Searches for Technosignatures: The State of the Profession

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state of technosignature searches in astronomy, highlighting the lack of institutional support and the need for increased funding, training, and recognition to advance the field over the next decade.

Contribution

It emphasizes the importance of institutional and funding support for technosignature research and advocates for policy changes in the upcoming Decadal Survey.

Findings

Technosignature searches are underfunded and underrepresented in the US.

Institutional inertia and misconceptions hinder progress in the field.

Recommendations include increased support and training initiatives.

Abstract

The search for life in the universe is a major theme of astronomy and astrophysics for the next decade. Searches for technosignatures are complementary to searches for biosignatures, in that they offer an alternative path to discovery, and address the question of whether complex (i.e. technological) life exists elsewhere in the Galaxy. This approach has been endorsed in prior Decadal Reviews and National Academies reports, and yet the field still receives almost no federal support in the US. Because of this lack of support, searches for technosignatures, precisely the part of the search of greatest public interest, suffers from a very small pool of trained practitioners. A major source of this issue is institutional inertia at NASA, which avoids the topic as a result of decades-past political grandstanding, conflation of the effort with non-scientific topics such as UFOs, and confusion regarding the scope of the term "SETI." The Astro2020 Decadal should address this issue by making developing the field an explicit priority for the next decade. It should recommend that NASA and the NSF support training and curricular development in the field in a way that supports equity and diversity, and make explicit calls for proposals to fund searches for technosignatures.