You're on the right track, Phil. We may never be able to physically travel that far, but if we can get information to somebody, we can manipulate their behavior, hopefully to our advantage. While they, in turn, try to do the same to us, if they're halfway smart, because this is a game that can always be played in both directions.

The laws of physics seem to mandate that if there's a galactic civilization, it's probably a virtual society existing on a galactic-scale Internet. We can expect to encounter everything out there we've experienced here, and no doubt more: Spam, phishing sites, identity theft, every kind of scam and fraud, religious proselytizing (religion's never been bound by economics, and galactic evangelism doesn't have to make economic sense; count on "Galactinet" being infested with religion)...

That picture's predicated on these hypothetical alien species having the same cavalier attitude toward the truth as humans. But what if they haven't generally developed lying into the high art that we humans have; haven't developed propaganda or advertising, for example? We'll take over!

If they've never heard of the Nigerian Scam, watch out for the Orion Arm Scam. "Hi, my name is Reginald Smithers-Douche, Earth's Minister of Banned Technology, and I'm offering the secret of FTL. Guaranteed, or you can come here and collect a full refund!"

I'm not sure how I feel about this whole idea. Wouldn't it be a real letdown if galactic civilization turned out to be as stupid as Internet civiliation?