Via KurzweilAI.net — I think is very sound advice. Of course even though I wholeheartedly support the efforts of SETI and other science-based searches for extraterrestrial life, I’m pretty skeptical we are going to come across any ET intelligence, biological or artificial.
Alien hunters ’should look for artificial intelligence’
August 23, 2010
Source: BBC News — Aug 22, 2010
The odds favor detecting alien AI rather than biological life because the time between aliens developing radio technology and artificial intelligence would be short, says SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak.
He also says that artificially intelligent alien life would be likely to migrate to places where both matter and energy — the only things he says would be of interest to the machines — would be in plentiful supply. That means the SETI hunt may need to focus its attentions near hot, young stars or even near the centers of galaxies.
Photo of Allen Telescope Array: SETI Institute
Update 8/25/10: Here’s more on this story from PhysOrg.