Oumuamua streaked across the sky over the Pacific Ocean in 2017, the most likely sign yet of other intelligent life in the universe, at least according to leading astrophysicist Avi Loeb. Many scientists dismissed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “scout,” as just another comet. Loeb recognized it as the first object ever seen that originated outside of our solar system, and a likely sign of intelligent life searching the heavens.

Which means someday the Earth might be discovered by beings a whole lot smarter than us. Then what?