What happens if you find a E.T. signal? Will you be alerted by seti? I've looked it up and the only answer I have found is that you won't be alerted until a group of scientists confirm that it is actually a radio broadcast from E.T. is that right?

http://seticlassic.ssl.berkeley.edu/about_seti/about_seti_at_home_5.html explains what will happen.

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Sorry one more question, does your screen saver need to be on in order to find these signals?

No. The program runs in the background; the screen saver is just a pretty graph shown to protect old CRT monitors that used to suffer from screen burn (hence screen saver).

I was just reading earlier about the rules of post detection disclosure protocol.

It is my opinion that we (by we I mean the public) may not be informed at all in the event a verifiable signal is found.

There is one signal discovered by seti@home: SHGb02+14a, that's been ruled out. But who's to say it would be disclosed if it were a true signal.

The SETI Institute has also publicly denied that the candidate signal Radio source SHGb02+14a is of extraterrestrial origin[47][48] though full details of the signal, such as its exact location have never been disclosed to the public.

-Dave

I see no way to keep a signal secret from the public. There's just too many whistle blowers and too much technology to keep such a finding secret.

I'm not a believer in government cover-up conspiracy theories.

I see no way to keep a signal secret from the public. There's just too many whistle blowers and too much technology to keep such a finding secret.

I'm not a believer in government cover-up conspiracy theories.

Nor am I. And I do believe technology would probably ensure the leak of such information. However I do also believe that there would be much reason to withhold the information if possible. Not in a "conspiracy" sort of way, but more in a "proper disclosure" sort of way.

interesting stuff no matter which way it could go.

-Dave

I see no way to keep a signal secret from the public. There's just too many whistle blowers and too much technology to keep such a finding secret.

I'm not a believer in government cover-up conspiracy theories.

Nor am I. And I do believe technology would probably ensure the leak of such information. However I do also believe that there would be much reason to withhold the information if possible. Not in a "conspiracy" sort of way, but more in a "proper disclosure" sort of way.

interesting stuff no matter which way it could go.

-Dave

In regards to proper disclosure, I can fully see them wanting to verify and re-verify their results before claiming that we've found ETI. But I see no reason to believe that the public will never be told.