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41 Argentinian astronomer Guillermo Lemarchand commented during Phoenix’s run that we can detect beacons, but are less able to detect “long- distance calls.” Shklovskii and Sagan acknowledged that the probability of accidentally picking up interstellar long-distance communication signals is very small. Astronomer Sebastian Von Hoerner calculated that intercept- ing long-distance calls would be possible only if each advanced civilization were to converse simultaneously with 1300 neighbors.* The SETI Institute continues to develop new technologies and search strategies. In cooperation with the University of California at Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory, the Institute drew up plans for the first radio observatory dedicated from its beginning to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This group of 350 small interlinked dishes—a mini-Cyclops with more sophisticated electronics—is named the Allen Telescope Array after its primary funder, former Microsoft executive Paul Allen. (Individ- uals can sponsor the construction of a dish for $100,000.) To be completed by 2010, the ATA will be able to broaden stellar reconnaissance from 1000 stars to 100,000, to resolve details three times better than the Arecibo telescope (the largest in the world), to operate 1000 times faster, and to observe multiple spectral windows simultaneously. The array will be able to conduct microwave searches on a continuous basis, improving the odds for detection. A small portion of the ATA was in operation as of early 2006.** A report on the future of SETI explicitly acknowledged its dependence on rich contributors, concluding that the magnitude of the search should be scaled so as to be commensurate with the philanthropic capabilities of he world’s visionary individuals of great wealth.* This is consistent with he financing of American astronomy from the second half of the nine- eenth century to the mid-twentieth century, when several major new instruments and observatories were funded by a few rich men. That philanthropy sometimes produced spectacular results. The 100-inch elescope on Mount Wilson, financed by wealthy Los Angeles businessman John Hooker, enabled Hubble to confirm the nature of other galaxies and the expansion of the universe. The more recent Palomar 200-inch elescope and the Keck I and II telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, unded by private foundations, have made important contributions to astronomy including the discovery of quasars.*° Other nongovernment search programs have been underway for years. The nonprofit Planetary Society, founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Bruce Murray, and JPL engineer Louis Friedman, spread its financial support for SETI among several projects. The Society began sponsoring astronomer Paul Horowitz’s wide-sky surveys in the 1980s through Project META, using a radio telescope in Massachusetts and later one in Argentina. A new effort called Project BETA, with more powerful data processing capabilities, was switched on in 1995.*7 Privatizing SETI