SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is the name for a number of organized efforts to detect intelligent extraterrestrial life. A number of efforts with "SETI" have been organized, including projects funded by the United States Government. The general approach of SETI projects is to survey the sky to detect the existence of transmissions from a civilization on a distant planet, an approach widely endorsed by the scientific community as hard science (see, e.g., claims in Skeptical Inquirer ).There are great challenges in searching across the sky for a first transmission that could be characterized as intelligent, since its direction, spectrum and method of communication are all unknown beforehand. SETI projects necessarily make assumptions to narrow the search, and thus no exhaustive search has so far been conducted.
