I mean SETI is literally looking for radio signals so this doesn't track at all. A lot of astronomy is looking for familiar chemical signatures yes, but it's m

I mean SETI is literally looking for radio signals so this doesn't track at all. A lot of astronomy is looking for familiar chemical signatures yes, but it's more in the vein of "looking for chemicals which could not, to our knowledge, have been produced through natural processes". Which is not unreasonable IMO.