That's reasonable, but there's so many variables and assumptions involved in that topic. Not the least of which is capability. Maybe there are intelligent, evolved lifeforms on other planets and their technology is completely different than ours or their senses or the way they think and process patterns. Maybe there's a society on another planet that's exactly like us, but they're 100 light years away and we're not going to get a message back from them for another 50-100 years.jrfox92 wrote:The counter argument to this is that, just because a civilization doesn't communicate the same way we do, it doesn't mean they wouldn't recognize intelligence from that attempted communication (of course, there's also the possibility that what we view as just random radio waves from stars and such is also a foreign civilization attempting communication and we're just too stupid to figure that out).
If they're curious enough (or imperialistic enough), though, there's probably a halfway decent chance they'd consider sending something to check out what the hell's sending those bursts of radio waves.
There's some good science fiction stories about humans encountering alien life and just so many of our assumptions are way off. Communications that are so far away from verbal communication we don't even understand them or recognize the source, societies that discover technology that allows for faster than light travel, but not electricity or radio. Languages that are based on cognition that's so different than the human brain it can't be translated into anything coherent. Systems of mathematics that don't relate to ours at all and the other species assumes is universal). I like thinking about that stuff, even if it's kind of bummer from a narrative point of view, because the TNG model of alien life and communication has more opportunity for fun and adventure.
