This is a question I was thinking about. Say some event happens and we know there is extraterrestrial life, would we continue to look for more using Seti?

Hi Orion Dark One :) good question! I know a lot of people think we could be in a spot of bother if ET were to find us - so if they're right - looking for help from another ET may become very necessary very quickly - so seti would have to become an underground insurgency/resistance movement I think :) I hope... :)

edit: have a meeting to go to now... so that's one of my briefer replies :)

Perhaps, Setizens might be invited/actually needed, if aliens were to land?
Or, would only officialdom be involved? By needed -- perhaps, we might be
part of a follow-up(?) welcoming committee. . . Of course, political concerns
might rise to the fore. . .

It depends on what the results of the first contact are. If we can communicate, being interstellar travelers we could just ask them where other inhabited worlds are. But if they didn't know then I don't doubt we would keep looking, and at a much greater scale than privately-funded projects running on a shoestring budget.

If we just found a confirmed signal the same effect would happen with SETI getting vastly more funding and resources, so I don't think we'd have to keep crunching. That would be enough of a world-changer.

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If there is one, there are more .......

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ET, we actually don't need you any more

We may never, nor have ever needed ET...

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If there is one, there are more .......

Indeed. If one set make contact, we then shift our search area to another part of the sky....

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Indeed, they might be able to tell us where to point our searches......

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

They could help us search for other aliens!

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Depends on what form contact takes. If it is just a radio message I think the search would continue. If ET actually lands on earth and is hostile I doubt that continued searching would yield positive results. If ET lands and is friendly I'm sure they might share their galactic phone book.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I'm wondering if aliens would bother to journey large distances to antagonize
another planetary civilization. For resources, there should be many planets
near them without sentient life to battle.

Farther afield, other peoples might make it worth their while, when an exchange
of science/culture (especially) is involved, to venture beyond their normal
area of influence.

But, an electromagnetic/other level of communication might first be employed.
That's where Seti would be a big factor.

I'm wondering if aliens would bother to journey large distances to antagonize
another planetary civilization. For resources, there should be many planets
near them without sentient life to battle.

Farther afield, other peoples might make it worth their while, when an exchange
of science/culture (especially) is involved, to venture beyond their normal
area of influence.

But, an electromagnetic/other level of communication might first be employed.
That's where Seti would be a big factor.

+1

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Depends on what form contact takes. If it is just a radio message I think the search would continue. If ET actually lands on earth and is hostile I doubt that continued searching would yield positive results. If ET lands and is friendly I'm sure they might share their galactic phone book.

That's about what I was going to say. The only other possibility I see is that there's a whole thriving galactic civilization going on out there that's ignoring us because we're too primitive, but which will accept (not saying they will give enough of a darn to actively welcome) us when we reach the minimum level of technology to interact with them. (The Hitchhiker's model.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

There is also the conspiracy theory. We have made contact but keep the project goings for plausible deniability reasons.

Besides, Eric likes his job.