> the SETI Institute's site says we wouldn't be able to pick up signals from an earth like civilization in the system closest to us[1] TO be clear, the signals

> the SETI Institute's site says we wouldn't be able to pick up signals from an earth like civilization in the system closest to us[1] TO be clear, the signals it is referring to are those that would be similar the unintended leakage of normal broadcast and military radar systems used on earth. So detecting ETIs from their passive emissions is certainly unfeasible that the moment. Signals broadcast by a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilisation as part of an intentional seti signalling effort would (presumably) use much higher power, narrower bandwidth, and frequencies chosen to reduce attenuation by the interstellar medium. These would be detectable using our current technology, and is largely what seti is looking for.