"If we assume that our knowledge is the pinnacle of knowledge, we are the first to reach it" is a bit tautological, no? You can apply a very similar reasoning

"If we assume that our knowledge is the pinnacle of knowledge, we are the first to reach it" is a bit tautological, no? You can apply a very similar reasoning to an isolated tribe stuck at, say, stone-age level on a remote island. With barely seaworthy canoes. They very likely have no idea we exist, and their assumption will be that if there were better canoes, and people had them, they would've made contact. So clearly, they must be among the first. I am continually amused by the gyrations we go through to avoid saying "we don't know". I mean, last I checked we couldn't even account for 85% of the matter in the universe that should exist according to the laws of physics as we know them. If we can't even find the vast majority of matter, why do we think we'd do better with civilizations?