@LukeAlmighty also worth understanding is that an alien intelligence from a far away galaxy might have technology that is completely orthogonal to the kind of technology that we have, because they don't think the way we do and therefore lack the same constraints that we do. For example, a hypothetical alien race might have outright backward time travel or the ability to create matter from literally nothing, even though we insist that such is "impossible," but then end up completely incapable comprehending how an internal combustion engine works or how we managed to impart complex logic into silicon electronics.