Posthuman Blues

Reports of SETI@home Extraterrestrial Signal Highly Exaggerated

"While this makes SHGb02+14a interesting, the chances that it actually represents an intelligent signal from beyond remain extremely slim. Random chance alone would make it probable that at least one of the billions of candidates detected by SETI@home would be observed on three separate occasions, as was the case for this candidate. Furthermore, as we reported in the SETI@home Update of May 17, 2004, the fact that this candidate’s frequency drifts rapidly makes it extremely improbable that it is a transmission from extraterrestrials."

So, in essence, it looks like they're writing it off because it doesn't conform to expectations of what an ET signal "should" be like. Break open the champagne, fellas.