> There's also a good chance that by the time a race can travel between interstellar space, they'll be mature enough not to kill everything they see.
What makes you think that? Humans just put 1 ton hover over another planet yet we still kill each other over which parts of which iron age books we think are more than just stories.
What we do know is that within a populous of a given scientific advancement its possible for there to be a massive variation of individual and group morality as well as individual education level (particularly in regards to science). We know this because it's our current world.
Based on the reality we know about it isn't terribly apparent to me that just because some population has achieved a given level of scientific advancement that some of them won't gleefully steal my lunch.
I don't really see the drawbacks in contacting them. I am sure any specie that is able to travel to Earth will already have the technological means to scout a large part of (if not the whole) galaxy, and would have most likely found us in the first place.
I agree, within the human race, enormous variations in intelligence, opinion, morality, development et al exist. But there is a good chance that aliens, if they exist, don't think or behave like humans. Maybe they are some Borg-like people with a collective mind. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that IF they exist, they leave humanity alone. With the mess we're making, they'd steer clear from the depraved, self-destructing human race. Can't blame them...
What makes you think that? Humans just put 1 ton hover over another planet yet we still kill each other over which parts of which iron age books we think are more than just stories.
What we do know is that within a populous of a given scientific advancement its possible for there to be a massive variation of individual and group morality as well as individual education level (particularly in regards to science). We know this because it's our current world.
Based on the reality we know about it isn't terribly apparent to me that just because some population has achieved a given level of scientific advancement that some of them won't gleefully steal my lunch.