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Originally Posted by Disinfo Agent
Right, but let's be honest: a civilization that keeps to itself and does not attempt to travel across the galaxy or communicate with others is not what most of us would consider an "interesting" alien civilization, is it?
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The point is - if aliens exist, it is just as likely that all of the advanced ones (that are not extinct) have never come near us as it is that aliens are very rare and/or extremely far away, outside our galaxy.
Also, we don't actually know what a civilization is when it comes to speculations about nonhuman extraterrestrial life. It is parochial to assume "alien civilizations" are going to be anything like us, even remotely. It is better to speculate about extraterrestrial life as a whole rather than presume aliens would be anything like human civilization.
Though we don't know that aliens exist, we do know so far that the basic elements of chemistry upon which life is based exists in deep space and that in itself is a minuscule step toward an assumption that life forms have likely evolved elsewhere in the galaxy. Other than this, and until there is more evidence, we don't know if or how advanced aliens exist regardless of whether they have visited us or not. There is nothing in nature or evolution that dictates that advanced aliens of any kind must travel in space to us.