I should clarify. I don't particularly mean actual visits to the planet, although I am curious why we have never been (conclusively) visited. I meant more in the sense of, why is space so eerily quiet? We have been listening for a while, but have not picked up on anything we can conclusively demonstrate as a sign of intelligence. Even if we are like cockroaches to them, if they use the electromagnetic spectrum to communicate over long distances (which I can't seem to find a way around), why haven't we detected it?

And if you encountered an insect on another planet, would you not study it? Would someone, at least, not study it? Even on our own planet, many do study terrestrial insects -- rather mundane in comparison to extraterrestrial insects. Furthermore, D3V, I think the insect analogy falls apart as we do not believe insects are sentient. Surely we would have far greater respect for sentient beings, even if they are technologically, or intellectually far inferior.