But we can't get there.
It would take a hundred lifetimes even to send a probe to the closest exoplanet around the closest star system. Sadly, we can only look on from afar using our best telescopes and hope that we find new science. But science fiction would be boring without alien contact.
vs.
Sometimes the aliens come to us and sometimes we go to them. In both cases we have to invent science. The famous jumps to hyperspace in Star Wars are one example.
Warp drive in Star Trek is another.
And most importantly, ludicrous speed from Space Balls.
That's just some of the new science we invent in order to entertain our imaginations but our current understanding of the universe tells us that it's essentially impossible. Advances in technology won't help us even in Star Trek's 24th century. So just like in science fiction, new science - not just new technology - would have to be discovered for us to make those trips. But we'd still be disappointed since advanced life on other planets is impressively unlikely.
We must also abandon the ideas that aliens assisted in the building of the pyramids since they can't get here either. Neither did they assist in carrying the rocks for Stonehenge. The ancients were pretty capable when they set their minds to it. Moon landings are entirely reasonable but alien encounters are truly the stuff of fiction.
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