Yes, I think extraterrestrial life exists. I believe that they will be discovered (or uncover themselves to us) within the next century. The possible benefits are that they are more advanced than us and it will open up new technological fields, philosophical fields, etc. A drawback are that they are hostile for some reason.
I also believe that humans should transmit a signal for extraterrestrials to find. I believe that this should include both radio signals and light in the form of lasers. All radio signals should be sent to the same places at which the lasers are directed. The signals should include information about the location of the Earth and possibly a brief greeting and a description of humans.
I run SETI@home becuase I suppose that my computer's processor time should be put to use and I figure that it can't hurt to search for extraterrestrial signals.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
