Does it matter???
It would take three hundred million years for a message to cross the universe and the answer get back to us. Or, let’s get it much closer – the round trip for a message/reply to Proxima Centauri would be almost nine years.
“Are you there?”
(Almost four and a half years pass.)
“The party you are calling is not available. At the tone, please leave a message.”
And it takes another long time for you to find out no one was home. . . .
–Oh, I know; I know. I’m forgetting Wormhole Technology. I’m forgetting about the Slipstream. I’m forgetting –
No, I’m ignoring fantasy! Instead of all this stuff about Searching the Universe, why don’t we spend more time doing something sensible, like trying to communicate with tubeworms at the bottom of the ocean?
Can someone please tell me?