But when David Brin, Greg Bear and Gregory Benford talk, technology leaders take note.

FORBES: Inventing The Future

David Brin, an author of science fiction who also resigned from the SETI group, accused it of attempting to stage-manage the discussion.

ECONOMIST: An argument over whether to send messages to aliens

He likens their union to that of Bill Hewlett and David Packard, or Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.

ECONOMIST: Behind the scenes at the start of Microsoft

In mid-2004 he, along with Page and Brin, met with Rajen Sheth, David Girouard and Matthew Glotzbach, who ran the enterprise group.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories