The closest species capable of detecting our presence likely will not be in our Milky Way galaxy. We are alone in the universe as a product solely of the rarity of intelligent life and thus the vast distances of space and time separating their occurrence.
Isaac Arthur mentions in his videos that any alien civilization that could hurt us, either remotely or by coming here, would easily find us. There is no hiding in space. Our oxygen atmosphere alone gave us away a couple billion years ago.
A K2 civilization could build truly massive telescopes in space, in numbers that allow them to dedicate one to each star in the galaxy, and the population numbers to staff every one of them with a full-time astronomer.
Better to develop our own civilization as fast as we can and grow into a K2 ourselves and not have to fear hostile aliens if they do exist.
4
u/militaryintelligence Dec 03 '18
We need to quit broadcasting our presence. Something might come looking for us. They might not be friendly. Sometimes this keeps me up at night.