Robert J. Kolker wrote:

Erik Max Francis wrote:

SETI is looking for deliberate, unambiguous signals, not accidental
ones.

Like Jodi Foster getting the sequence of primes. There is no way in hell for that to be random noise.

Bob Kolker

But if the alien signal were a spread spectrum modulated then the chances of detection are suddenly very small. GPS signals are such and if you wouldn't know the PRN key you couldn't even tell there was a 500 watt transmitter flying 10000 km overhead. Also you can show that a fair amount of directed electromagnetic energy is required to span such vast distances in space. That's why I've always been sceptical about a success of the seti project.

Ejo