I appreciate your comments, but it seems to me that they haven't had 13 billion years to do it, any more than we have. They would have had to evolve and advance to some kind of super-advanced civilization themselves. And that takes billions of years if we're any example. And the fact we don't see them everywhere we look is further proof they have not had "long enough" to do it, or have had no interest in doing it. Perhaps attacks across many light years are so rare they're not worth fretting over. I certainly hope that is the case!
“They would have had to evolve and advance to some kind of super-advanced civilization themselves. And that takes billions of years if we’re any example.”
Just like our primitive tools to see them based on our own technology as an example, this perspective is just as primitive in perspective based on our own capabilities.
“Time and/or distance” needs to be completely removed from the perspective. They can jump into a portal anywhere in the universe, choose a time and place on the other side of the universe and exit from a portal there. Time and space is selective and the entering and exit of these portals can happen in just minutes.
“And the fact we don’t see them everywhere we look is further proof they have not had “long enough” to do it”
Hard to know where to start with this—but let us keep us simple.
Any species with half a brain (including artificial intelligence btw) would follow the first rule of intelligence.
Hide from potential predators.
Any advanced civilization that failed to hide from us is rock stupid.
Only homo sapiens is dumb enough to flood the area with easily detectable radio waves.
Our solar system formed late in the game, not likely the case universally. Super-massive stars were creating metals and exploding in the first billion or two years. Those materials were then available to form new solar systems containing the ingredients of biology. From the formation of this solar system, for example, to us now is about 4 billion years, which we have no reason not to believe is typical.
From the math there were likely civilizations at least as advanced as we are by the time the galaxy was only 6 billion years old. That’s 7 billion years ago.
What can happen in 7 billion years? Better question, what CAN’T happen in 7 billion years?
We don’t see them, you say. That’s probably because they have rules similar to the Prime Directive. If they didn’t, no native civilization would be able to develop organically.
If that’s the case we would expect them to become more interested in us as we develop the ability to harness nuclear energy and venture out into space. When have there been more UFOs than right now?