We may not recognize or even be capable of recognizing an alien signal.
--We may not recognize or even be capable of recognizing an alien signal.
Yeah, that's what I think. I think it's completely possible that within a half century or so we'll have technology that will make speed of light communications obsolete. But of course the physicists poo-poo this and know everthing just like they thought they did around the turn of the last century.
Our progress in information theory has been in response to our communication devices. It started with Morse and the desire to increase the amount of information that could be carried on a wire. Some of the theory is surprising, and came into its own as recently as WW II. It would be difficult to devise theory for devices that have not been imagined.