This can't be a surprise

Except maybe to the people who invested the most in it:

SETI Institute to shut down alien-seeking radio dishes

If E.T. phones Earth, he'll get a "disconnect" signal.

Lacking the money to pay its operating expenses, Mountain View's SETI Institute has pulled the plug on the renowned Allen Telescope Array, a field of radio dishes that scan the skies for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Jules' second law*: the more determinedly rationalistic a human being is, the more likely they are to throw away huge amounts of money and effort on projects that amount to little more than blind faith on close inspection.



*Jules' first law, for those of you not keeping score, is the harder a fact is, the less real work it can be made to do.