I think our expectations are pretty firmly grounded in reality. If aliens have some technology that breaks the laws of thermodynamics, they might as well be magical. I don't think aliens are going to be magical-seeming. I think some of the things we know about reality are rock solid now. I don't think we're like we were in the 1,600's. I think advanced alien technology will look like advanced technology, and it will follow the rules of quantum mechanics just like our stuff does, and we'll be able to understand the principles behind the gadgets, and probably pretty quickly. I think what's holding us back is the tools we need to do research are massive and expensive and require international cooperation to build. It's almost like the universe requires more and more cooperation as you peel back its layers. I don't think we're that far away from one-world government.

We also know a bit about any space-faring race just by virtue of them being a space-faring race. They're going to be clever, daring, and courageous, and curious, otherwise they never would have gotten into space in the first place. But now that I think of it, that might not be true. They might be cowardly and timid and simply have robots do all the dangerous stuff.

Issac Arthur has a great channel on Youtube where he talks about this stuff. He has a hard science background in physics, I think.

There is no empirical on existence of aliens. But life on other planets might exist, or will start to exist, after we send water-bears, or in general bacteria that can survive in planets that has solid water in mars. Current tools we have are very bad at exploring other planets, only planet that we have decent access with our technology is Mars.

More interesting question would be, can we start any form of life in other planet, and make it self-sustainable?

If we have alien stuff, then it follows that interstellar travel is possible — RogueAI

"Aliens" may be future human archaeologists, not so alien after all. Intelligent creatures from other dimensions of our local reality another possibility. More alien, but still local.

If time-travel or inter-dimensional travel is possible, then interstellar travel is practically guaranteed. It would be exceedingly odd to hit a tech wall that limits interstellar travel (which we already have an idea of how to do), but allows for the development of technologies we can't even begin to comprehend.

If time-travel or inter-dimensional travel is possible, then interstellar travel is practically guaranteed. — RogueAI

Ok, fair enough. But why would a species who can travel the galaxy be interested in primitive pond scum such as ourselves? However, future humans would obviously be interested.

Ok, fair enough. But why would a species who can travel the galaxy be interested in primitive pond scum such as ourselves? However, future humans would obviously be interested.

Because we're interested in pond scum. I'm going by the mediocrity principle here, which is to assume that we're not all that atypical. Advanced aliens will probably be like us in at least this respect: they'll be curious about the universe. Curiosity and self-preservation go hand-in-hand. Any species that has made it to the top of the food chain is going to be really good at self-preservation.

And then there's our history and technological progress. We're a very violent species and in 200 years, we've gone from steam engines to landing on the moon. Any alien race will want to keep an eye on us.