As a guide for astronomers new to the field of technosignature search (i.e. SETI), I present an overview of some of its observational and theoretical approaches.

I review some of the various observational search strategies for SETI, focusing not on the variety of technosignatures that have been proposed or which are most likely to be found, but on the underlying philosophies that motivate searches for them.

I cover passive versus active searches, ambiguous versus dispositive kinds of technosignatures, commensal or archival searches versus dedicated ones, communicative signals versus “artifacts”, “active” versus derelict technologies, searches for beacons versus eavesdropping, and model-based versus anomaly-based searches. I also attempt to roughly map the landscape of technosignatures by kind and the scale over which they appear.

I also discuss the importance of setting upper limits in SETI, and offer a heuristic for how to do so in a generic SETI search. I mention and attempt to dispel several misconceptions about the field.

I conclude with some personal observations and recommendations for how to practice SETI, including how to choose good theory projects, how to work with experts and skeptics to improve one’s search, and how to plan for success.

作为对技术特征搜索（即 SETI）领域的新天文学家的指南，我概述了它的一些观测和理论方法。

我回顾了一些 SETI 的各种观察搜索策略，重点不是已经提出或最有可能被发现的技术特征的多样性，而是激发搜索它们的基本哲学。

我涵盖了被动搜索与主动搜索、模棱两可与决定性类型的技术签名、共生或档案搜索与专用搜索、通信信号与“人工制品”、“主动”与废弃技术、搜索信标与窃听以及基于模型与基于异常的搜索搜索。我还尝试按种类和它们出现的规模粗略地绘制技术签名的景观。

我还讨论了在 SETI 中设置上限的重要性，并提供了如何在通用 SETI 搜索中这样做的启发式方法。我提到并试图消除对该领域的一些误解。

最后，我总结了一些关于如何实践 SETI 的个人观察和建议，包括如何选择好的理论项目、如何与专家和怀疑论者合作以改进自己的搜索，以及如何规划成功。