Saying that it doesn’t matter now or short term is excluding the possibility that they’re currently here, or that there’s nothing we can do to change the outcome of possible future contact.
How are our planetary defences towards a potential aggressive species? Non-existant. If they exist it matters to us regardless if we know about it or not, much like how it always mattered to meso-americans that Europe existed, even if they didn’t know about it.
I recommend checking out the dark forest paradox on why the silence of the universe could be the safest way forward for Earth, and how it doesn’t necessarily mean the universe is devoid of life.
Yes, absolutely and it has always mattered.
Saying that it doesn’t matter now or short term is excluding the possibility that they’re currently here, or that there’s nothing we can do to change the outcome of possible future contact.
How are our planetary defences towards a potential aggressive species? Non-existant. If they exist it matters to us regardless if we know about it or not, much like how it always mattered to meso-americans that Europe existed, even if they didn’t know about it.
I recommend checking out the dark forest paradox on why the silence of the universe could be the safest way forward for Earth, and how it doesn’t necessarily mean the universe is devoid of life.