Reply #4: It finds us [View All]

[Occulus]

We will be probably able to build exactly such a device within maybe twenty years or so, and certainly eventually at some point in the near future. It would need (among other things) a fusion reactor, ion engine (or better), the ability to self-replicate and self-repair, and the AI necessary to productively react to and interact with objects around it, and relate that information back to its source. The thing about AI is, will we recognize it when we see it? It doesn't even have to be ET AI either; that could as easily apply to any we ourselves build as I first suggested.

Looks like someone read "Manifold: Space". The SETI astronomer was describing Baxter's Gaijin "race".