IF INTELLIGENT life exists elsewhere in our galaxy, advances in computer processing power and radio telescope technology will ensure we detect their transmissions within two decades. That’s the bold prediction from a leading light at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, California.
Seth Shostak, the SETI Institute’s senior astronomer, based his prediction on accepted assumptions about the likelihood of alien civilisations existing, combined with projected increases in computing power.
Shostak, whose calculations will be published in a forthcoming edition of the space science journal Acta Astronautica, first estimated the number of alien civilisations in our galaxy that…
