[pndy]

> Maybe they’re a cooperative, altruistic society with an innate desire to help, and maybe had been helped by others before.

Then I'd be worried about us - we aren't the best ones in the Orion Arm. Surely there would be a clownshow of who should be representing Earth in such contact. And I doubt any nation or country would freely and willingly give all the knowledge shared by extraterrestrials and lose all the potential advantage. Unless aliens would manage to share it across the globe in some way at once or demand it has to be open to anyone or there wouldn't be "deal" at all.

The older I get, I'm more on "an elaborated simulation, prob ran by our ancestors elsewhere", "we are the first ones to emerge constantly on the edge of annihilation" or "a freak accident of cosmic d20 roll" side of things. Star Trek and rest of the stuff is pretty fun but I expect that reality is really bland and sad.