The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, called SETI, used to lie within NASA’s orbit. More recently, the private sector began to fund it in the form of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA. People involved in SETI point powerful radio telescopes at distant stars in hopes of hearing radio signals from other civilizations.

An amateur group called the SETI League has encouraged space enthusiasts to point their own telescopes at the sky with the goal of creating a citizen network that can listen to a wide swath of the cosmos all the time. But the problem comes when humans stop listening and begin to shout.

At least that’s what David Brin thinks.

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