That said, why would any advanced race expend resources to come visit a type 0 "civilization" of malevolent primates torturing and manipulating one another while they work towards planetary scale mass suicide eyes wide open? I mean sure, Einstein might have enjoyed 16 and pregnant, or the ironically unironic Squid Game reality show, but I doubt it.
Our culture sucks, we're still basically fresh out of the cave technologically, and if they're the conquering habitable worlds type, we're turning our habitat into fucking Mordor with what little technology we've recklessly implemented without caring to fully understand.
I honestly hope space faring civilizations, whether benevolent(explorers), neutral(silent observers), or malevolent(we've come for your raw materials), have better shit to do.
Look at us desperately trying to grow/metastasize on other worlds, that we will struggle to exist on, as we continue to actively choke the one that birthed us and that we evolved to thrive on specifically.
It's a nice thought that any enlightened intelligent species would find technological harmony/homeostasis/equilibrium with their homeworld before setting out to explore or expand on worlds far less hospitable to their physiology.
We, on the other hand, seem to be pushing to expand at this point because we A) want to keep burning this world for short term profit and unsustainable growth/metastasis, and B) want to survive as a species for some reason after we've thoroughly accomplished that mission.
How are we as a species not a Macro-cancer of Earth? No interest in homeostasis, growth or die, indifferent to the reality that it's literally killing our host. That's malignant cancer. Hi.
We keep certain aboriginal tribes secluded so we can properly research how societies arise, I don't see why they wouldn't.
Any space faring civ also has the tech to make human bodies to control from a distance and would have some of their members chilling with us down here. Likewise, I think a lot of people here would enjoy spending a bit of free time in different eras in our past, even though they are much more barbaric by todays standards.
That's a really bold claim. As the only sapient species we can draw for comparison, we largely don't respect life even when it comes to our own species, let alone the graveyard of entire biomes of species we found inconvenient to the placement of our strip malls. If our space faring age is led by people like Musk and Bezos, expect generational labor camp colonies and being born into company stores you can't escape.
I hope the majority of space faring civilizations out there have more respect for life than us, but that's not a high bar. Our most advanced technologies are born out of a desire to kill one another. Power generation is a bonus we half assed upon harnessing the power of the atom explicitly to murder one another in greater numbers at once.
Yeah I actually edited that out right after submitting the comment, it does assume a lot.
I do think empathy in general grows in step with technological progress, if lagging behind a bit, and the chances of alien civ being benevolent are higher.
There's a good probability, of other civilizations exist in our galaxy alone, they faced similar challenges we are facing and may even be facing challenges we have to endure.
The idea that somewhere there are old aliens complaining on how the young ones keep recklessly racing their flying saucers, bothering those still under developed home planets sounds so... banal.
Are you saying that if you were that super intelligent life traveling through space that you'd pass up a planet if you thought its inhabitants were too stupid?
In a post scarcity society capable of folding dimensions for space travel, or can survive for thousands of years in regular space flight, yeah absolutely, do you watch cells divide for entertainment?
Yes, 100% every time, yes, for the same reason people crouch and watch in fascination as the ants and the springtails go about their unfathomable business.
How do you not have this curiosity of the endless wonder beneath your feet
Oh, well in that case youre flat faced wrong. We can absolutely avert a large amount of the damage coming, easy.
It will require a lot of legislation to reign in corporation pollution and ecological destruction, but we arent even close to the event horizon. Quit reading doom and gloom fluff pieces.
The benevolent explorers might be able to help us, assuming they could convince our leaders, and the conquering type would at least unite us. Although I'm sure there would be a fair amount of people who side with the alien invaders and actively work to hurt any resistance.