Extraterrestrial life almost certainly exists. There are just too many possibles places for it to have evolved. As if there were billions and billions of lotteries held and we were the only winner.
I would think a beacon is a bad idea for now. It would be kind of like wearing a sign that says "new kid" when checking out the neighborhood for the first time. Better to see the lay of the land before announcing your presence.
I run SETI because I want to be around when we find something. I hope we find it soon.
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.
