  Almost all SETI searches to date have explicitly targeted stars in the hope
of detecting artificial radio or optical transmissions. It is argued that
extra-terrestrials (ET) might regard sending physical probes to our own Solar
System as a more efficient means for sending large amounts of information to
Earth. Probes are more efficient in terms of energy and time expenditures; may
solve for the vexing problem of Drake's L factor term, namely, that the
civilization wishing to send information may not coexist temporally with the
intended recipient; and they alleviate ET's reasonable fear that the intended
recipient might prove hostile. It is argued that probes may be numerous and
easier to find than interstellar beacons.
