Shostak describes the technical challenges of distinguishing alien signals from the thousands of satellites and telecommunications sources cluttering the radio spectrum. The team uses a 28-million-channel receiver and a second antenna hundreds of miles away to filter interference in real time. He recounts a tense 24-hour false alarm in June 1997 when a promising signal turned out to be the European SOHO satellite orbiting a million miles from Earth.
The conversation turns to whether any confirmed detection would remain secret. Shostak argues that secrecy is virtually impossible, noting that news of the June false alarm leaked to the New York Times within hours. He also addresses physicist Michio Kaku's criticism that advanced civilizations would likely use spread spectrum technology rather than the narrow-band signals SETI currently monitors.
Key Moments
Shostak: I Love Lucy reruns have already reached 1,000 nearby stars: Shostak explains that television (FM-band) signals pass through the ionosphere into space, so early episodes of I Love Lucy and Mr. Ed have already traveled 40-50 light years and washed over roughly a thousand nearby stars - including Alpha Centauri.
Senator Richard Bryan killed NASA SETI in 1993 over four cents per taxpayer: Shostak names Nevada Senator Richard Bryan as the politician who killed NASA's SETI program in 1993 - a $12 million budget that worked out to about four cents per taxpayer per year. The SETI Institute survived only because Bill Hewlett, David Packard, and other donors wrote personal checks, mirroring the plot of Contact.
Project Phoenix is moving to the 1,000-foot Arecibo dish: Shostak reveals that after observing through the spring on the 140-foot Green Bank dish, Project Phoenix is moving its equipment to Arecibo - the 1,000-foot Puerto Rico telescope made famous by Contact, just upgraded for a 2-3x sensitivity gain.
Kaku challenge: ETs would use spread spectrum, making narrowband searches a waste: Bell relays Michio Kaku's critique that any advanced civilization would use spread-spectrum transmission, not the narrowband signals SETI listens for. Shostak concedes today's experiments wouldn't find a spread-spectrum ET, but argues a civilization would likely send a narrowband 'pilot' or hailing beacon - followed by richer infrared modulation - to point newcomers to the real message.