to vast.
But I will say its a waste of time and money for if there is life out there I really dont think they will have a ham radio to pick the signals up from. Either the life will be uncivilized or far beyond our means of communication.
We could have better success trying to communicate with other animals on this planet.

Zych, did you read my post above?

Before you start communicating with animals, I suggest you learn how to communicate effectively with human beings.

By communicating effectively, I mean reading the whole content of a post, and quit ignoring valid points that have been done, so that the debate came move forward.

So, I will repeat for you : Using money for E.T search doesn't prevent others from trying to communicate with animals, ants, stones, spirits, or whatever. And again : discoveries made from E.T search can potentially pave the way to discoveries about other areas of research. Just like better computing allowed better climate modelling.

BTW, my first post was directed to Karsten, not Kris.

Sorry Kris :)
I hope you'll forgive my mistake.

Franck:

This has nothing to do with narrow-mindedness. This has to do with probability and physics. Columbus was not trying to discover new land. He knew the earth was not flat and wanted to go to India. Yes, he stumbled upon new land, but that was not improbable by any means.

I love sceinece fiction and I can IMAGINE a whole lot of solutions for our species (and science fiction authors can do that even better) but just because one can imagine a possibility does not change that pursueing it seems to be rather distracting to say the least. Even worse: We find a signal and focus more attention on it without ever being able to go there or communicate with those who sent the signal (if it is one). Just sending a radio signal to the nearest next star takes about a decade. Waiting for the reply another one. Two decades of hope down the drain and not much done on the planet to keep it in a condition that is worthwhile living. That is assuming we find a signal on the nearest star. What, in all honesty, do we do with a signal that arrived from a system so far away that it already traveled several hundred or thousands of years to get here? Respond (how?) and wait? Seems silly considering the problems we have as a species. How can an alien species help us? Give me one reasonable example.

Obviously, spending money on CETI is just a drop in the bucket in comparison to other expenses. I will comment about those when I see something written about it. Even though there are more wasteful items, it is a waste.

There is a probability for anything. But there are probabilities for other issues that make those issues much, much more pressing. I say, let us focus on real pressing issues, not on close-to-groundless hope. Realizing this is not narrow-minded. That is smart.

Once the boat is not sinking any longer, some energy may be spent on looking for land beyond the horizon. Right now work needs to be done and heads need to be pulled out of the clouds.

Karsten
http://www.polluteless.com

Karsten,

Your whole post is (again) based on the silly asumption that studying one area distracts the whole planet from studying others areas. It's absolutely unrealistic.

If you want more money for ecology so badly, then go ask some more cash to those who waste an enormous amount of it without doing any scientific research at all. It's not too difficult to find them.

Spending money on science is never a waste.

And SETI (not CETI) is privately funded BTW.
If individuals chose to give money to this project instead of others, it's their own private choice. It's not a political choice.
Or are you a little "green dictator"?
Do people tell you what you should do with your money?

Lastly, even if we can't communicate with other civilizations, we can know if they exist or not. But maybe you're against knowledge too?