I feel there is a high probability of extraterrestrial life. There's just simply too much space out there for this random fluke to not be repeated. The liklihood of discovering ET is limited at this time. Although palm pilots and HDTV are quite neat, they don't qualify as ground-breaking, Universe shaking technological advancements. We're not so far removed from our primate cousins as we might like to believe. Someday, maybe we'll hone in on a signal, but I don't think it will be in my lifetime.
The pros and cons of discovering extraterrestrial intelligence are great and varied. Obvious pros include answering age old questions. Does life on other planets exist? That's been riddling our brains forever. Maybe we'll get some clues on purpose or higher powers.
A major con could be meeting up with the new life and catching a plague. Worse, they might not be too friendly and blow us out of existance. Oh well, we seem bent on our own destruction anyway.
Sending information out into space in the hopes that we are discovered is a good thing. It's a progressive step towards the betterment of humanity (we hope) and it gives us something to do. I feel we should send a sampler pack of art, from music to poetry and everything in between, into the void. And cheese, but we lack the capabilities to beam cheese into my refridgerator, let alone to another world.
I run SETI@home because the draw of finding "THE" signal is just too much to pass up. In the event that I'm the one who finds ET, I feel that the SETI guys should spring for a t-shirt that reads, "I Disovered Intelligent Life on Another Planet... and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
SETI@home gives us a sense of little-kid hope and excitement. It awakens a sense of adventure and imparts a feeling of being at one with the cosmos. I think it's a great project, and I'm glad I found it. | 
