Aliens? Why look? There's two options really.
Either they are there, or they aren't.
If they're there, either they're dumber than us, in which case I don't want to meet them, and otherwise--if they're smarter--they'll find us before we find them.
Either they are there, or they aren't.
If they're there, either they're dumber than us, in which case I don't want to meet them, and otherwise--if they're smarter--they'll find us before we find them.
Because it will answer if we're alone or not in the Universe, and maybe explain a bit more of how we reached this place, how life evolves in other places than Earth and who knows what other questions can open the fact of answering that question...
At the end, this is just the search of more knowledge
I failed to humor my audience it seems judging by the responses. The internet needs a sarcasm smiley badly.
* IQ adjusted only for the subjective speed difference caused by (2)
I read a fun novel where the rest of the universe had discovered antigrav before internal combustion - that humans basically missed a typically easy, early discovery in physics - and the implications of that for technology transfer in both directions due to wildly different technology trees.
There's also the possibility that "they'll find us before we find them" means "they're reaching out and we have to listen if want the download for the ansible and FTL schematics".
Harry Turtledove; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_stor...