>>14270511Basically this. Left to its own devices, any one species will definitely go extinct within a few million years. Given modern technological growth, an advanced civilization will either go extinct or spread and conquer their entire local galactic group in the same timescale. Not only are we separated by vast distances, but also vast timescales.
Imagine several million ants scattered on individual leaves across the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, just drifting along the currents. They have on tiny little ant blindfolds. Only one time in their little lives, randomly selected for each ant, do they get to remove the blindfold for a couple seconds, look around them, and then put it back on. What are the chances that they will ever see another ant? Most of the time they are separated by miles; every so often two will drift very close to each other, but only for maybe an hour or so before they go out of sight again. It's very unlikely one of them will happen to take off their blindfold at that exact time.
