The most advanced tech and research, as an overall, would be trivial for an advanced alien to decide. And the US has been leading in those categories for 80 years at least.
The notion that it's impossible to figure out whether an advanced alien would think Afghanistan or the US have more advanced tech/research/science, is absurd. And if you can make that distinction, you can keep going.
For a species advanced enough for trivially navigating the universe, the difference between the US and Afghanistan would be trivial. If they are more in the individuality side of thing (in contrast to hive mind), the dumbest of their lot would probably be smarter than the smartest person we can find here, probably looking at us the way we look at other intelligent species.
To measure us, would they look at the capacity to produce tech or consume tech (they would probably be more interested in East-Asia than North-America)?
If they look at introducing themselves and communicate peacefully, what metrics would they look at to determine what society they want to deal with?
If they look for dominance, once again they would hit where we produce tech, and hit our means of communication, which are worldwide.
> If they are more in the individuality side of thing (in contrast to hive mind), the dumbest of their lot would probably be smarter than the smartest person we can find here, probably looking at us the way we look at other intelligent species.
I feel like people in this thread don't watch enough Science Fiction. There are LOTS of situations where a species could trivially navigate the universe (Someone stole the technology and ran away with it, the people who invented the technology died a million years ago, they were gifted the technology by a superior race, or it was discovered by accident). Lots of possibilities out there.
No need for SF for this line of reasoning. You don't need to know anything about electricity, or physics, to turn on a light switch, or activate autopilot in a car. But a certain amount of understanding and craftsmanship is required to maintain things in working condition. If it's something discovered, you need a reverse-engineer the thing.
This entire comment chain is missing the fact that there are many UAP sightings in China and one of the reasons the US isn't being mum about this anymore is because China is exploring the phenomenon without all of the West's weird religious and secular hangups about the possibility of nonhuman intelligence.
