[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.