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277 The authors of the SETI 2020 report straddled the issue, arguing that we can neither expect to receive signals intentionally beamed to us nor afford to overlook this possibility. We maximize the potential for positive results by using a search strategy that assumes either that the other civiliza- tion is trying to attract our attention or that it is transmitting information to other extraterrestrials.” If beacons are very rare, the only signals we have a good chance to detect in the near future through the techniques of radio astronomy may be tar- geted communications directed toward others. In the case of a colonizing civilization, the second category presumably would include communica- tions with and among colonies. We may only be able to spot a small per- centage of such signals. We cannot draw sweeping conclusions from our failure to find beacons at this early stage in our search. It was a best-case scenario. There is a widespread assumption in the SETI community that its own researchers will be the first to discover evidence of extraterrestrial intelli- gence. The actual range of possibilities is much broader. McDonough outlined some of the other possible scenarios for detection: conventional astronomy; communications engineers listening to the sky; nonastronomical science; military satellites that occasionally do inadver- tent astronomy.® His list is not exhaustive. There is a long history of astronomical phenomena being discovered by military or intelligence systems—and not just satellites. Classified military capabilities detected evidence of radio waves from space at about the same time as Jansky made the first map of the radio sky. A British radar used to detect incoming V-2 missiles during World War II picked up radio noises from celestial sources, but this information was kept confidential until after the war.*! X-ray-emitting objects were found first by military systems; the informa- tion was kept secret until it could be released without endangering security. Gamma-ray bursters, among the most energetic phenomena in the uni- verse, were discovered first by military satellites designed for a completely different purpose.” “Perhaps the first signs of an extraterrestrial civilization are already sitting on magnetic tape, deep in the bowels of the U.S. National Security Agency or the KGB,” speculated McDonough. “Perhaps they have been rejected as natural noise.” The NSA, Brin observed, is just one group with far more sophisticated listening apparatus than all of the world’s SETI teams put together.** SETI Scientists Will Make the Discovery SETI Scientists Will Make the Discovery