I think that there is a possibility that we are not alone in the universe (otherwise the whole thing would be a great joke of who ever made it). But what if their technological knowledge is more advanced or they are not friendly. Or they only think "They can not be friendly to their own species what would they be to us?". It is a difficult Question.
To transmit a beacon can also be a two-bladed sword. We send medical and technical data to them, but we don't know what they will do with it. In the worst case they find a way to eliminat us all. And if we send them our history what would they think about us. I'm from Germany and I know what many people think about us because of a man who lived over 50 years ago even before I was born.
I run SETI@home because I look forward to the day when mankind is no longer alone in the universe, even if the things mentioned before don't show this. This project has a good chance to find the life out there (if there is anything).
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.
