A Call for Seti well into the 21st Century S for Search/Survey/Study/Sociology of ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence

Abstract

AbstractAs soon as we unravel a first signal (if ever!), this will be the immediate proof that extraterrestrial civilizations are numerous in the cosmos and, within a few years, we should discover tens of them, as this happened often, e.g. for quasars, pulsars, gravitational lenses, and now for extrasolar planets. Then the drive to investigate them, in all of their expected varieties, will get very strong. We shall show that this prodigious perspective raises a large number of long-term issues whose investigations and solutions require an immediate call for collaborations at many interdisciplinary and international levels over the next quarter century. In particular, we witness both a remarkable increase of SETI technology efficiency – which over the last 30 years doubled every 8 months – and a sharp rise of man-made radio frequency interference. Thus we ought to save a dedicated lunar farside locale for the next generation (project SAHA). In addition we propose to use gravitational focuses of the Sun to investigate in tremendous detail some selected interesting extraterrestrial technologies (project FOCAL). We ought to think that SETI, after standing for SEARCH, will mean SURVEY, then STUDY, then SOCIOLOGY of ExtraTerrestrial Intelligences. It is time for some to abandon the idea that in case we do not get a signal «before next election year», SETI should be killed. Humankind is engaged, firmly now, into a long-term and far-sighted enterprise.