To expand, if life isn't rare, but common, then this would suggest billions of potential civilizations spread throughout the universe(s). Depending on the progression curve (sum total of knowledge & understanding doubles every two years - referenced by Moore to describe a narrow engineering sector), we would expect a wide distribution between different population technological characteristics.
Since it would be highly unlikely - although not impossible - that humans would achieve a level of interstellar travel first, then we can then logically assume that some other race has already achieved that ability. So then, the question becomes: would they guide/interfere or simply observe?
If the predisposition to evaluate something new as either 'friend or foe' is universal across all life forms, then observation & evaluation would be a natural course of action. At some point, as humans first discover, and then refine the ability to transmit cognitive brain functions as simple light waves (ie virtual computer), then we'd be recognized as a race reaching the stage of joining other interstellar travelers.
At that point, perhaps there would be some kind of intervention, almost like a parent sitting down a child to explain the rules. Because of course there are going to be Loki types running around, interfering and upsetting regional populations with exposure, resulting in such beliefs as spaghetti and other god-like figures.
Civilizations with the capacity to travel interstellar distances should be detectable to us, even hundreds of light years away. They are not. This is a paradox because the odds say we should.