> What happens next depends on if there are living aliens there, or just an old city.
But, when that mission arrives to inspect the lights, couldn't we expect that contact with alien technology, even if it is just an alien laser, to profoundly change our science?
Assuming, of course, we could even understand what we were looking at.
If you went back in time and gave Isaac Newton a smartphone but didn't tell him what it was, how it worked or even charged the batteries, it probably wouldn't change much of anything for a very long time. And that would possibly be a lot less alien in context than any actual alien technology we come across.
Assuming it even changes our science, which is not a given.
But let's assume it does. Our science has changed profoundly many times.
For example: Heliocentric solar system, Nuclear Bomb, and radio, just to give some of the most dramatic changes.
Did all that much change on Earth? Most people just went on like normal. Things changed, but slowly, there was no shock.
Can you imagine someone from long ago, who is told "We just found a way to speak to someone 300 miles away in an instant." They would probably go nuts imagining the immense change in peoples lives, in war, in commerce.
Yet, these changes actually happened, and while things changed, there was no turmoil.
The reality was not as dramatic as the expectation.
I think you're massively underestimating the amount of change.
Before technology most people lived on farms. Hardly anyone travelled more than a few tens of miles at most. Infant mortality was huge. Adult mortality was almost as huge. Living to fifty made you exceptional.
The average person had no education to speak of - no math, no ability to read or write, no knowledge of science, art, or culture.
The single biggest change is the fact that not only can most people read and write, but they have a vastly increased awareness of the world around them.
Now - imagine if that awareness was increased again to the interplanetary or galactic level. Imagine if live expectancy increased by a factor of two, or five, or ten. Imagine having access to a galaxy-sized Internet, with its own version of Wikipedia (and whatever the alien equivalent of Hacker News is).
But, when that mission arrives to inspect the lights, couldn't we expect that contact with alien technology, even if it is just an alien laser, to profoundly change our science?