I’ve long thought that what SETI is doing is important — not because it promises answers, but because it embodies a willingness to ask patient questions in a universe that doesn’t owe us clarity.
It’s reasonable to think that the earliest technological civilizations, if they exist, may be so advanced as to be effectively invisible to us. But that doesn’t diminish the search. If anything, it sharpens it.
One motif I keep returning to is the universe’s tendency toward parallel solutions. Across biology, chemistry, and even human creativity, meaningful structures don’t seem to appear only once. They emerge independently, sometimes close together, sometimes far apart.
If intelligence and technology are part of that pattern, then it’s plausible that some civilizations arise not billions of years ahead of us, but nearer to our own timeline — still noisy, still imperfect, still discoverable.
Even if contact never happens, continuing to look feels like a vote of confidence in the idea that curiosity itself is a valid response to the universe.
For that alone, the search seems worth sustaining.
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