That's right up there with:
The cheque is in the post.
Of course I'll still love you in the morning, darling.
and most ominous of all: I'm from Head Office and I'm here to help you.
If They say, "Take me to your leader.", war will immediately break out trying to decide who actually is earth's Leader
I take your point, Jacksparrow, there is a huge timelag in the transmission of astronomic radio signals and the reply to same. However, that's not to say that Life did not exist once upon a time, not necessarily right now, somewhere on a planet out there, and evidence of Life, or in this case Intelligent Life, is what the boffins are searching for because the fundamental question is, "Are we alone?" And given the mind-bending number of possibilities then surely the answer has to be, "mmmmmm, maybe, possibly, perhaps, could be."
. Makes as much sense as any other conspiracy theory