[andrewflnr]

This is basically a version of the Fermi Paradox, which, well, has a lot of different answers. A lot. One of my favorites is that humanity actually is one of the early tech civilizations, due to insufficient phosphorus in earlier phases of the universe. But also, there are a lot of ways to have a technological singularity, and many of them have no particular reason to be visible at astronomical distances.

[rhoohr]

That's also my take. The universe is expected to last for trillions of years and only 13 billions years have passed. Life on earth evolved surprisingly fast after reaching the necessary conditions, some recent research on LUCA estimating less than 300 millions years. I believe there are others out there, but too far yet for communication.

[rbanffy]

> and many of them have no particular reason to be visible at astronomical distances.

Or to want to talk to meat.

https://youtu.be/T6JFTmQCFHg

[andrewflnr]

...sure. To be clear, ETs wanting to talk to us is not necessarily a prerequisite to being detectable by us, which is the more relevant question.

[rbanffy]

But wanting not to talk to us might be a reason to make themselves hard to detect. Kind of moving to the quieter place when you can’t find anyone interesting at a party.