[Robert A Cook PE]

Or, these species decided that they are scared the hell of us, and have decided as long as we DON'T get into space, and we DON'T know that they exist, we will remain safely isolated from destroying them.

And I'm only partially pulling your leg......8<)

[Michael Barnes]

The movie "Contact" is the way I would like to envision it going down (minus all the Gov't politc'ing). Makes the most sense to me as well.

Although, rational thought tells me, if we had massive amounts of technology, I doubt we would contact a world like our present day one in the condition it is in. It's a security risk in the long term.