I don't really care what the aliens taste like when I'll be bringing pigs, cows, and chickens on whatever ship I use to go visit them. It is clear to me that t

I don't really care what the aliens taste like when I'll be bringing pigs, cows, and chickens on whatever ship I use to go visit them. It is clear to me that the purpose of Earth-life is to spread and assimilate all matter that it may encounter, and the purpose of humanity is to build and launch Earth's reproductive spores. If we are not alone, those other guys had better have some good antibiotics, because we're coming. Right now, it seems like we'll be moving at just a small fraction of c, but slow and steady can still win a race with only one contestant. The important question is therefore "Once we're all dressed up and ready to go, whats our heading?" So with respect to telescopes, would it be better to invest that in the ships, and simply launch toward any random nearby star, to be surveyed by the breeding population en route over the next few centuries, or would it be better to sacrifice a ship or two in order to send the ones we do build toward more promising stars?