Perhaps someday they'll find a way to communicate instantaneously. Maybe through Belle's Theorem/non-local/EPR/"spooky action at a distance"-type quantum communication. Then those distant aliens with snapshots of our past can send them to us immediately. :)
Have always wondered what folding space and time would do to space and time. Does it get complicated or does it simply pass as normal? If gravity is negligible (as is) time and space could fold if there was no electromagnetic field fluctuations? Dang, starting to become complicated again. Would stars simply pass by one another in that folding of space and no impacts could occur because the folding would actually be an illusion? Past would become the present or would the present become the past or would it all evolve to be nothing but future consummating itself in the present?