For as long as we humans could think, we have thought about the stars and the spectacular, mysterious vistas the heavens presented to us each night. Today, the average person staring up at the beauty of the unfolding universe, might muse about how life began, whether there is other life out there, and if other distant beings share our awareness of the larger universe.
Many people think so.
If we think deeply about these things, we might speculate on the origin, frequency and variety of life in our galaxy. We might also ask, how rare is intelligence and what are the fates and life spans of technological civilizations. For much of our scientific history, the answers to such questions were beyond reach and consigned to the realm of speculation and fiction. This state of affairs started to change with the publication of the first realistic strategy for a search for extraterrestrial intelligence in 1959. This naturally quiet part of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowed directed microwave transmissions over vast distances using modest power levels.