Indeed, all we can do is conjecture, there's not much evidence to go by. And given a practical question like "should we try to make first contact with unknown a

Indeed, all we can do is conjecture, there's not much evidence to go by. And given a practical question like "should we try to make first contact with unknown aliens?", best to not take the risk. But while we are just conjecturing, it seems intuitive that society and intelligence could in general lean toward peace and kindness. With intelligence comes empathy, and increased understanding - although it's born out of a ruthless and cutthroat evolutionary process, it seems to have its own goals that you can't easily equate to that of other species in the animal kingdom (mammals might show kindness, and empathy even to creatures outside of their species but it's a little easier to see the evolutionary benefits than some very unevolutionary human behaviors). Turning the lights off in a big city will revert us back to our base/evolutionary goals - so perhaps we better hope these aliens aren't too desperate!