have you considered the possibility that we've already sent a message to an alien race in the distant past and it's still making its way to them?
Space is huge, we've established that by now, and there's every chance we've already sent a message into space thousands of years ago and forgotten about it (think about how societies change over time). We could either still be waiting for that message to arrive, OR waiting on a reply to travel back to us. In that sense, we would just be constantly introducing ourselves over and over again to whoever else might be out there....
@spacepictureloversspecial
