Yes but if we're using it as a beacon the distance is irrelevant, isn't it? It's been "transmitting" for much longer than 587 years, we're already receiving a signal, and that's what we're using?
Exactly. The post I replied to said "One wouldn't be transmitting to pulsars and awaiting a response", and I expanded on that. The whole subthread of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16288955 doesn't make much sense because nobody defined what they mean by "latency" and people are talking about different things.