Mr. Milner has pledged the funds over a 10-year period in a project called Breakthrough Listen. The funds will go to covering 10 times more area in the sky than current SETI programs using three primary telescopes – the 100 Meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the USA (“Green Bank Telescope”), and the 64-metre diameter Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia (“Parkes Telescope”).
The increased flow of data will be fed into the existing SETI@home program and its millions of linked volunteer computers from around the world to more rapidly analyze the information for signs of intelligent communication.
A separate project, Breakthrough Message, pledges $1 million to those who can craft digital message representing all of us here on Earth to be sent out into the universe.
It is interesting to see Dr. Stephen Hawking at the kickoff given his fears about alien intelligence. He is probably fine with listening, but any message would probably be "please stay away." It is also great to see Frank Drake and Ann Druyan helping to lead this program.
One telescope that was considered for use is the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. However, it was not to be. You can read the long drawn-out story in ScientificAmerican. The last paragraph in the article says it all - we have a choice to learn and grow or bury our knowledge in a hole in the ground.
