While I don't know if he and the other sponsors should be the very
first people to get notification (in the top five, okay), at least they
have put real money and support into SETI

This is more than can be said for the government and NASA, which
made all sorts of promises for years and promptly canned the project
several times at the first noises from non-scientific congressmen.

And now we are seeing this short-sightedness again with the
Bioastronomy effort at Ames getting 50% budgets cuts.

I am still wondering if private industry can do the job for space
exploration and ultilization, but certain private individuals with the
means have shown that they can do the job with SETI.

You would think that one of the most important questions in
human history would be better supported, but this is what you
get with a species with a majority that barely looks out its
windows or has any real idea what is going on beyond their
village.