Noting that there is a diversity in life forms on earth and since there are billions of galaxies and billions of stars in each galaxy there is probably life other than that on earth. Maybe even life that is intelligent.
Hundreds if not thousands of years ago some of these intelligent civilizations may have tuned their radios and videos to frequencies that we may hear today. If we find these what a history lesson we could learn.
Imagine what 'news' may have happened on a planet 2000 lightyears away while the Romans were expanding the empire. What entertainment did some planet view while a caveman in today's southern France drew pictures of horses and deer on the walls.
S.E.T.I. is here to find these signals, although I doubt we will see them translated into understandable language in my lifetime. Still I am glad to be a small part of it.
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.