You're absolutely right, Jim, and SETI makes no such argument. What we do
claim is that radio is the best technology WE have for the job AT THIS TIME
(although lately I've been inclined to give increasingly high marks to
optical techniques as well). As for what new modes might evolve in the
future, we can only speculate. I for one will embrace them just as soon as
we have the technology to do so, and not before!
We hear arguments that radio is futile, and that Q-waves (some mysterious
waves about which we know nothing) are far better. The reasoning goes, we
should not waste our time with radio, but rather wait until Q-waves are
invented. That's like the fellow who didn't buy an 8086 (or 286, or 386,
or 486, or Pentium, etc.) personal computer because he KNEW a better one
would be developed. You know what? He was right. You know what else? He
still doesn't have a computer, while I've been gleefully crunching numbers
for the past twenty years.
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H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. Executive Director, The SETI League, Inc.
433 Liberty Street, PO Box 555, Little Ferry NJ 07643 USA
voice (201) 641-1770; fax (201) 641-1771; URL http://www.setileague.org/
email work: n6tx@setileague.org; home: drseti@usa.net
"We Know We're Not Alone!"