Nice interesting thread. I've always thought that the possibility of communication between us and a distant civilisation is almost impossible. When one considers that 14.5 billion years of Earth's existence has produced only 200 years-worth of emissions that an alien civilisation might be able to monitor as 'unnatural' ( ie not the product of physical processes, like Jupiter's radio emissions)... imagine if one of the Kepler planets harboured a civilisation at an equivalent stage to our Restoration England. All that genius and discovery! Newton, Wren, Hooke, Halley, Pepys....but the Industrial Revolution not even a twinkle in their eye....and we'd never know about it.
I think our best channel of inquiry is to assess the newly-discovered planets for their likeness to Earth, and refine our techniques for assessment of their biospheres. If we find decent Earth analogues, we might as well assume we have found life. although there have been some in these pages who wouldn't be satisfied til they received a stamped, self-addressed envelope from an alien penpal......
