I think it is part of our adolescent search for others like us. We are new to a very old Universe. Certainly there are others out there. Perhaps inconceivably but there nonetheless.
Anything that gets us closer to space is a good thing.
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.
