Are We Listening Hard Enough? Creativity, Algorithms & Search for Alien Technology

What does it mean to listen to the universe? Today, the search for alien technology isn’t just about telescopes—it’s about patterns, noise, creativity, and interpretation. Scientists now use custom-built computers and real-time algorithms to sift through oceans of cosmic data, looking for signals that don’t belong to stars or galaxies, but to technology. In this talk, I’ll share how modern SETI works as a kind of cosmic signal-processing art: turning raw noise into meaning, deciding what counts as “artificial,” and designing systems that listen continuously while the universe moves. We’ll explore how imagination, aesthetics, and human bias shape the search, why false signals are as interesting as real ones, and how scientists need creative thinking to ask the questions—what patterns matter, and why? No physics background required—just curiosity about light, systems, and the possibility that someone else might be out there, broadcasting into the dark.