Lack of funds set SETI into "hibernation".

[Sinue_v2]

The hunt for extraterrestrial life just lost one of its best tools. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a field of radio dishes in rural northern California built to seek out transmissions from distant alien civilizations, has been shuttered, at least temporarily, as its operators scramble to find a way to continue to fund it.

~

"NSF University Radio Observatory funding for HCRO has been reduced to approximately one-tenth of its former sum," Pierson wrote. "This is compounded by growing State of California budget shortfalls that have severely reduced the amount of state funds available to the Radio Astronomy Lab." ATA operations cost about $1.5 million per year, Pierson said, and the SETI science campaign at ATA costs another $1 million annually.

Scientific American - Budget crunch mothballs telescopes built to search for alien signals (http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=budget-crunch-mothballs-telescopes-2011-04-24)

So what do you guys think about shuttering SETI temporarily, perhaps even permanently, due to budget cuts on the state and federal levels? Personally, I think those radio telescopes could be put to far better use, and that the whole SETI endeavor has been a quaint and thought-provoking waste of money. Still, I know the project has embedded itself in the national and world consciousness thanks to movies like Contact & Independence Day, and it's shuttering may upset quite a few people.

[Nitro Vordex]

It's kind of upsetting to me, being an avid believer of extraterrestrial life. At the same time, it might be possible to use the arrays for other things, possibly for searching for other things in space. I don't know quite how the scope works but, maybe it could search for black holes, or similar things. They might be able to use it to study other things such as quasars.

God, I should really read up more on Astronomy. I love it to death but hardly know enough to hold a discussion on it.

[McLaughlin]

I think it's a wise move by California, and I think those telescopes could probably be put to better use elsewhere, at least while SETI is shut down. Then again, NASA's budget has been decimated as well, so I don't even know who would use them.

[Palle]

I think at its core it is a noble pursuit, but the project really should be saved for the day when the multitude of other crises that science will solve have been taken care of.

This species has serious problems of its own. Those which science cannot solve, hopefully patience will.

[amtalx]

Well, thats a bummer. I haven't run their distributed processing in years, but I used it from HS all the way through college. I had a ludicrous number of blocks processed.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

The search for extra-terrestrial life is important. If strangers are to arrive, it'd be keen of us to have some warning of what sort of people they are-- lest all of humanity be subject to the same fate as Native-Americans with the arrival of Europeans.

That said, a temporary shutdown or at least reduction of operations, is probably a rather responsible thing, in light of our current economic situation. That array needs to be put back into service, however, when our economy has recovered.

[Monochrome]

Meanwhile the vulcans pass by; our fateful chance at establishing contact and advancing our civilization into the further reaches of the cosmos forever lost.

[MESeele]

^Tbh, if I were an alien I'd stay the hell away. Humans are bastards, regardless of what noble intentions they front things with.

Besides that, looking at the technological capacity that would be required to move through space like that alone, I'm fairly sure we wouldn't stumble across them unless they were already aware of us and desired as much. The gap of difference would be too big to assume otherwise. We are incapable of making the first move. If the gap were not so big, chances are unlikely that they'd be able to make it that far.

[ShinMaruku]

The search for extra-terrestrial life is important. If strangers are to arrive, it'd be keen of us to have some warning of what sort of people they are-- lest all of humanity be subject to the same fate as Native-Americans with the arrival of Europeans.

That said, a temporary shutdown or at least reduction of operations, is probably a rather responsible thing, in light of our current economic situation. That array needs to be put back into service, however, when our economy has recovered.
If a alien comes to this planet from another star I doubt we'd be interesting, It's like you going to an anthill off the side of a 8 lane highway.
That said, this is what you get when you play chicken with Taxes. :P
This country needs to look at it's revenue streams.

Alas people get what they vote for. :P