Or worse. We might belong to the last, too late to the party. Imagine we develop a bit of tech and find out that space has already been colonized and exploited

Or worse. We might belong to the last, too late to the party. Imagine we develop a bit of tech and find out that space has already been colonized and exploited. That all the fun is going on strong in the core. That we are too far away from that core, that there isn't enough energy to harvest to even travel there or even send something there. That we are born too late and too far.