>Now flip it back... would the current SETI pick up this signal if this were happening somewhere close in the Milky Way? If not, then yeah maybe SETI should be

>Now flip it back... would the current SETI pick up this signal if this were happening somewhere close in the Milky Way? If not, then yeah maybe SETI should be wound down :( The problem is the other way around. An unintentional or broad signal is extremely unlikely to be picked up. However, it would be trivial to send out an intentional signal to a candidate planet that can be picked up without the locals having an equivalent of SETI, and there's no rational* reason not to do it if you decided to send. SETI's useless either way. * The moment you get to irrational aliens, is the moment you need to consider the option they exterminate anyone who replies, so SETI for listening to irrational signals is also a bad idea.