It comes down to this: are you a glass half full, or a glass half empty person?
If it’s half full you hope that a more evolved species contacts us and helps us with our large and intractable problems.
If it’s half full, you think earth is pretty amazing and you are just incredibly lucky to be on this planet.
In that case, another species would have to be willing to help it’s competitors (us). Oh sure, possibly they’re collaborators not competitors, but who knows?
Maybe it’s the glass half full folks that have a glass half empty attitude towards the rest of the universe.
physicsmuse 