Suppose there were 500 known intelligent civilizations in the universe. I'm just throwing that number out there to prove a point. With just 500 intelligent kno

Suppose there were 500 known intelligent civilizations in the universe. I'm just throwing that number out there to prove a point. With just 500 intelligent known civilizations, the frequency across time of each one achieving interstellar space travel for the first time is likely incredibly rare. Like, I'd figure every few hundred to few thousand years, assuming they're spread out in space and time a bit. That would make us VERY interesting, indeed... because on galactic timescales, I think we're quite close to that