1. I estimate that the odds are fair that there is or was intelligent life elsewhere. In order to discover any such life we will first have to look for it. Our chances will be increased many fold by a transmission from earth. Any dangers would be from our reaction to the information and be our own fault. The benefits would be to collect more information. More information translates into more choices in living our lives.
2. Yes A Transmission should be made. It would increase the chances of contact. The content should cover several areas. a) Linguistic to provide a Rosetta stone to other transmissions. b) Physical sience theory so that they would not have to wait generations for the answer to a specifis question. c) Biological and Sociological information because we will not know what will be ot interest or what will be of use.
3. I run the software because I feel that for what it costs the possible benefits are worth the gamble and the possible downside is nil. The project is not advertised enough to the right audience. Reporters that do NASA stories should be contacted to inform them of the existance of the project for mention in future stories. The same would go tor news stories about astronamy. Politicians need to hear from the people about these programs as a zero cost way to make themselves look like forward thinkers by expressing favor with the program.
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.
