[tomzz]

One group which is very definitely wasting its time is SETI. Any advanced civilization with a need to communicate across cosmic distances will assuredly not be trying to do it with electromagnetic radiation moving at C, but rather with whatever is behind gravity at near infinite speed. Trying to communicate across cosmic distances with radio waves is like me trying to send a message to relatives in Bremen by splashing pebbles in Baltimore harbor and hoping the Germans can read the message on the ripple waves when they get there.

[MHGinTN]

Any advanced civilization with a need to communicate across cosmic distances will assuredly not be trying to do it with electromagnetic radiation moving at C. Just as our radio and TV transmissions have been spreading out from our planet since we learned to generate those signals, a civilization somewhere beyond out solar system might be detected by their transmission on a planetary system not necessarily done for direct communication beyond their solar system.