I'm an engineerd. I work all day on complex technical issues. SETI gives some comic relief. With vast expanses of time and space it is hard to beleive that we are alone in the cosmose. We owe it to human kind to search for other beings capable of communicating with us. If for no other reason than to confirm the hypothysis that we are not alone. The very existance of non-earth base life would shake the vary foundation of our beliefs. It may make us more humble and less likely to fight amoungst ourselves over petty beliefs.
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.