I kinda hope we are in some ways, mainly because I’d hate to inflict us on others.
Is it really something to be worried about?
Scifi aside, inter-stellar space travel seems to be basically almost non-viable.
Darn space dust!
Not alone, but I’m of the opinion that we are very “early” in the lifespan of the universe. There’s a very decent chance we’re among the first to develop to this point or beyond. This by itself could be a possible explanation for the fermi paradox; we can’t see other civilisations yet because they’re roughly at our own level and still lack the abilities to communicate or travel these distances, just like us.
You think so? Earth and the Sun are only about 5 billion years old, or 1/3 the age of the universe. Life is estimated to have appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago.
Under the law of averages, life could have independently developed and reached comparable maturity to Earth at least two other, non-concurrent times. We’re third generation at best.
That’s still comparatively early in the grand scheme of things. I kind of like the idea of us being among the first, but not first.
I think when you consider the rate of advancement of any technological species, “roughly the same level as us” basically implies that they got started at exactly the same time. Even an extra thousand years of technological advancement would put them far ahead of us. A million years would put them unimaginably far ahead.
On a cosmic scale, that’s nothing. That’s a tight window and given the like 8 billion years that planets with the required elements have had to form, I would doubt that no other species had a chance to surpass us.