Unfortunately, the more advanced the technology, the more likely that their equipment will not radiate excess energy in any form, (excluding the minimum required by thermodyamic laws, in the form of heat) including radio waves powerful enough to be detected from Earth. If something that is not using radio waves as part of its function radiates powerful radio waves as a "waste product," it is badly designed.


What if they just invented the technology? things get more efficient as time goes on, but I would not expect the first generation of any technology to be streamlined, I would expect it to barely do whta it is intended to do. I would expect the alien manufactures struggling for any new technology to put it on the market as cheaply as possible for their consumers. That might just mean inefficient.

-Justin Kelly